CORNELL
UNIVERSITY
LIBRARY

Gift in memory of

MARY STEPHENS SHERMAN, ‘13
from
JOHN H. SHERMAN, ’11

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
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Trans-Allegheny Pioneers

HISTORICAL SKETCHES

OF THE

First White Settlements West of the Alleghenies

1748 AND AFTER

WONDERFUL EXPERIENCES OF HARDSHIP AND HEROISM OF THOSE
WHO FIRST BRAVED THE DANGERS OF THE INHOSPIT-
ABLE WILDERNESS, AND THE SAVAGE TRIBES
THAT THEN INHABITED IT.

By JOHN P. HALE
CHARLESTON, WEST VIRGINIA

CINCINNATI .
THE GRAPHIC PRESS, 135 MAIN STREET
1886
ENTERED ACCORDING TO ACT OF CONGRESS, IN THE YEAR 1886,
°
BY JOHN P. HALE,

IN THE OFFICE OF THE LIBRARIAN OF CONGRESS, AT WASHINGTON, D.C.
SYNOPSIS.

Progressively advancing settlements along the entire Virginia
border, from the New River-Kanawha and tributaries, in the
southwest, to the Monongahela and tributaries in the north-
west, the intervening country to the Ohio River and into
Kentucky.

On the above-mentioned first settled western flowing streams,
occurred, in after years, the desperate and bloody conflicts
of Braddock’s Fields and Point Pleasant, for the possession
of, and supremacy in, this fair western country.

To the New River-Kanawha, and tributaries, however, more
especial attention is here given; all sandwiched throughout
with collateral facts and incidents of more or less general or
local historical interest.

‘Draper’s Meadows Massacre.—Destruction of the early Green-
briar Settlements.—Tragedies of Burke’s Garden and Abb’s
Valley —Origin of the American Cotton Trade.—Old time
Family Fall Hunt.—Remarkable Clock.—Progressive Changes
within a Lifetime.—Davy Crockett and his Wise Motto.

Battle of Point Pleasant.—Brief Outline of Events Leading to
It.—The First Blood of the Revolution.—A Pivotal Turning
Point in American History.—ShortSketches of Some of Those
Who Participated in It.—Brief Review of Lord Dunmore’s
Relation to It.—Its Influence as a Developing Military High
School, etc.

Murder of Cornstalk.—Desperate Fight at Donnally’s Fort.—Short
Sketch of Daniel Boone’s Life in Kanawha Valley.—Chron-
ological Table of Events, of more or less importance or in-
terest, that have occurred along the western border.

Charleston, West Virginia.—Short Sketch of Its Early Settle-
ment and After History.—Dublin, Virginia.—History of Its
Name.—Augusta County.—Its Original Vast Extent and Its
Subdivisions.
INTRODUGTION.

IONEER HISTORY does not repeat itself. Our
country—and especially our great Western trans-
allegheny country—has but recently passed through,
and is hardly yet entirely emerged, in the far West,
from a period of intensely active, exciting and event-
ful history, which*can never be repeated.

The discovery, exploration, conquest, settlement
and civilization of a continent, once accomplished in
this age, is done for all time; there are no more con-
tinents to discover; no more worlds to conquer.

To McCauley’s imaginary New Zealander who is
to stand upon the broken arches of London Bridge,
and speculate on the ruins of St. Paul and of London,
the opportunity will never come; the ratchets of
steam, electricity and printing, will hold the world
from ever again retrograding. The course of civil-
ization is onward and upward, as that of Empire is
Westward.

The wilderness, to be settled by the pioneer Ingleses
and Drapers, the Harmons and Burkes, the Gists and
Tygarts, no longer exists. The occupations of the
Boones and Kentons, the Zanes, McCullochs, Bradys
and Wetzels, as border settlers and Indian fighters,
passed away with them. There is no longer need for
the Lewises and Clarkes, as transcontinental explor- .
ers. For the Fremonts and Kit Carsons as mountain
path finders and path makers. For the Schoolcrafts
8 L ntrod uction.

and Catlins to study and portray, with pen and pen-
cil, unknown races and tribes; the Pontiacs and
Cornstalks, the Logans and Tecumsehs, the Black
Hawks and the Girtys, have left the stage forever.
The Andrew Lewises and Mad Anthony Waynes, the
George Rogers Clarkes, and William Henry Harri-
sons, the daring frontier commanders, would have to
mold their swords into pruning hooks and plow
shares now. The martyrdoms of the Colonel Craw-
fords, the Mrs. Moores, and the Flinns, can never
occur again. The experiences of captive life and
remarkable escapes of the Mary Ingleses, the Bettie
Drapers, the Mary Moores, the Hannah Dennises
and the Rebecca Davidsons, are, thanks to advancing
civilization, the last of their kind, and the Anne
Baileys and Bettie Zanes need fear no future rivals
for their well-earned laurels.

The history that the hundreds of brave actors—of
whom these are but the types and exemplars—made,
in their day and generation, by their heroic deeds
and sufferings, was a history unparalleled in the —
past, and that can never be repeated in the future;
the conditions no longer exist, and can never exist
again.

For the present generation, born and reared in
these days of safety, law and order, peace and plenty,
ease and luxury, in these days of steam and elec-
tricity, of rapid transit, more rapid communication,
and all the nameless accompaniments of the latest
civilization, it is difficult to look back to the days of
. our grandfathers, and realize that, in their day, all
this vast Western country from the Alleghenies even
to the Pacific, now teeming with its many millions of
busy, prosperous, and happy people, with their thriv-
Introduction. 9

ing cities, towns and villages, and productive valleys
and plains, was then one unbroken expanse of wil-
derness, lying in a state of nature, roamed by herds
of wild animals and tribes of savage men; unknown,
or but vaguely known to the white man; never pen-
etrated by white men except by a few exceptionably
adventurous Spanish and French explorers and
traders, accompanied, as usual, by pious Monks and
Jesuit Fathers, tempted by the love of God or gold,
and the hope of gain or glory.

Those who braved the dangers, privations, and
hardships of pioneer life, and participated in the stir-
ring scenes and events that attended the transform-
ation of this wilderness into hives of busy industry,
and homes of comfort and luxury, seldom kept
diaries, or left written records or histories of their
wonderful achievements and thrilling experiences—
the circumstances and surroundings not favoring the
writing or preserving of such records—nor, indeed,
did the tastes of the hardy pioneers run in that direc-
tion, and, therefore, as the older generations passed
away, many of them carried with them recollections
and traditions that can never be recovered, and thus
has been lost much of pioneer history probably as
interesting as any that has been preserved

As the histories of these exciting times will, no
doubt, possess deeper interest and be more valued and
prized the farther the period in which the events
occurred recedes adown the stream of time, it should
be the duty of every one who can, to collect and add
whatever he can, from authentic and trustworthy
records and traditions, to the general fund of reliable
history of this interesting period, for permanent
preservation.
10 . Lntroduction.

The Ingles and Draper families—my maternal
ancestors—were pioneers in the then great Western
wilderness. The history of these first transalle-
gheny settlements is full of interest, and some of
their experiences, for daring adventure, terrible
suffering, and heroic endurance, are not excelled by
anything with which I am acquainted in all the
annals of border life.

As I am now one of the oldest surviving descend-
ants of those early pioneers, and having taken some
pains to collect the family records and vanishing
traditions relating to the settlements and the families,
I have felt constrained to commit them to print to
preserve them from the fate of so many others now
lost in oblivion, for lack of timely record, and add
them to the many other interesting histories of the
period.

In connection with, and following these histories
of the Ingles and Draper settlements and families, I
shall endeavor to trace, in chronological order, the
progressive frontier explorations and settlements
along the entire Virginia border, from the Allghanies
to the Ohio, from the New River-Kanawha and
tributaties in the South-west, where settlements first
began, to the Monongahela and tributaries, in the
North-west, when they followed, and the intervening
country, and along the Ohio, where the frontier line
of settlements was last to be advanced, but I shall
give more especial attention to the early history of the
region of the New River-Kanawha and tributaries,
all sandwitched, throughout, with collateral facts and
incidents of more or less local or general historical
interest.
TRANS-ALLEGHENY PIONEERS.

CHAPTER I.
THE INGLES FAMILY.

HOMAS INGLES, according to family tradition,
was descended from a Scotch family, was born
and reared in London, lived about 1730 to 1740, in
Dublin, Ireland, was a large importing wholesale
merchant, was wealthy, owned his own ships and
traded with foreign countries, chiefly to the East
Indies. ; :
Sir Walter Scott states that in the reign of James
I., there was a Sir Thomas Inglis who lived and
owned baronial estates on the border of England and
Scotland. He was much annoyed by the raids and
border forays of those days, and, to escape them,
exchanged his border estates called “Branx-Holm,”
‘with a Sir William Scott, ancestor of the late Sir
Walter, and of the Dukes of Buckcleu, for his Barony
of “ Murdiestone,” in Lanarkshire, to which he re-
moved for greater peace and security. Branx-Holm
or Branksome, in Tiviotdale, on the Scottish border,
is still owned by the Dukes of Buckcleu. From the
close similarity and possible original identity of the
names—both very rare—and now only differing from
ito e in the spelling, Thomas Ingles of Dublin, may
have descended from the Sir Thomas of “Branx-
12 Trans-Allegheny Pioneers.

Holm Hall,” but, if so, the present Ingles family
have no record or knowledge of it. They only trace
their line back to the Thomas Ingles of London,
Dublin, and America.

There are two families in America who spell their
names Inglis. The ancestor of one of them emi-
grated from Selkirk, Scotland, to Montreal. Those
of the other branch came from Paisley, Scotland, to
New York. Descendants of the first still live in
Canada, but while they spell their name Inglis, they
pronounce it Ingles, and say it has always, within
their knowledge, been so pronounced. The descend-
ants of the Paisley family live in Philadelphia, Balti-
more, South Carolina, and Florida. These two fam-
ilies, and the descendants of the Ingles who came
from London and Dublin, and settled in Virginia,
are the only families in America, so far as I know,
who spell their names either Inglis or Ingles.

In some revolution or political trouble, occurring
during the time of his residence in Dublin, Thomas
Ingles took a prominent and active part, and hap-
pened not to be on the right, or, rather, on the win-
ning side, for the winning side is not always the
right side, nor the right side the winning side.

On the failure of the cause he had espoused, his
property was contiscated, and he was lucky to escape
with his life.

He, with his three sons, William, Matthew, and
John—he then being a widower—came to America,
and located for a time in Pennsylvania, about Cham-
bersburg.

Just when they came, and how long they remained
there, is not now accurately known; but in 1744,
Trans--lllegheny Pioneers. 13

according to the tradition, Thomas Ingles and his
eldest son, William, then a youth, made an excursion
to the wilds of Southwest Virginia, penetrating the
wilderness as far as New River.

Of the details of this expedition no record has
been preserved. On this trip they probably made the
acquaintance of Colonel James Patton, who held a
grant for 120,000 acres of land west of the Blue
Ridge, and in the valley of Virginia. Colonel Pat-
ton, who came from the North of Ireland, about
1735-36, was one of the earliest settlers in the valley,
and first located near Staunton. He and his son-in-
law, Colonel John Buchanan, located lands on James
River, and named the villages which sprang up on
opposite sides of the river, Pattonsburg and Bu-
chanan, now in Bottetourt County, Virginia.

It is also probable that the Ingleses, during the
trip above mentioned, first made the acquaintance of
the Drapers, then living at Pattonsburg, and whose
after history and fates were so closely connected and
interblended with their own.

George Draper and his ‘young wife, whose maiden
name had been Elenor Hardin, came from County
Donegal, North of Ireland, in 1729, and settled at the
mouth of the Schuylkill River, within the present
limits of the City of Philadelphia. Here two chil-
dren were born to them, John in 1730, and Mary in
1732.

Between 1740 and 1744 they, with their two chil-
dren, came to Virginia, and located at Colonel Pat-
ton’s settlement (Pattonsburg), on James River.

Staunton and Pattonsburg, though the valley was
' but so recently settled, are about the same age as
14 Trans-Allegheny Pioneers.

Richmond and Petersburg. Settlements were begun
at the two former about 1738, and at Richmond and
Petersburg about 1737-88. The two latter were laid
off by Surveyor Mayo, in 1737, for Colonel William
Byrd, of Westover. Richmond was. organized as a
town in 1742—Colonel Byrd had had plantations
here as early as 1732.

While the Drapers lived at Pattonsburg, George
Draper started out on a game-hunting and land-seek-
ing expedition, westward. He never returned, and
was never again heard of by his family; it was sup-
posed that he was killed by the Indians.

There is no account preserved of how far he went,
who accompanied him, nor any other details of the
trip.
CHAPTER II. .

N 1848 Doctor Thomas Walker, Colonel James
Patton, Colonel John Buchanan, Colonel James
Wood, and Major Charles Campbell, accompanied by
some hunters, of whom John Findley, who afterward,
in 1767, penetrated into Kentucky, and, in 1769,
accompanied Daniel Boone from North Carolina to
Kentucky, was one, made an excursion through
Southwest Virginia and were the first white persons
from this direction to penetrate the then unknown
region of Kentucky. Dr. Walker, the leader of the
expedition, discovered the pass in the mountains, and
gave the name of “Cumberland” to the mountain
range and gap hitherto called by the Indians
““Wasioto;” “Cumberland River” to the stream
hitherto called “Shawanee,” or “Pelisipi;” and
“Louisa” to the river called by them “ Che-no-ee,”
now Kentucky River. Major Jed Hotchkiss, who,
I believe, has seen the MS. diary of Doctor Walker,
thinks he did not get on to the Kentucky River, and
that the stream he named Louisa was the one now
called Coal River, West Virginia, which heads up in
. the big Flat-Top Mountain along which he traveled.
The earliest maps that lay down Coal River—Jeffer-
sons and others—call it Louisa.

The Cumberland Mounjains, Gap, and River, were
named after the Duke of Cumberland, and Louisa
River for his wife, the Duchess of Cumberland.

Walker’s Creeks (big and little), of New River,
16 Trans-Allegheny Pioneers.

which were explored by Dr. Walker and party on
this expedition, and Walker’s Mountains (big and
little), parallel ranges, were named after Dr. Walker.

About this time (1748), probably immediately on
the return of Walker, Patton and others—if, indeed,
they did not accompany the Walker expedition as
far as New River—Thomas Ingles and his three sons,
Mrs. Draper and her son and daughter, Adam Har-
mon, Henry Lenard, and James Burke “came West
to grow up with the country,” and made the first
settlement west of the great Allegheny “ divide,” the
first on the waters of New River, or Wood’s River, as
it was then interchangeably called, and the first on
any waters flowing to the undefined, unknown, mys-
terious West, whither they knew not.

The name given to this locality and settlement was
“ Draper’s Meadows.”

The first buildings and improvements, which were
built of round logs, as all frontier buildings then
were, stood upon the present sites of the “ Virginia
Agricultural and Mechanical College,” and “Soli-
tude,” the residence of the late Colonel Robert
Preston, near Blacksburg, now Montgomery County,
Virginia.

Even at the present day, when all Southwest Vir-
ginia is settled and highly improved, and is known
to excessively abound in grand and beautiful land-
scape scenery, few, if any, scenes surpass this little
“ Draper’ 8 Meadows” Valley, the original, and at
that day, probably, a hap-hazard settlement, as they
had not sufficiently explored the country to compare
localities and make choice.

Its eastern limit is near the crest of the Allegheny,
Trans-Allegheny Pioneers. 17

2

here a very low “divide” between the waters of the
Roanoke on the east and New or Woods River on the
west; its western, the beautiful “ Horse-Shoe Bend”
of New River; while to the north and south, in the
near distance, are parallel mountain ridges. Between
is a beautiful undulating plain, with rich limestone,
blue-grass soil. There are numerous bold, never-
failing limestone springs, and the drainage is to New
River, through Toms Creek, Straubles Creek, and
Walls Creek. |

At the date of this Draper’s Meadows settlement
(1748) the entire population of Virginia—which then
extended from the Atlantic to the Mississippi (or, as
claimed, to the Pacific), and embraced the present
States of Virginia, West Virginia, Kentucky, Ohio,
Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, and Wisconsin—was but
eighty-two thousand. All but a few hundred of these
were east of the Blue Ridge; these few hundred were
settled in the Valley of Virginia, so-called, being the
territory lying between the Blue Ridge and the Alle-
ghany Ranges. This valley it is claimed. but errone-
ously, as we shall hereafter see, was first discovered
by Governor Spottswood and his “Knights of the
Golden Horse-Shoe,” in 1716, penetrating the Blue
Ridge at Swift Run Gap, and first settled in 1732 by
Joist Hite, John Lewis, Bowman, Green, Chrisman,
McKay, Stephens, Duff, and others; followed, in
1734, by Morgan, Allen, Moore, Shephard, Harper,
and others, and in 1735 to 1738 by Beverly, Christian,
Patton, Preston, Burden, and others. These colonists
took up lands and made settlements from Harper’s
Ferry to the site of Staunton and above. They were
mostly Scotch-Irish families, who had stopped for a
18 Trans-Allegheny Pioneers.

time in Pennsylvania, and found their way from there
into the Valley of Virginia, by way of Harper’s Ferry,
taking up the best lands on the waters of the Shenan-
doah, the James, and the Roanoke Rivers.

The Ingles and Draper families, who were also
Scotch-Irish, and who had also come by way of
Pennsylvania, were the first to press on beyond these,
then frontier settlements, scale the Allegheny, the
then limit and western barrier of civilization and
discovery, and pitch their tents, as above stated, in the
great outside, unknown, and mysterious wilderness
beyond.

The first map of this region to which I have had
access, is a map of 1744, accompanying Rapin de
Thoyers’ History of England. This map shows
pretty fair knowledge of the coast lines, but wild
guesses, based upon small information about the
country beyond the mountains. The Tennessee River
called Hogoheegee, empties in the Wabash or “ Ou-
back.” The head waters of the Hogoheegee are left
blank—cut square off. The Cumberland, called Peli-
sipi, empties into the Hogoheegee. The Ohio or
“Hohio,” empties into the Ouback on the north,
and the Ouback unites with the Potomac in a lake
common to both, lying south of Lake Erie, and from
which they flow their respective ways east and west.
The Allegheny mountain is laid down with a fair
degree of accuracy as to location and direction. The
next map of this part of Virginia was made by Peter
Fontaine, Surveyor of Halifax County, at the request
of the Governor of Virginia, in 1752. In this map
the Allegheny Mountain is put down as “ Mississippi
or Allegheny Ridge.’ New River is put down as
Trans-Allegheny Pioneers. 19

“ New Riv., a branch of Mississippi Riv.,” and all the
region west of the Allegheny is left blank, and

 

     

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FROM RAPIN DE THOYERS’ MAP OF 1744.

called “a mountainous tract of land west of the

Blue Ridge,” Augusta County, “parts unknown.”
The “New River” was first discovered and named

in 1654, by Colonel Abraham Wood, who dwelt at
Trans-Allegheny Pioneers.

 

 

 

 

 

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FROM PETER FONTAINE’S MAP OF 1752.

the falls of the Ap-
pomatox, now the
site of Petersburg,
Virginia. Being of
an adventurous and
speculative turn, he
gota concession from
the Governor of Vir-

. ginia to “ explore the

country and open up
trade with the In-
dians to the west.”
There is no record
as to the particular
route he took, but as
the line of adventure,
exploration, and dis-
covery, was then all
east of the moun-
tains, it is probable
that he first struck
the river not far from
the Blue Ridge, and
near the present Vir-
ginia and North Car-
olina line.

From the fact that
the gap in the Blue
Ridge lying between
the heads of Smith’s
River branch of the
Dan, in Patrick
County, and Little
Trans-Allegheny Pioneers. 21

River branch of New River, in Floyd County, is, to
this day, called “ Wood’s Gap.” I think it highly
probable that this was his route, and that the gap was
named after him; if so, then it is almost certain that
New River was first seen by Colonel Wood, probably
the first white man who ever saw it, at the mouth of
Little River, about a mile and a half above “ Ingles’
Ferry,” and being to him a new river, without a name,
he then and there named it after himself, “ Wood’s
River.”

If this supposition is correct, as I believe it to be,
then Colonel Abraham Wood and his party of hum-
ble hunters and traders, anticipated, by many years,
the famous exploits of the Hon. Governor Spotts-
wood and his Knights of the Golden Horseshoe,
in passing the then limits of western discovery, the
mysterious “Blue Ridge.” As a singular example
of the injustice of the Fates: Governor Spottswood
was knighted, immortalized, and had his name per-
petuated by a Virginia County for what he didn’t do
(first cross the Blue Ridge), while Colonel Wood,
who did do it, is almost forgotten.

CAPTAIN HENRY BATTE, BLUE RIDGE.

Even Colonel Wood was not the only one, though
the first, who preceeded Governor Spottswood in
crossing the Blue Ridge.

In 1666, twelve years after Colonel Wood, and fifty
years before Governor Spottswood, Governor Sir
William Berkely, says Arthur, despatched an ex-
ploring party across the mountains, to the west,
under Captain Henry Batte, with fourteen Virginians
22 Trans-Allegheny Pioneers.

and fourteen Indians. They also started from Appo-
matox. In seven days they reached the foot of the
mountains. After crossing them they came to level,
delightful plains, with abundant game, deer, elk, and
buffalo, so gentle as not to be frightened by the
approach of man. Here they discovered a river
flowing westward; having followed it for several
days, they came to fields and empty cabins, lately
tenanted. Captain Batte left in them some trinkets,
in token of friendship.

But here the Indian guides stopped and refused
to go any farther, saying that there dwelt near here
a tribe of Indians that made salt and sold it to other
tribes. This tribe was said to be numerous and pow-
erful, and never let any one escape who ventured
into their towns. Captain Batte finding his Indians
resolute in their determination not to venture farther,
reluctantly abandoned the trip, and returned to the
Province. Governor Berkely was so interested in
the report that he determined to go and explore the
country himself, but other cares and duties occupied
him, and he never did. No mention is made here of
Colonel Wood’s trip, but Captain Batte must have
known of it, as it had been but twelve years since
Colonel Wood started from, and returned to, the
same point. From this meager account, it seems
probable that Captain Batte followed the same route
that Colonel Wood had traveled, crossed the Blue
Ridge at the same point—Wood’s Gap—struck New
River (Wood’s River), which he calls a western
flowing river, at or about the same point that Wood
had, and followed it downward several days before
reaching the territory occupied by the salt makers
Trans-Allegheny Pioneers. 23

which, it is highly probable, was in the Kanawha
Valley, and the salt made at the old Campbell’s
Creek Salt Spring. There were abundant remains
of ancient Indian pottery about the spring when the
country was first settled by the whites.

Colonel Wood when he discovered New River did
not know, of course, the extent of the river nor the
destination of its waters; but these names (Wood’s
River and New River) were intended to attach to the
whole course of the stream, from its source to its
mouth, wherever that might be.

By reference to modern maps, a curious topograph-
ical feature in regard to the rivers of this upper New
River region will be observed.

Within a radious of a few miles four important
rivers take their rise; their head waters interlocking
with each other; they, however, soon bid each other
a final adieu, and flow their several ways to the four
points of the compass. ,

New River rises in North Carolina, a sea-board
State, on the slopes of Grandfather Mountain; but,
instead of going down through the sunny South to
its natural home in the bosom of the Atlantic, it
strikes out defiantly, nearly due north, through Vir-
ginia, cutting its way through the Blue Ridge, the
Allegheny, and parallel ridges, and, finally, finds its
way through the waters of the Ohio and Mississippi
into the Gulf of Mexico.

The Yadkin River, on which, not far from here,
Squire Boone and family, including the afterward
renowned pioneer, Daniel Boone, settled, in 1750,
having come from Berks County, Pennsylvania, rises
in Virginia; but, instead of “pooling its issues” and
24 Trans-Allegheny Pioneers.

joining its fortunes with its close and bold neighbor,
New River, it leaves its native State and takes the
back track, nearly south, through the Carolinas to
the broad Atlantic, through the great Peedee.

The Roanoke River, or the Dan branch of it, rises
both in Virginia and North Carolina, along the
dividing line, flows nearly east until it joins the
Staunton River, forming the true Roanoke, and
empties into Albemarle Sound; whilst the Tennessee,
or Pelisipi, as the Cherokees called it here, now called
the Holston, rising similarly along and on both sides
of the Virginia and North Carolina line, and in close
interlock with the other streams named, starts out
on its long western journey, and, finally, mingles its
waters with those of the Ohio and Mississippi, or
Me-sa-cha-ce-pe, as the aborigines called it, meaning
the Big River, or “Father of Waters,’ the “Rio
Grande” of De Soto.

The dividing line between Virginia and North
Carolina, or the part of it which runs through this
nest of river heads, was run under commission from
the State of Virginia, in 1749, by Colonel Joshua Fry
and Peter Jefferson, father of Thomas Jefferson; and
continued westward to the Mississippi, in 1780, by
Dr. Thomas Walker and Colonel Daniel Smythe
commissioners. In 1754 Colonel Fry was the senior
officer in command of the Virginia army to the
Northwest, and Washington his subordinate (or Lieu-
tenant-Colonel).
CHAPTER III.

S so few facts and dates have been preserved in
Al relation to the Ingles-Draper frontier settlement,
owing, in great measure, to the fact above stated,
that. but few records were written in those days,
owing to disinclination and the disadvantages under
which they labored, and to the additional fact that, a
few years later, their houses were burned, and all
books, papers, and documents of every sort were de-
cirosed, every collateral fact that helps to fix dates,
or throws other light upon the subject becomes of
interest.

Such are the following, of which there is record
evidence:

In April, 1749, the house of Adam Harmon, one of
' the party, was raided by the Indians, and his furs
and skins stolen. This was the first Indian depreda-
tion ever committed on the whites west of the Alle-
gheny. The theft was reported by Henry Lenard to
William Harbison, a Justice of the Peace for Augusta
County. The names of Adam Harmon and Henry
. Lenard will appear again farther on.

In 1751 an allowance was made by the State to
Colonel Patton for moving a party of Indians from
Williamsburg, the then capital, to Reed Creek, in
Augusta County. Reed Creek empties into New
River a few miles above Ingles Ferry.

In 1753 the Indians stole the skins of George
26 Trans-Allegheny Pioneers.

Hoopaugh and Jacob Harmon, killed their dogs and
shot their “ critters.”

In 1758 the State sent Captain Robert Wade from
“Fort Mayo,” with thirty-five rangers, to this settle-
ment to “ Range for enemy Indians.” They came by
Goblintown, by Black Water, Pigg River, and Smith’s
River, branches of the Dan, and crossed over to the
head of Little River, through ‘“ Wood’s Gap,” and
down Little River to New River. Probably just the
route of Colonel Abraham Wood and Captain Henry
Batte many years before. Thence they passed down
as far as Draper’s Meadows and back up to Reed
Island Creek.

They fell in with a party of five Indians and one
white man, the latter named Dunkleberry. They let
the white man escape, but followed and killed the
Indians.

The result of the expedition was reported by Cap-
tain John Echols, and sworn to before Abraham
Maury, a Justice of the Peace for Augusta County.
CHAPTER IV.

NOTHER adventurous hunter and pioneer had
A quietly made his appearance in this Draper’s.
Meadows camp. It was the chubby and rosy-cheeked
little god of the bow and arrow. He had evidently
counted on finding fair and proper game here, and
he had not mistaken his reckoning.

William Ingles and Mary Draper had fallen victims
to his skillful archery. They had surrendered at dis-
cretion, and, early in 1750, they were bound by the
silken cords, he being then twenty-one and she
eighteen years of age. This was the first white wed-
ding west of the Alleghenies.

Their rose-colored hopes and anticipations of the
future, and their youthful dreams of happiness, were
not all to be realized, as will soon appear.

Mary Draper, having no sister, had spent much of
her time in her girlhood days with her only brother,
in his outdoor avocations and sports. They played
together, walked together, rode together. She could
jump a fence or ditch as readily as he; she could
stand and jump straight up nearly as high as her
head; could stand on the ground, beside her horse,
and leap into the saddle unaided; could stand on the
floor and jump over a chair-back, etc., ete. It will
soon be seen how invaluable to her such physical
training was a few years later. In the long after-
years she used to delight in telling over to her grand-
children of her feats of agility in her youthful days.
28 Trans-Allegheny Pioneers.

In 1754, John Draper, finding it not good to be
alone, had prevailed upon Miss Bettie Robertson to
join him in the search for happiness in this wild
wilderness home.

Notwithstanding the isolation of the Draper’s
Meadows settlement, and its remoteness from civili-
zation and society, the settlers were reasonably happy,
prosperous and contented. They were busy clearing
out and improving their lands, adding to their herds
of stock, building houses, and increasing their com-
forts. Others, influenced by their favorable reports,
were coming in and settling near them, and they
were laying, as they hoped and believed, the founda-
tians of a growing and prosperous community.

 

 
CHAPTER V.

oo times parties of Indians, from north of

the Ohio, had passed and repassed this settle-
ment to make raids upon the Catawbas, their enemies,
living farther south; but they had made no attack
upon the white settlers, nor given them any annoy-
ance or cause for alarm, except the thieving raids to
Harmon’s and Hoopaugh’s above related.

The friendliest relations had existed between the
whites and the redskins up to this time, but this
happy condition of things was not long ‘to last; in-
deed, the Indians may already have meditated or
determined upon mischief, but disguised their designs
by a show of friendship until they had made full
observations and matured their plans.

On the 8th of July, 1755, being Sunday, and the
day before Braddock’s memorable defeat, near Fort
Du Quesne, when all was peace, and there was no
suspicion of harm or danger, a party of Shawanees,
from beyond the Ohio, fell upon the Draper’s
Meadows settlement and killed, wounded, or cap-
tured every soul there present, as follows:

Colonel James Patton, Mrs. George Draper, Casper
Barrier and a child of John Draper, killed; Mrs.
John Draper, James Cull, wounded; Mrs. William
Ingles, Mrs. John Draper, Henry Lenard, prisoners.

Mrs. John Draper, being out of doors, a short dis-
tance from the house, first discovered the enemy
30 Trans-Allegheny Pioneers.

approaching, and under circumstances indicating
hostile intent.

She ran into the house to give the alarm and to
get her sleeping infant. Taking the child in her
arms she ran out on the opposite side of the house
and tried to make her escape. The Indians discov-
ered her, however, and fired on her as she ran, break-
ing her right arm, and causing the child to fall. She
hastily picked it up again with her left hand, and
continued her flight. She was soon overtaken, how-
ever, and made a prisoner, and the child brained
against the end of one of the house logs. The other
Indians, meanwhile, were devoting their attention to
other members of the families and camp, with the
results in killed, wounded, and captured, as above
stated.

Colonel James Patton, who had large’ landed inter-
ests hereabout, was here at this time, and with him
his nephew, William Preston.

Whether Colonel Patton was only temporarily
here, or was then making this his home, I do not
know. He had command of the Virginia militia in
this region, and had just brought up a supply of
powder and lead for use of the settlements, which, I
believe, the Indians secured. ;

Early on the morning of the attack, Colonel Pat-
ton had sent young Preston over to the house of Mr.
Philip Lybrook, on Sinking Creek, to get him to
come over and help next day with the harvest,
which was ready to be cut, and this fortunate absence
doubtless saved young Preston’s life.

Colonel Patton was sitting at a table writing when
the attack was made, with his broadsword, which he
Trans-Allegheny Pioneers, 31

always kept with him, lying on the table before him.
He was a man of large frame (he was six feet four
inches in height), and herculean strength. He cut
down two of the Indians with his sword, as they
rushed upon him, but was, in turn, shot down him-
self by others out of his reach. He was a widower,
sixty-three years of age, and full of health and vigor
when he met his untimely death.

The father-in-law of Colonel Patton was Benjamin
Burden, who came over as the general agent of Lord
Fairfax, and also had large grants of land himself,
chiefly in (now) Rockbridge County. He was a man
of great business capacity and integrity, meeting all
business obligations and engagements with such
scrupulous promptness and exactness, that his habits
became standards of comparison for others, and his
name a synonym of punctuality and reliability. To
say of any one that his promise, note, or bond, was
as “good as Ben. Burden’s bill,” was to credit him
with the “ne plus ultra” of business solvency and
promptness.

This phrase is still currant and common in Virginia
to this day, though few, perbaps, now know how it
originated.
CHAPTER VI.

AVING everything in their power after the mas-
i sacre and capture, the Indians secured all the
guns and ammunition on the premises, all the horses
and such household valuables as they could carry
away.

After loading up their stolen plunder, and putting
the women and children on the horses, ready tor
moving, they set fire to the buildings and consumed
everything left.

‘William Ingles, who was in a grain field, some dis-
tance from the houses, received his first notice of the
attack through the ascending smoke and flames of
the burning buildings. He at once started, instinct-
ively, towards the scene of the tragedy, with the
hope of giving aid to his family; but upon approach-
ing near enough to see that there was a large force
of well armed Indians, and that, single handed, un-
armed resistance would be madness, he turned and
sought his own safety in flight; he was seen, how-
ever, and pursued by two fleet warriors, each with

tamahawk in hand.

_ He soon got out of the fields and ran down the
slope of the hill through the woods and brush, the
enemy, meanwhile, gaining on him slowly. In jump-
ing over a fallen tree that lay in his path, he fell, and
being concealed by the log and brush, the Indians
did not know he had fallen, and passed by him, hay-
Trans-Allegheny Pioneers. 33

ing run around the upturned roots of the tree, instead
of jumping over it as he had done.

Seeing that the Indians had overlooked him and
passed on, William Ingles hastily got on his feet,
changed his course and succeeded in making his
escape.

Ingles and Draper being without arms or horses,
and having ‘no near neighbors at hand to aid or join
‘in pursuit, the Indians were enabled to make good
their escape with their prisoners, horses, and stolen
plunder, unmolested. Captain Buchanan raised a
company from the more eastern settlements and des-
patched them in pursuit, but too much time had been
lost, and no tidings of them were gotten.

About half a mile or a mile to the west, on their
route, they stopped at the house of Mr. Philip Bar-
ger, an old and white haired man, cut his head off,
put it in a bag, and took it with them to the house
of Philip Lybrook, on Sinking Creek, where they
left it, telling Mrs. Lybrook to look in the bag and
she would find an acquaintance.

Lybrook and Preston would, probably, bave shared
the same fate as Barger, if they had beeu found at
Lybrook’s house; but they had started back to Dra-
per’s Meadows on foot, by a near pathway across the
mountain, and thus missed meeting the Indians, and
saved their lives.

In 1774, nineteen years later, the family of John
Lybrook, son of Philip, was attacked by a party
of Indians. Jvhn Lybrook himself succeeded in
eluding them, by secreting himself in a cave in the
cliffs—five of his children were murdered. About
the same time, Margaret McKenzie and three Snidow

3
34 Trans-Allegheny Pioneers.

boys were captured in the neighborhood, two of
them, Jacob and Willian soon escaped and returned,
but John, a small boy, was taken on to the Indian
towns. He was recovered by his family after some
years of captivity, during which he had almost for-
gotten his mother tongue, and meanwhile had ac-
quired so strong a taste for wild, Indian life, that he.
returned to the Indians and spent his life with them.
Margaret McKenzie was recovered after eighteen
years of captivity, returned to Giles County, married
a Mr. Benjamin all, and lived to a very old age,
dying about 1850. :

The general course of retreat of the Indians with
the prisoners and spoils of the Draper’s Meadows:
massacre, was down New River, but there is no record
preserved of the exact route, and but few details of
the trip down.

It is presumed that the Indians knew and traveled
ridge roads and creek routes for much of the dis-
tance, where the river route was impracticable for
pack-horses.

Terrible as were these experiences generally, they
were especially painful and trying to Mrs. Ingles,
who was nearly approaching a period of maternity.
Neither this, in her case, however, nor a shattered
arm in the case of Mrs. Draper, were allowed to stand
in the way of their making the trip. They were
permitted to ride the horses, carry the children, and
make themselves as comfortable as the circumstances
allowed, but go they must, whatever the pain and
suffering to them. _

It was very fortunate for each that the other was
along, as their companionship was uot only a comfort
Trans-Al legheny Pioneers. 35

and solace to each other in their trying situations,
but they rendered most important services to each
other as nurses, as occasion required

On the night of the third day out, the course of
nature, which waits not upon conveniences nor sur-
roundings, was fulfilled, and Mrs. Ingles, far from
human habitation, in the wide forest, unbounded by
walls, with only the bosom of mother earth for a
couch, and covered by the green trees and the blue
eanopy of heaven, with a curtain of black darkness
around her, gave birth to an infant daughter.

Ordinarily, such an occurrence would have been
equivalent to a death warrant to the mother and
child, for if they had not both died, under the stress
of circumstances, the Indians would have toma-
hawked them, to avoid the trouble and the necessary
delay of their journey; but Mrs. Ingles was an ex-
traordinary woman, and equal to any emergency.
Owing to her perfect physical constitution, health
and training, she seems to have passed through her
trouble with almost as little suffering and loss of
time as one of the wild Indian squaws themselves.
She was next morning able to travel, and did resume
the journey, carrying the little stranger in her arms,
on horseback.

One strong reason—probably “the controlling one,
with the Indians—why Mrs. Ingles and infant were
not tomahawked, was that they counted upon getting
a handsome sum for the ransom of herself and her
children. It was not tender humanity, but cold bus-
iness calculation that prevailed, and induced them to
put up with the small additional trouble and delay
for the hope of future gain.
36 . Trans-A llegheny Pioneers.

The particulars of the eventful history of this ill-
fated babe I get from a short sketch of Mrs. Ingles’
captivity, together with facts relating to the early
settlements of the Pattons and Prestons, written by
Mrs. Governor John Floyd, nearly half a century ago.
Mrs. Floyd was a Preston, born and reared at Smith-
field, so that she and Mrs. Ingles were near neigh-
bors, and it is probable that she received the facts
related, from Mrs. Ingles direct.

About forty miles down, as Mrs. Ingles afterwards
estimated, the party crossed from the east to the west
side of the river; this must have been at or about the
mouth of Indian Creek; as this creek was then, and
afterwards, known to be in the line of the Indian
trail, and there is here a practicable ford across New
River.

At this point, in 1764, Captain Paul, from Fort
Dinwiddie, attacked a party of returning Indians
whom he was pursuing; killed several, stampeded
the rest, and recovered some prisoners, among whom
was Mrs. Catharine Gunn, a neighbor and friend
of his.

From the mouth of Indian Creek the Draper’s
Meadows party came down the river, on the west
side, to the mouth of Bluestone River, when they left
New River, going” up Bluestone a short distance,
thence crossing over Flat Top Mountain, and prob-
ably following very much the route of the present
Giles, Raleigh and Fayette Turnpike, to about the
head of Paint Creek, and thence down Paint Creek
to Kanawha River.

At some point below the mouth of Paint Creek,
probably at Cabin Creek, or Witcher’s Creek Shoals,
Trans-Allegheny Pioneers. 37

where, in low water, the river was shallow enough to
ford or wade, they again crossed over to the north-
east side of Kanawha River, and upon reaching the
salt spring, just above the mouth of Campbell’s
Creek, then well-known to the Indians, they stopped
and rested, and feasted themselves on the abundance
of fat game they killed, as it came to the “Licks”
for salt.

Some of the prisoners were treated very roughly
on the route down, and suffered very much; but Mrs.
Ingles, owing to her delicate condition, and to her
having policy and tact enough to simulate a reason-
able amount of cheerfulness and contentment under
all her trials, and to make herself useful in many
ways, was treated with more leniency and respectful
consideration than any of the others.

She was permitted to ride and to carry her chil-
dren. It was made one of her duties, when well
enough, as it was also her pleasure, to attend to and
aid her wounded sister-in-law, Mrs. Bettie Draper.
The Indians instructed her to bathe and poultice the
broken arm with the steeped leaves of the wild com-
phry plant, and to dress the wounds with a salve
made from the comphry plant and deer fat.

In searching for this plant in the woods, Mrs.
Ingles says she sometimes wandered off some dis-
tanee from the camps, and felt strongly tempted to
try to make her escape; but the thought of leaving
her helpless children restrained her. She determined
to share their fate, hoping that, by some good for-
tune, deliverance might come to them all, and that
they should be saved together.
CHAPTER VII.

HILE the Indians hunted, rested and feasted

themselves at the salt spring, they put the pris-

oners to boiling brine and making a supply of salt to
take with them to their homes beyond the Ohio.

Mrs. Ingles took part in this salt making; boiling
salt water in some of her own pots and kettles, that
had been brought along on the pack-horses, and she,
together with the other prisoners, were undoubtedly
the first white persons who ever made salt, not only
in this valley, but anywhere else west of the Alle-
ghanies.

About a hundred years later one of her grandsons,
Crockett Ingles, was, for a number of years, a salt-
maker almost within sight of the original salt spring;
and I, one of her great grandsons, have been a salt
manufacturer for more than thirty-five years, within
afew hundred yards of where she first made salt in
July, 1755.

After several days of resting, feasting, and salt-
making, the party again loaded up their pack-horses
and resumed their onward march down the Kanawha
and down the Ohio to the capital town of the Shaw-
ances, at the mouth of the Souhioto, or Scioto River,
which they reached just one month after leaving
the scene of the massacre and capture at Draper’s
Meadows.

Soon after their arrival at the Indian town there
Trans-Allegheny Pioneers. 39

was a general gathering of old and young to welcome
back the raiding party, to congratulate them on their
success, to learn the extent of their good fortune, and
to celebrate the event by a general jollification.

The prisoners, according to custom, were required
to “run the gauntlet,” except Mrs. Ingles, whom, on
account of her condition, they excused. Mrs. Draper,
notwithstanding her lume arm, not yet recovered, was
subjected to this painful ordeal, with much suffering.

It was a great comfort to Mrs. Ingles, amidst all
the distressing circumstances with which she was
surrounded, that her children were left in her own
charge, and that she could, in some degree, care for
them and promote their comfort. This, however,
proved of but short duration. It was but a few days
until there was a meeting of the Indians who had
made the last raids, to divide out the spoils. The
prisoners were all separated, as was the custom, and
allotted to different owners, and not again allowed to
see or communicate with each other.

It was an agonizing experience to Mrs. Ingles to
have her young and helpless children, excepting, of
course, the infant, torn from her and from each
other, but the Indians and the fates had so decreed,
and she had to submit with what grace she could.

Her eldest son, Thomas, named after his grand-
father Ingles, now four years old, was taken up to or
near Detroit; her youngest son, George, named after
his grandfather Draper, now two years old, was
taken somewhere in the interior, not now known,
and Mrs. Draper went up to the region of Chillicothe.
What became of the other prisoners then or after-
ward I do not know.
40 Trans-Allegheny Pioneers.

Shortly after this division of prisoners, some French
traders came into the Indian town for the purpose of
trading and bartering with the Indians. They had,
among other things, a stock of check shirting, and
as check shirts were in great demand among the In-
dians, and Mrs. Ingles a good sewer, she was put to
making check shirts. Her proficiency in this line
so increased her value and importance to them that
she was treated with unusual leniency and con-
sideration.

When a shirt would be finished and delivered to
its owner, the buck would stick it on the end of a
pole, and run through the town exhibiting it, and
singing the praises of the “heap good white squaw.”

The French traders seeing their interest in encour-
aging the shirt trade, were very kind to Mrs. Ingles,
who was so important a factor in the business, and
induced the Indians to pay her liberally for the sew-
ing. This, fortunately, enabled her to supplement
her own scanty wardrobe, a matter very essential to
her personal comfort.

After this trading and shirt making had continued
for two or three weeks, a party of Indians with these .
Frenchmen was made up to go to the “Big Bone
Lick” to make salt. Mrs, Ingles and some other
prisoners, among them a Dutch woman, but none of
her party or acquaintances were taken along.
CHAPTER VIII.

HIS Big Bone Lick is about one hundred and

fifty miles below Scioto, and about three and a
half miles, by the creek, from the Ohio River, on Big
Bone Creek, in (now) Boone County, Kentucky.

Some of the largest mastodon bones ever dis-
covered, and the largest number ever found together,
strewed the ground here, or were partially buried
beneath the surface.

The Lick seems to have been a swampy morass,
some eight or ten acres in area, with the sulpho-
saline waters oozing up through it, and when the
huge animals waded in to get the coveted mineral
water, many mired, and being unable to extricate
themselves, so perished, with their legs imbedded in
the mud, and their bodies resting on the surface.

Colonel Thomas Bullitt, and other early explorers
and surveying parties, here, in after years, used the
immense ribs and tusks for tent poles, and the skulls
and vertebra for stools and benches. These huge
bones, tusks, and teeth, have been taken from here
in large numbers, to enrich many museums both in
this country and in Europe. Many of the tusks
were eight or ten feet long.

“Here Mrs. Ingles again assisted in making salt,
thus being the first white person to make salt west
of Kanawha, as she had been the first there, and
while the first white person in the Kanawha Valley,
42 Trans-Allegheny Pioneers.

she was the first white woman, so far as I know, who
ever saw the Kanawha or New River, and the first
white woman ever within the bounds of Ohio, Indi-
ana or Kentucky, all then, however, still parts of
Virginia.

While at the Big Bone Lick, Mrs. Ingles, to escape
the ills she suffered, and to fly from others, threat-
ened or feared, formed the desperate resolve to make
her escape, and, if possible, find her way home. A
more hopeless undertaking, apparently, she could not
have conceived, but her condition was so distressing,
that even death was preferable, and she determined
that, come what would, she would make the attempt.

She confided her secret to the elderly Dutch woman
above mentioned, who had been captured in Western
Pennsylvania, somewhere in the region of Fort Du
Quesne, and who was the only other white female
in the camp. She, at first, discouraged the scheme,
and tried to dissuade Mrs. Ingles from throwing her
life away on so mad and desperate a venture.

Mrs. Ingles was not to be shaken in her resolution,
but the Dutch woman, dreading to be left alone with
the savages in the wilderness, and dreaming, with
freshly stimulated hope, of the comforts and joys of
home, listened with more and more favor to the
earnest appeals of Mrs. Ingles, and, finally, was com-
pletely won over to the desperate scheme, and de-
termined to accompany her.

They had been in the habit of going out daily
from the camp at the Lick, ostensibly to hunt wild
grapes, walnuts, hickory nuts, ete., which they would
take back, and distribute among the Indians, but the
more important matter to them was to discuss the
question and the ways and means of escape.
Trans-Allegheny Pioneers. 43

When the Dutch woman gave in her adhesion to
the scheme, they stood not upon the order of their
going, but prepared to start at once.

There was little preparation for the women to
make; they could make but little without exciting
suspicion.

They had each secreted a blanket for the trip, but
took no clothes except what they wore, which were
scanty enough. They each started with a tomahawk.
Mrs. Ingles says she exchanged “hers for a sharper
one, just before starting from the camp, witb a
Frenchman, who was sitting cracking walnuts with
his on one of the mammoth bones, since so noted.

Mrs. Ingles had been tried as few women are, but
now the supreme moment of her life was upon her.
To try to escape, she had determined; but what was
to be done with her child? She well knew that if
she attempted to take it with her, its cries would
betray them both to recapture and death. And, even
if she should possibly escape recapture, she knew too
well what she would have to encounter and endure
to suppose, for a moment, that it was possible to
carry the infant and succeed in her effort. Clearly
there was but one thing to do, under the circum-
stances, and that was to abandon the unhappy Little
sufferer to its hard fate.

Who can conceive of the agony of a young mother
compelled to decide such a question, and to act, with
such alternatives before her? But Mrs. Ingles was
a woman of no ordinary nerve. She did decide and
act, and who will say that she did not decide wisely?
Certainly, in the light of subsequent events, her
decision and action were wise and fortunate.
44 Trans-Allegheny Pioneers.

She nestled the dear little babe as cosily as she
could in a little bark cradle, gave it her last parting
kisses and baptism of tears, tore herself away, and
was gone, never to see it again in this world, and
knowing, or having every reason to believe, that it
would be murdered so soon as it was known that she
was gone.

They started late in the afternoon, and bent their
steps toward the Ohio River, to get a known starting
point. °

There were no roads, no guides; they knew but
little of routes, distances, or points of the compass.

Their only chance out of the wilderness was, to
get to, and keep within sight or striking distance of,
the Ohio River, and follow that up, through its long,
weary course, to the mouth of Kanawha, which Mrs.
Ingles felt that she could recognize, and so on up
Kanawha and New Rivers to her far-off and longed-
for home and friends.

It is an interesting fact, as shown by census reports,
that this Big-Bone Lick, then in an unknown and
seemingly interminable wilderness, is now almost
exactly the center of population of the United States.
CHAPTER IX.

WORD about the history, names and signitica-
A tion of the rivers up which these fugitive women
were to travel, as guides to their distant homes, may
not be without interest here.

The first mention of the river now called Ohio is
found, I believe, in an old map of 1672, attributed to
the French explorer, La Salle. In this the Iroquois
name is given as “Oligen-Sipen,” “The Beautiful
River.”

A map of 1687 calls it “Dono,” or “Albacha.” A
Dutch map of 1708 calls it “Cubach.” A map of
1710 calls it “ O-o,” and makes the Ohio and Wabash
or Oubache one river. In 1711 it is called “ Ochio.”
‘In 1719 it is called “ Saboqungo.” The Miamis called

it Causisseppione. The Delawares, Kitono-cepe, and
others Alliwegi-Sipe. The Wyandottes called it
“ Oheezuh,” “The Grand or Beautiful.” On the map
accompanying Rapin De Thoyers’ History of England
. (1744), it is called Hohio, and empties into the Wa- |

bash, or “ Ouback,” on the north side. In some of
the early treaties of the Pennsylvanians with the
Iroquois, they got the spelling “‘Oheeo,” probably
intending to represent the same sound as the “ Ohee-
zuh” above; this Oheeo became changed in accent,
about 1744, by the Virginians, to “ Ohio,” or “ Hohio,”
as on the above-mentioned map.

When, in 1749, the French called the “ O-y-o” or
46 Trans-Allegheny Pioneers.

“ Ohio,” “ La Belle Rivere,” they were not giving it a
hew uame, but merely rendering into French the
numerous Indian designations, most of which were
equivalents, and meant “The Beautiful River.”

With the later French, as with the Indians, the
name included the Allegheny, or Al-le-ge-ning (the
impression of feet), which was considered the exten-
sion of the main stream, and the Monongahela only
a tributary. In addition to all these names, the
Ohio, during its early Indian history, was often
called the “ River of Blood,” from their own bloody
encounters along its shores.

The present Big Miami was called Mi-ah-me-zah
by some of the Indian tribes; Os-we-ne, by the Dela-
wares; La Roque, by the French, meaning the River
of Rocks, or Stony River.

Licking River was named from the Big Buffalo
Licks on its banks, now the celebrated Blue Lick
Springs of Kentucky.

The Little Miami was: called by the Delawares
Pio-quo-nee, or High Bank River.

The Scioto was called by different tribes Son-
hi-o-to, Si-o-tha, Si-o-to-cepe, ete., its signification
was said to be * The Unknown.”

_ The Big Sandy gets its name from the prevalence

of sand bars in its bed. It has also been called Tat-
teroi, Chatteroi, and Chatterawha; but I do not
know the signification of this variously spelled term ;
they may, like some others, all mean one thing—The
River of Sand Bars, or Sandy River.

The Miamis called it We-pe-po-co-ne-ce-pe-we.
The Delawares called it Si-ke-a-ce-pe, Salt River.
And Little Sandy was called Tan-ga-te Si-ke-a-ce-
pe-we, or Little Salt River.
Trans-Allegheny Pioneers. 47

One of the upper forks of Big Sandy was named
Tug River by some of General (then Major) Andrew
Lewis’ soldiers returning from the Big Sandy expe-
dition of 1756, when they became so straightened for
food that they had to boil and eat their rawhide
buffalo thongs and tugs to keep from starving.

The La Visee, or Levisa, fork, as commonly called,
or Louisa, as sometimes erroneously called, is said to
mean the picture, design, or representation. It was
so called by an early French explorer in the region,
from Indian pictures or signs, painted on trees, near
the head of the stream.

The Guyandotte River is said to have been named
after a tribe of that name. The Miamis called it
Lla-ke-we-ke-ton Ce-pe-we. The Delawares called it
Se-co-nee, Narrow Bottom River.

The locality of Point Pleasant was called, by fhe
Wyandottes, Tu-edna-wie, the Junction of fhe Rivers.
The present site of Pittsburg, Washington says, was
called De-un-da-ga, the Forks of the River.

The Great Kanawha River was called by the
Miamis Pi-que-me-ta-mi; by the Delawares, Ken-in-
she-ka-cepe, White Stone River.

The Little Kanawha was called by the Delawares,
O-nom-go-how-cepe.

The first name given the Great Kanawha trom this
end, by the whites, so far as I know, was by a French
engineer party, under Captain De Celeron, who, on
the 18th of August, 1749, planted an engraved leaden
plate at the mouth, giving the river the name of
Chi-no-da-che-tha, and claiming for the French
crown all the territory drained by its waters.

This complicated name is probably Indian, not
48 . Trans-Allegheny Pioneers.

French; but what its signification is or was, I do not
know.

This leaden plate was unearthed in 1846, by a
little nephew of Colonel John Beale, then a resident
at the Point, and in 1849, just one hundred years
after the French had planted it, James M. Laidley,
Esq., then a member of the legislature of Virginia,
from Kanawha, took it to Richmond, and with appro-
priate remarks, submitted it to the Virginia Histori-
ical Society, where, I believe, a copy of it is still pre-
served, but he was required to return the original to
the finder, who was afterwards cheated out of it by
the fair and false promises of some itinerant sharper—
a duplicate copy of the original plate and inscription
is preserved among the French National Archives
in Paris. ;

Christopher Gist, agent of the “Ohio Land Com-
pany” passed down opposite the mouth of Kanawha,
on the Ohio side in 1751. The name of Kanawha
was not given to the river until between 1760 and
1770. The name is commonly supposed and stated
to signify, in the Indian tongue, “River of the
Woods;” but this, I think, is clearly a mistake.
The stream had been discovered as a New River, at
the other end, by Colonel Abraham Wood, long
before, as herein above described, and named after
him—* Wood’s River”—so when the name Kanawha
was given to it, it applied to a river that already had
a name, which then became an alias, and thus it was
called “Kanawha or Wood’s River,” and not “Kuan-
awha, the River of the Woods.”

The name Kanawha was probably derived by evo-
lution from the name of a tribe of Indians (a branch
Trans-Allegheny Pioneers. 49

of the Nanticokes), who dwelt along the Potomac
and westward, to New River. They were variously
called, or spelled by difterent authors, at different
times, Conoys, Conoise, Canawese, Cohnawas, Cana-
ways and Kanawhas. The spelling of the name has
been very various, in addition to the ways men-
tioned above, including nearly all practicable methods
commencing with C or K. Wyman’s map of the
British Empire, in 1770, calls it “The Great Cono-
way, or Wood’s River.” The act of legislature of
1789 forming the county spelled it Kenhawa. In an
original report of survey made by Daniel Boone, at
the mouth of the river, in 1791, and now in my pos-
session, he spells it “Conhawway”—the accepted
spelling now is “Kanawha,” probably never to be
changed again.

On some of the old maps the river is called “New
River,” or “ Wood’s River” from its source to its
mouth; on others it is Kanawha from its mouth to
its source. Later it was called “New, or Wood’s
River,” from its source to the mouth of Greenbriar,
and Kanawha thence to its mouth; still later, and at
present, it is Kanawha from its mouth to the mouth
of Gauley, and New River from that up, the name
of Wood’s River having become obsolete. The legis-
latures of Virginia and West Virginia ought to, by
joint action, abolish the name of New River, and give
one name to the whole stream from source to mouth,
and that name should be Kanawha. |

“Pocatalico,” it is said, signifies, in the Indian
tongue, “The River of Fat Doe.”

“Cole River,” as then spelled (the Louisa of the
early maps), was named in 1756, by Samuel Cole,

4
50 Trans-illegheny Pioneers.

who with some others of the returning “ Big Sandy
Expedition” (General, then Major Andrew Lewis
among them), got over on to, and followed up this
river; their names were cut on a beech tree near the
junction of Marsh and Clearforks, and remained leg-
ible until the tree was cut down by some vandal, three
or four years since, to clear his land.

Since the discovery of mineral coal along the river
in such vast quantities, the spelling of the name has
gradually become changed to c-o-a-l. The Miamis
called it Wa-len-de-co-ni-cepe, the Delawares called
it Wal-hon-de-cepe, or Hill Creek. On probably the
earliest map that laid down Coal River at all—that
used at the treaty of peace in 1783—and also on the
map illustrating Jefferson’s notes of Virginia, it was
called Louisa, probably so named by Dr. Walker, as
elsewhere stated.

Elk River was called by some of the tribes Tiskel-
wah, or River of Fat Elk. By the Miamis it was
coed Pe-quo-ni-cepe; by the Delawares eg -que-
min-cepe, or Walnut River.

Paint Creek was called by the Miamis Mos-coos-
vepe, and by the Delawares Ot-to-we-cepe, or Deer
Creek.

The present name of Paint Creek comes from
painted trees, blazed and stained with red ochrous
earth, by the Indians, to mark their early trail. It
is also said that at a point of crossing of trails, near
the head of the creek, returning raiding parties used
to record on the trees, in this red eae the number *
of sealps taken, and other important events in char-
acters understood by them.

Gauley River was called by the Miamis Chin-que-
ta-na-cepe-we; by the Delawares To-ke-bel-lo-ke, or

 

 
Trans-Allegheny Pioneers. 51

Falling Creek. How the stream got the name of
Gauley, or what it signifies, I don’t know. The
earliest spelling of the name that I have seen, in
Henning Statutes, was Gawly. In the treaty map
of 1783, and also Jefferson’s map, the river is not
even laid down.

Greenbriar River, according to Colonel John Lewis
Payton, was named by Colonel John Lewis, in 1751.
He with his son (afterwards General Andrew Lewis),
were surveying lands along the river, and were very
much scratched and annoyed by the greenbriars.
John Lewis told his son to note the name of the
stream, on his surveys, as Greenbriar River, which
was done, and from the river the county was named.
The Miami’s name of the river was We-o-to-we-cepe-
we. The Delawares called it O-ne-pa-ke-cepe.

Blue Stone River was named by the whites from
the deep blue valley limestone over which it flows.
Its Miami name was Mec-ce-ne-ke-ke-ce-pe-we. The
Delawares called it Mo-mon-ga-sen-eka-ce-pe, or Big
Stone Creek.

East River was named by the whites from the
direction of its flow. its Miami name was Nat-weo-
ce-pe-we. Its Delaware name Ta-le-mo-te-no-ce-pe.

Wolf Creek was so named from the many wolves
trapped or killed on it, by the early settlers. Walk-
er’s Creek, as hereinbefore stated, was named after
Dr. Walker.

Many of the foregoing river names are from a list
of Indian names and equivalents, compiled by Col-
onel William Preston, of the Draper’s Meadows-
Smithfield settlements. The suffix of ce-pe or ce-pe-
we, to these various names, means, in the Indian
tongue, water or river.
CHAPTER NX.

UT to return to the fugitive women and their
daring, desperate, and apparently hopeless under-
taking. There were hundreds of miles of wilderness
before them. The savage Indians and wild animals
would alike seek their blood. Pursuit, exposure,
privation, and, possibly, starvation were staring them
in the face, but they flinched not; they had deter-
mined to start, and start they did.

Against all these tremendous odds, it looked like
flying in the face of Providence and the Fates that
they trusted to help them through, but hope led on,
and despair lay behind; they followed the one, and
fled from the other.

They had not gotten far from the camp at Big
Bone Lick before the sun went down and the shades
of night gathered around them.

They selected an obscure place, raked some leaves
into it for a bed, and, with the aid of their blankets,
got such rest and sleep as they could; but there was
not, as may be supposed, much sleep for them that
night.

When they failed to return to the camp at or later
than the usual time, the Indians became uneasy,
thinking they had strayed too far and lost their way,
or else had been killed by wild beasts.

Some of the Indians went’ some distance in the
direction they had started, but which’ course they

 
Trans-A llegheny Pioneers. 53

had reversed so soon as out of sight, and fired guns
to attract their attention if they should be lost. They
gave up the search that night, however, and did not
renew it the next day.

Their conclusion was that the women had been
destroyed by wild beasts, and gave themselves no
farther concern about them. They did not at all
suspect that the women had attempted an escape.

These facts were learned by William Ingles, from
the Indians, many years after, at an Indian treaty, or
conference, held at Point Pleasant not long after the
battle of the Point, when they (the Indians) learned
for the first time what had become of the missing
women so long before.

The next morning, not having the trouble of
inaking their toilets, nor cooking nor eating their
breakfasts, they made an early start, from a point
near the mouth of Big Bone Creek, fifteen miles
below the mouth of the Big Miami, which De Celeron
had called “La Roque,’ and about forty miles below
the present site of Cincinnati.

They kept the Ohio River in view, and tramped
and toiled their weary way up its course, cheered by
the knowledge that every mile they made took them
one mile nearer their far, oh! how far-off homes!

Without any special misadventure, after days and
days of toil, and nights of uneasy rest, having passed
Licking River, the sites of the present cities of Cov-
ington and Newport, and of the prond city of Cin-
cinnati, just opposite, first called Losantiville; all
then an untrodden wilderness. This is a curious
patchwork name invented by the cranky pedagogue
and historian, John Filson, as a suitable name for
54 Trans-Allegheny Pioneers.

the town when first started. Lis tor Licking; os,
the mouth; anti, opposite; and ville, the village; all
meaning (L-os-anti-ville) the village or town opposite
the mouth of Licking. Having passed the sites of
Foster, Augusta, Maysville, first called Limestone,
Concord, Vanceburg, ete., they at last reached the
point opposite, or nearly opposite the Shawnee town
at the mouth of the Scioto. The main Shawnee
town in those days was not above the mouth, where
Portsmouth now stands, but a short distance below.

This was their chief or capital town. Their council
house, built of logs, was ninety feet long and covered
with bark.

A few years later (1763 to 1765) a very extreme, if
not unprecedented flood in the rivers swept off the
greater part of the town, and it was never rebuilt at
that place; but the tribe moved their head-quarters
to the upper Little Miami, and up the Scioto, and
built up, successively, the old and the new Chillicothe,
or Che-le-co-the, towns.

There remained a Shawnee village at the mouth of
Scioto, which was then built upon the upper side,
the present site of the city of Portsmouth. During
the existence of the main Indian town just below the
mouth of the Scioto, there was another prominent
settlement at the mouth of a creek about four miles
above the mouth of Kanawha. This town was also
abandoned about the same time as the Scioto town;
whether from the same cause, or for what reason, I
do not know. The creek, at the mouth of which the
town stood, is still known as “ Old Town Creek.”

When Mrs. Ingles and her companion reached the
point opposite the Scioto Shawnee town, they were

 
Trans-Allegheny Pioneers. 55

weary and worn, and almost famished with hunger.
They had subsisted, thus far, on walnuts, hickory-
nuts, grapes, and paw-paws; here they found a corn-
patch and an isolated, untenanted cabin.

As it was about dark when they reached it, they
slept in the cabin—seeing no sign of any one about
it—and enjoyed a hearty supper and breakfast of
corn.

Some nineteen years later Colonel John Floyd
(father of the afterward Governor John Floyd, of
Virginia, and grandfather of Governor John B.
Floyd), then deputy surveyor under Colonel William
Preston, of Draper’s Meadows, or Smithford, father
of the afterward Governor James Preston, of Vir-
ginia, accompanied by Hancock Taylor, uncle of
President Zachary Taylor, located and surveyed for
Patrick Henry, afterward Governor of Virginia, two
hundred acres of land at this place, binding one and
an eighth miles on the river, covering the site of this
cabin, corn-patch, and Indian settlement opposite the
late site of the main town across the river.

Next morning the women discovered an old horse,
with a tinkling bell on its neck, grazing about, loose.
They “appropriated” this horse, muffled the bell
clapper with leaves and rags to prevent its sounding,
gathered what corn they could manage to carry, and
getting away from the neighborhood of the settle- —
ment as quietly and quickly as they could, resumed
their onward movement.

They could plainly see the town and Indians on
the opposite side, but managed to keep themselves

unseen.
The horse was a most valuable acquisition, and a
56 Trans-Allegheny Pioneers.

great comfort to them. Sometimes they rode him on
the “ride and lead” plan, alternating, and sometimes
both would have to walk and lead, depending upon
the nature of the ground and route, whether rough
or smooth, ete.

This day they had a great fright and narrow es-
cape. A party of Indian hunters passed very near
them, but they secreted theinselves and horse as best
they could among the underbrush, to avoid being
seen, and waited until the hunters passed out of
range, when they again moved on.

After several days of travel, having passed the
sites of the future towns of Greenup, Riverton, Ash-
land and Catlettsburg, they reached a stream (the
Big Sandy), which they were unable to cross near its
mouth, and they traveled up it a long distance before
they could cross. At length they came to a lodg-
ment of driftwood, extending clear across the stream.

They tried it and found it would bear their weight,
but what should be done with the horse?

Mrs. Ingles doubted whether he could be gotten
over on the drift, but the Dutch woman insisted that
he could, aud in this case she prevailed, at least to
make the effort. They were already a long way up
the stream; they did not know how much farther
they might have to go before they could ford or wade
it; they thought they might get the horse over (the
wish being, no doubt, parent to the thought), and

_ they tried it.

They had gotten but a short distance from the
shore, however, when his legs slipped down through
the drift, and there he stood, with his feet. hanging
down in the water, and his body resting on the logs
above, unable to extricate himself or to move.
Trans-Allegheny Pioneers. 57

It was a sad case. The loss of the horse was most
serious, and in their feeble, footsore, and famished
condition, might be fatal to them. They were
touched with pity to have to leave the poor creature
in this sorry and helpless plight; but there was no
help for it. There was no choice but to abandon
him to his hapless fate, and try to save themselves.

They each took a little corn from what was left of
their scanty stock, and the old woman, who seems to
have had a very practical and provident turn of
mind, took the bell off the horse, and carried it
through all the after troubles and trials of the journey.
This point of crossing of the river was probably .
about the forks, and near the site of the present town
of Louisa, where fifteen years later, according to Col-
lins, Colonel George Washington located, for John
Fry, 2,084 acres of land, the first survey ever made in
Kentucky. The first settlement made on the Big
Sandy was by Charles Vancouver, at this point in
1789, but the settlement was soon after broken up by
the Indians. :

They now started down the upper or east side of
Big Sandy, and retraced, with weary steps, the dis-
tance to the Ohio again, and thence up it, sometimes
along the river bank, and sometimes along the ridges,
with the river in sight.

As they did with the Big Sandy, so they had to do
with every stream they came-to, from first to last.
When they could not wade the stream at the mouth,
they had to go up it until they could, and many of
the streams required days and days of weary travel
up to a point of practicable crossing, and back again
to the main stream, their only guide, thus increasing
58 Trans-Allegheny Pioneers.

very greatly the distance traveled, perhaps nearly
doubling a direct river line.

Fortunately for them, it was at a season of the year
when the waters were comparatively low, or this
difficulty, serious as it now was, would have been
insurmountable.

Frequently, in going up or down these side streams,
they could see that the stream made a large bend,
and, to save distance, they would go across the ridge,
having to pull themselves up the steep hills by the
bushes and sods, until they reached the top, when,
from fatigue and exhaustion, they would more slide
than walk down, bruising and scratching themselves
severely as they went.

Since the loss of the horse, the old woman had
become greatly disheartened and discouraged. She
became very illnatured to Mrs. Ingles, blaming her
for having pursuaded her to leave the Indians, to
starve and perish in the wilderness.

In her desperation she threatened to kill Mrs. In-
gles, and even attempted violence. The old woman
was, physically, much larger and stronger than Mrs.
Ingles, but the latter was younger and more active,
and managed to keep out of reach, though both were
so exhausted from hunger and fatigue that they
could little more than walk. By gentleness, kind
talk, and delicate little attentions to the old woman,
Mrs. Ingles succeeded, at length, in getting her paci-
fied, and to some extent reconciled, and on they
trudged together again.

The weather was getting cold, and they suffered
greatly from exposure. They had long since worn
out their shoes or moccasins, and their clothes were
Trans-Allegheny Pioneers, 59

worn and torn to shreads and rags by the bushes,
briars, etc. At nights they slept under shelving
rocks or in hollow logs, on leaves, moss, or such stuff
as they could rake together.

When they failed to find nuts and berries enough to
sustain them, they were often driven by hunger to
pull up small shrubs or plants, and chew such as had
tender bark on their roots, without the slightest idea
of what they were, or what their effects might be;
the cravings of hunger must be appeased by what-
ever they could chew and swallow. On one occasion
they found, on the drift, in some stream, a deer’s
head, probably cut off and thrown away by the In-
dians. This they made a meal of, though it was
considerably advanced in decomposition, and strongly
odorous.

They protected their feet, as best they could, by
wrapping them with strips torn from what was left
of their dresses, and tied on with strings made from
the soft, flexible bark of the young leather-wood
shrub.
CHAPTER XI.

OILING along in this sorry plight day after day,
yt having passed the present sites of Huntington
and Guyandotte, and crossed Guyandotte River, passed
Green Bottom, where Thomas Hannon, in 1796, made
the first white settlement within the present limits of
Cabell County, the first on the Ohio River from the
KXanawha to the Big Sandy, opposite the site of
Gallipolis, and under the noted cliff over which Ben.
Eulin, years after, made his famous fifty-three feet
leap, when pursued by Indians, and was saved from
death by falling in the tops of paw-paw bushes and
grape vines, they at length reached the mouth of
the Kanawha River, not then so called, but New
River, or Wood’s River, as they knew it, or the
“Chinodachetha” as the French had then recently
named it.

This point was well remembered by Mrs. Ingles,
and the sight of it again, under such circumstances,
after her terrible experiences and sufferings for the
past few months, stirred within her breast a flood of
painful recollections and reflections, and a terrible
struggle between hope and despair. Here, at last,
after all she had gone through on this desperate effort
to regain her liberty and home, was the river that led
on to that home and the friends from whom she had
been torn by savage hands.

These waters came down from them, but brought
her no tidings.

 
Trans-Allegheny Pioneers. 61

If she could but follow up the stream, it would lead
her to them, if, indeed, they still survived; but could
she ever get there? It seemed impossible, weary and
worn as she was by toil and anxiety, reduced as she
was by exposure, cold and starvation, and her com-
panion, instead of being an aid and comfort to her,
had now become a source of danger and dread; but
her situation was too horrible to let her mind dwell
upon it. She dared not count the odds or weigh the
chances too closely. She knew that these odds and
chances were largely against her. She knew that
there was constant danger from savage Indians, for
this was a favorite route for their raids into the Vir-
ginia settlements, danger from wild beasts, from
starvation, cold, exposure and sickness, and danger
from her companion. To give up, or delay, was cer-
tain death; to press on was, at least, going in the
direction of relief, and of home and friends. She
summoned to her aid all her resolution for another
effort, and again the toilsome journey was resumed.

Day after day they dragged their weary limbs
along, suffering and starving; night after night they
shivered, starved and suffered, crawling into hollow
logs or hollow trees as a partial protection from the
increasing cold, and thus they traversed this now
beautiful valley, then an unbroken wilderness, never
penetrated by foot of white person, until Mrs. Ingles
~ and others passed through it, a few months before, as
prisoners.

In those days herds of buffalo and’ elk roamed
through these valleys and over the hills. There were
well beaten paths where they passed through the low
gaps, between the hills, on their way to and trom the
62 Trans-Allegheny Pioneers.

Salt Licks or Springs, traces of which were visible to
within recent years.

The last buffalo killed in this valley was by Archi-
bald Price, on the waters of Little Sandy Creek of
Elk River, about twelve miles from Charleston, in
1815. The last elk killed in the valley, and probably
the last east of the Ohio River, was by Billy Young,
on Two Mile Creek of Elk River, about five and a
half miles from Charleston, in 1820. One of our
venerable citizens, Mr. John Slack, Sr., then a small
boy, still alive and vigorous, remembers this elk and
its huge horns between which a man c>uld walk up-
right, and ate a part of the game.

It is said that vast herds of buffalo summered in
the Kanawha Valley, “in an early day,” within
reach of the Salt Spring, or “ Big Buffalo Lick,” as
it was called, and in the fall, went to the grass regions
of Ohio and Kentucky, and the cane brakes of the
Kentucky streams. Their routes were—for Kentucky,’
down through Teays’ Valley, and for Ohio, down
Kanawha to Thirteen Mile Creek, and over to Letart,
where they crossed the Ohio River. Colonel Croghan,
who came down the Ohio in a boat in 1765, encoun-
tered a vast migrating heard crossing at Letart.

TENANTS OF THE FOREST.

It is curious to note what changes occurred in the
tenantry of the forest upon the advent of the white
man. The Indians, after a bloody and desperate re-
sistance, were driven back. The buffalo, deer, elk,
bears and panthers, probably feeling themselves
unequal to the contest, tamely submitted to the
inevitable, and passed on. Wolves were extremely
Trans-Allegheny Pioneers. ~ 63

numerous “in an early day,” but soon became almost
extinct. Dr. Doddridge, one of the most observant
of the early pioneers, thinks this was occasioned,
more than all other causes put together, by hydro-
phobia. Probably this was introduced among them
by the dogs of the white man. Carnivorous birds,
as eagles and buzzards, were very numerous, but
rapidly diminished in numbers. Wild turkeys were
extremely abundant, but were soon “cleaned out.”
Venomous snakes were numerous, and held their
own with some tenacity.

Gray and black squirrels were very numerous, and,
for a time, seemed rather to increase than diminish,
and were very destructive to the early corn fields.
Every few years, moved by one of the inexplicable .
instincts of animals, they migrated, in countless
numbers, from west to east.

There were no crows nor black birds in the wilder-
ness, and no song birds, but they soon followed in
-the wake of the white man. There were no rats,
but they soon followed. *Possoms were later com-
ing, and the fox squirrels still later. There were no
wild honey bees, but they came in with the whites,
keeping a little in advance.

The famishing women daily saw plenty of game
and wild animals, but only to be tantalized by them.
They could make no use of them. They were only
too glad to be let alone by the frightful beasts.

As they passed the mouth of Kanawha, they passed
in sight of the afterwards bloody battle ground of
Point Pleasant, which will be treated of at length in
a separate chapter.

About eighteen years later (in 1773) there was
64 Trans-Allegheny Pioneers,

much discussion in the country in reference to estab-
lishing a separate colony in the west, with the seat of
government at the mouth of Kanawha.

General Washington, who owned tracts containing
about 30,000 acres of land on the Kanawha and Ohio
Rivers, among them a tract of over 10,000 acres on
both sides of the Kanawha, commencing a short dis-
tance above the mouth, in advertising to sell or
lease the latter, in 1773, says, in conclusion:

“ And it may not be amiss, further to observe, that
if the scheme for establishing a new government on
the Ohio, in the manner talked of, should ever be
effected, these must be among the most valuable lands
in it, not only on account of the goodness of the soil
and other advantages above mentioned, but from
their contiguity to the seat of government which, it
is more than probable, will be fixed at the mouth of

the Great Kanawha.
paras “@zrorce WASHINGTON.”

A few years earlier, Washington and the Lee’s,
says Payton, were figuring on a gigantic land scheme
in the west. They formed a land company called
“The Mississippi Company,” and they modestly asked
George III. for a grant of two and a half mil-
lion acres inthe West. The company was composed
of George Washington, F. L. Lee, R. H. Lee and
Arthur Lee. From about 1767 to 1769 or 1770,
Washington had Colonel Crawford through the west,
off and on, examining and making notes of the best
bodies of lands. In 1769, Arthur Lee went over to
urge the claims of the Mississippi Company, in per-
son, before George IIT. and the parliament.

The grant was not made, and the scheme was finally
Trans-Allegheny Pioneers. 65

abandoned. But suppose it had succeeded, how differ-
ent might have been the history of our country!
Washington and the Lees might have been the
ruling spirits in a great Western Republic, with the
seat of government at Point Pleasant.

The country west of the Ohio was then sometimes
called the “State of Washington.” In 1787, the
Legislature of Virginia, in granting a ferry franchise
across the Ohio River, says, from lands of so and so,
in Ohio County, Virginia, to lands of so and so, in
the “State of Washington.”

From Point Pleasant the fugitives passed up on
the lower or west side of Kanawha, passing opposite
the present towns of Leon, Buffalo, Red House and
Raymond City, all now built up on the east side,
passed by Tackett’s Knob, and the famous pine tree
to which Tackett was tied by the Indians, in after
years; over the site of Winfield, the present county
seat of Putnum County, ete.

In passing the mouth of Scary Creek, where the
Chesapeake & Ohio Railway now leaves the river, they
passsed the site of the first, or one of the very first,
battles fought between the Federals and Confederates
in the late civil war, being on the 17th of July, 1861,
and one week before the first battle of “Bull Run.”
The Federals were commanded by Colonel Norton,
and the Confederates were under the immediate com-
mand of Captain (afterwards Colonel) George S.
Patton. Both commanders were wounded; twelve
Federals were killed, and three Confederates. Gen-
eral Henry A. Wise was then in supreme command
of the Kanawha forces, with Colonel C. Q. Tomp-
kins next in command.

5
66 Trans-Allegheny Pioneers.

At the mouth of Coal River the fugitives passed, on
the lower side, the future site of Fort Tackett, one of
the first forts built in the valley, when the white set-
tlements began, and the scene of a bloody tragedy
and capture of the fort by the Indians. In after
years (1788), from this fort, under cover of dark-
ness, John Young escaped, taking in his arms his
young wife with a babe of one day old, and the bed
or pallet on which she lay, put them in a canoe,
and, during the night, through a drenching rain-
storm, poled the canoe up to the fort where Charles-
ton now stands. Neither father, mother, nor babe
suffered from the exposure, the mother lived to be
about ninety, and the babe lived to be over ninety,
dying but a few years since, leaving a large family of
worthy descendants in this valley.

Above the mouth of Coal River the fugitive wo- |
men passed the site of the present town of St. Albans,
a Chesapeake & Ohio Railway station.

They had to go up Coal River until they could
wade it, as they had done with Licking, Little Sandy,
Big Sandy, Guyandotte, Twelve Pole, and other
streams. Twelve miles above Coal River, they passed
opposite the mouth of Elk River, two miles up which,
Simon Kenton, the afterwards renowned pioneer and
Indian fighter, and two companions, Yeager and
Strader, sixteen years later (1771), built a cabin, and
occupied it; engaged in hunting and trapping until
the spring of 1773, when they were attacked by In-
dians. Yeager was killed, and Kenton and Strader
both wounded, though they made their escape to a
hunting camp at the mouth of the Kanawha.

So far as known, Simon Kenton and companions

 
Trans-Allegheny Pioneers. 67

were the first white men who ever built a cabin or
camp and lived in the valley. Mrs. Ingles and com-
panions having been the first white persons ever
here, as above stated.

Immediately above the mouth of Eli River, they
passed opposite the site of the present city of
Charlegton, the capitol of West Virginia, and where
I now write. Here, Fort Clendenin was afterwards
saved from Indian capture by the heroism of a brave
little woman, Ann Bailey, who rode her black pony,
called “ Liverpool,” to the fort at Lewisburg, called
Camp Union or Fort Savannah, one hundred miles
distant, through a wilderness, and back, alone, bring-
ing the besieged a supply of powder, ete.

Between four and five miles above here, they
passed the spot where, thirty odd years later, that
prince of pioneers and frontiersmen, Daniel Boone,
built a cabin and lived for ten or twelve years. See
chapter on Boone.

- Opposite this, and just above the mouth of Camp-
bell’s Creek, was the Salt Spring where Mrs. Ingles
and her companions and captors had stopped to rest
and make salt, as they passed down, some months
before, as above stated.

For many years after the settlement of the country,
this locality was the chief source of supply of salt
for the great West, until the Pomeroy salt region, and
afterwards Saginaw, Michigan, were developed. For
full history of the salt interest of Kanawha, see a
paper by the author, published by the State, in “ Re-
sources of West Virginia.”

Ten miles further up the river, having passed oppo-
site the afterwards noted Burning Spring, ‘first
68 Trans-Allegheny Pioneers.

located and owned by Generals Washington and
Lewis, in 1775. General Washington in his will, in
speaking of this tract says: “The tract of which
the 125 acres is a moiety, was taken up by General
Andrew Lewis and myself, for and on account of a
bituminous spring which it contains, of so inflam-
mable a nature as to burn as freely as spirits, and is
nearly as difficult to extinguish.” General Washing-
ton gave, or intended to give, to the public forever,
as a great natural curiosity, two acres of land embrac-
ing the Burning Spring, and a right of way to the
river; but from oversight, or other reason not now
known, the grant was never put on record, and Dr.
Lawrence Washington, nephew of his uncle, and to
whom it descended, sold it to Messrs. Dickinson &
Shrewsberry, who, in 18438, bored on it, striking the
largest yield of natural gas ever tapped in the valley.

BURNING SPRING.

While on the subject of this spring, I will mention
a curious and interesting fact that occurred here in
1831 or 1832. Three men who had but recently come
to the neighborhood, and were employed at a salt
furnace, close by, were standing around the wonderful
spring, watching with amazement and awe the bub-
bling and boiling of the water, and the gasseous
flames leaping up from its surface, when, suddenly,
there came, from a passing cloud, a flash of lightning,
aud an electrical stroke, or discharge, right into the
spring. The shock instantly prostrating the three
meu standing around it. One, who was least stunned,
soon got up and ran to the furnace and gave the
alarm. A second one, after a little time, was able to
Trans-Allegheny Pioneers. 69

hobble off without help; but the third had to be
carried home on a stretcher, and was so seriously
shocked that he never entirely recovered from the
effects of it. One of our elderly citizens, Mr. Silas
Ruffner, was present, and a witness of the facts related.

It may be well to explain, for those who do not
understand it, that the Burning Spring was not actu-
ally a spring of flowing water, but simply a pool, or
puddle, up through which issued a stream of natural
gas, keeping the water in bubbling motion, resem-
bling boiling, and the gas, upon being lighted, would
burn ’til put out by rain, or blown out by the wind.

Having passed the mouths of Rush, Lens, Fields
and Slaughters Creeks, they (the escaping women)
next passed the mouth of Cabin Creek, where, about
twenty years later, the family of John Flinn, one of
the earliest settlers, was in part killed, and the
remainder captured by the Indians, for more particu-
lars of which, see chapter on Boone.

Four miles above here they passed the mouth of
Kelly’s Creek, where, in 1773, Walter Kelly made the
first family settlement in the valley, and where, in
the following year, he lost his life, as elsewhere re-
lated. At this place William Morris founded a per-
manent settlement soon after Kelly’s death, and built
Fort Morris, the first in the valley. The Kelly cabin
stood near a ravine, a few rods above, and the
Morris Fort on the creek, about 150 yards below the
present Tomkins brick church. About the same
time his brother, Leonard Morris, made a settlement
at the mouth of Slaughters Creek, and not long after,
Henry Morris, another brother, settled on Peters
Creek of Gauley.
70 Trans-Allegheny Pioneers.

Three miles above Kellys Creek, the fugitives
passed the mouth of Paint Creek, the route of the
Indian trail down which Mrs. Ingles and her captors
came, some months before.

About the mouth of Paint Creek there seems to
have been a large and very ancient aboriginal settle-
ment. There are still remains of extensive stone
fortifications on the high hill above the creek, and
similar and larger ones, acres in extent, on the high
mountain between Armstrong and Loup Creeks, and
from an old burying ground, at the river, about the
town of Clifton, are still unearthed, from time to
time, interesting relics of the “Stone age,” or Mound-
builder period. .

Fourteen miles above Paint Creek, having passed
the present sites of Coal Valley and Cannelton, Mor-
ris, Armstrong and Loup Creeks, they passed the Falls
of the Great Kanawha—over ‘Van Bibber’s Rock,”
where, in 1773, John and Peter Van Bibber, Mathiew
Arbuckle and Joseph Alderson spent a night under a
shelving rock near the water’s edge, just under the
Falls, to secrete themselves from a party of Indians,
whose sign they had discovered, and where John
Van Bibber pecked his name in the rock with the
pole of his tomahawk. This fact is related by David
Van Bibber, “nephew of his uncle,” still living, and
about ninety.
 

FALLS OF THE GREAT KANAWHA.
 
 

New RIver CANON.
CHAPTER XII.

ee miles above the Falls, the fugitives passed, on
the opposite side, the mouth of Gauley River, and
thence out of the Kanawha Valley proper, and entered
the grand canyon of New River.

How did they ever get through it? Can the Rail-
road Engineers who located the C. & O. Road, or the
contractors and others who built it, or any body who
ever looked down into that awful chasm from the cliffs
and precipitous mountains, 1,000 to 1,500 feet above,
or ever looked out at it from the windows of a Chesa-
peake & Ohio Railway car—can any of these, looking
back, in imagination, to the time when all this wild
scene was in a state of nature, tell how these destitute
and famished, but heroic women ever made the pas-
sage of this terrible gorge from Gauley to Greenbriar?
Or conceive of the amount of daring and desperation
it required to nerve them to the effort? The how
can not now be told in full detail, but the simple
and comprehensive answer is: They did it and sur-
vived.

They passed up by Penitentiary Rocks, the Little
Falls, Cotton Hill, the Blue Hole, the Pope’s Nose,
the Short. Tunnel, the Lovers’ Leap, the Hawk’s
Nest, Sewell, Quimemout, War Ridge, Fire Creek,
Stone Cliff, Castle Rock, Stretcher’s Neck, Piney,
Glade Creek, New River Falls, etc., ete.—all name-
less then.
72 Trans-Allegheny Pioneers,

They walked, climbed, crept and crawled, through
brush and thorns, vines and briars, over and around
the huge rocks that have tumbled down from the
towering cliffs above, and the avalanches of debris
that followed their crushing courses—climbed under
or over fallen timber, over slippery banks and inse-
cure footings, wading creeks that had to be crossed,
wading around cliffs and steep banks that jutted out
into the main stream, and when this was impossible,
as was sometimes the case, they had to climb over or
around the obstruction, however high, however diffi-
cult, however tedious, however dangerous, looking
down from the dizzy heights upon the rushing, roaring
torrents of New River below, madly dashing against
the huge rocks and bowlders that obstruct its course,
and lashing the bases of the cliffs and the tortuous
shores as it furiously rushes on.

Suppose, in this terrible struggle, these poor, ee
weary and foot-sore women had, in their unrestful
slumbers, on couches of leaves or bare earth, in caves
or hollow logs, dreamed that their great-grandchil-
dren would now be gliding through this wild canyon,
the roughest this side of the Rocky Mountains, in
luxurious Pullman Palace Cars, at the rate of forty
miles an hour—outspeeding the wind—and that time
and distance should be annihilated in sending mes-
sages through it to far away friends! They probably
did not, in their wildest flights, even dream anything
so seemingly impossible; and yet, how strangely
true it is!
 

View oF Hawx’s NEST, FROM BOWLDER Rocks.
iy :

;
Wd he
ame

 

 

VIEW OF NEW RIVER, FROM THE HAwk’s NEST.
=e

SSS
a  SS=>>= =
S== ———

=
SSS SS

SSS ———

 

NEw RIVER FaLtLs.

—— SSS =
 

 

SCENE NEAR HINTON.
 

JUNCTION OF NEW AND GREENBRIAR RIVERS.
CHAPTER XIII.

S they progressed, the way became a little less

rough, the mountains a little less precipitous,
and the river began to be fringed, here and there,
with little, narrow margins of bottoms. They seemed
to have passed the worst portion of the New River
gorge. They had passed opposite the site of the
present town of Hinton and the mouth of Greenbriar
River, where the Chesapeake & Ohio Railway leaves
New River, and passed the butte of the Big Flat Top
Mountain.

They next came to the mouth of Blue Stone River,
which was a land-mark and remembered point to
Mrs. Ingles. Here she and her captors had left the
New River on the down trip, and taken the Blue
Stone Paint Creek Indian trail.

She experienced a strong sense of relief on again
reaching this point. She knew about how long it
had taken her to reach here on her down trip, and
she began to count the weary days that it might take
to retrace those steps; if, indeed, she could hold out
to accomplish it at all.

When she came down she had health and vigor ;
now she was hardly able to walk, and scarcely more
than the shadow of her former self; but, however
desperate her condition, there was no help for it but
in pushing forward. If there was relief in any
direction, it was up New River. Hope beckoned up
74 Trans-Allegheny Pioneers.

New River, and up New River they struggled on, still
following up the west bank.

They had passed Flat Top Mountain, Blue Stone
River, Indian Creek, ete., and were about the mouth
of East River, up which the New River branch of
the Norfolk & Western Railroad now runs, when
the old woman again became desperate, and this time
more dangerous than ever. In the extremity of her
suffering from starvation and exhaustion she threat-
ened to kill Mrs. Ingles with’ cannibalistic intent.
Mrs. Ingles tried temporizing, by proposing to “draw
euts”’ to determine which one should be the victim;
to this the old woman consented. The lot fell to
Mrs. Ingles; she then appealed to the old woman’s
cupidity by offering her large rewards when they got
home, if she would spare her; but the pangs of pres-
ent hunger were more potent than the hope of future
gain, and she undertook, then and there, to immolate
her victim. She succeeded in getting Mrs. Ingles in
her grasp, and it became a struggle for life or death.

How sad that these poor women, after all they had
suffered and endured together, should now, in that
vast solitude, alone, with no eye to see, nor hand to
save or aid, be engaged in a hand to hand, life or
death struggle!

The old woman, to prevent death by starvation,
would kill her companion for food, while Mrs. Ingles
was trying to save her life from the murderous hand
of her companion, probably to die a lingering death
from starvation; the choice seemed worth but little.

If they had had more strength, the result might
have been more serious; or, possibly, fatal to one or
both. But both were so feeble that neither had done
Trans-Allegheny Pioneers. 75

the other much hurt until Mrs. Ingles, being much
the younger (she was then but 23), and, by compari-
son, still somewhat more active, succeeded in escaplag
from the clutches of her adversary, and started on up
the river, leaving the old woman greatly exhausted
by the struggle.

When well out of sight, she slipped under the
river bank and secreted herself until the old woman
had recovered breath and passed on, supposing that
Mrs. Ingles was still in advance.

This scene occurred late in the evening, between
sundown and dark.

When Mrs. Ingles emerged from her concealment,
the moon was up and shining brightly, and by its light
she discovered, near at hand, a canoe at the river
bank, half full of leaves blown into it by the wind;
but there was no paddle, oar or pole; as a sub-
stitute, she picked up, after some search, a small
slab or sliver from a shattered tree, blown down by
storm.

She had never before undertaken, literally, to
“paddle her own canoe,” and found much difficulty,
at first, in guiding it; but, persevering patiently,
she caught the knack of steering it, and as the river
was low, and not much current at the place, she
succeeded in making her way safely across.

Here, to her great relief, she found a cabin or
camp that had been built by some hunters from the
settlements above, and a patch where they had
attempted to raisesome corn. Seeing no one about—
the place being deserted—she crept into the cabin
and spent the night.

Next morning she searched the patch for some
76 Trans-Allegheny Pioneers.

corn, but was sadly disappointed to find that the
buffalo, bears, and other wild animals, had utterly
destroyed it; she discovered in the ground, however,
two small turnips which the animals had failed to
find, and on these she made a sumptuous breakfast.
Resuming her now solitary journey, she had gone
but a short distance when she discovered her late
companion on the opposite shore. They halted and
held a parley. The old woman professed great
remorse and penitence, made all sorts of fair promises
for the future, and begged piteously to be brought
over, or that Mrs. Ingles would come back to her,
that they might continue their journey together.
With Mrs. Ingles it was a question between sym-
pathy and safety, but a wise discretion prevailed.
After all that had occurred, she concluded that it
would be safer to keep the river between them, and,
accordingly, each went her way on opposite sides.
CHAPTER XIV.

ieee the best reckoning Mrs. Ingles could make,

she concluded that she must now be within about
thirty miles of her home; but much of the remain-
der of the way was extremely rough, the weather
was growing colder, and, worse than all, her physical
exhaustion was now so extreme that it seemed impos-
sible that she could continue the struggle much
longer. She feared that, after all she had suffered
and borne, she would at last have to succumb to
hunger, exposure and fatigue, and perish in the wil-
derness, alone.

As her physical strength waned, however, her
strong will power bore her up and on, and Hope
sustained her as wearily and painfully she made mile
after mile, eating what she could find in the forest,
if anything; sleeping when and where she could,
if at all.

She had passed up through the “ New River Nar-
rows,” the great rift where New River has cut its
way through the solid “ Peter’s Mountain” (so named
at the eastern end for Peter Wright, a famous old
hunter and pioneer, but here named after a pioneer
family named Peters). It is one of the wildest
scenes in thé State. She had passed the butte of
Wolf Mountain and the mouth of Wolf Creek.
Near here Peterstown, on the east side, has since been
built. She had passed near the present site of Giles
78 Trans-Allegheny Pioneers.

C. H., and nearly under the shadows of the towering
“ Angel’s Rest” Mountain, on the west side (so
named by General Cloyd), 4,000 feet high, with its
rock-ribbed sides, and castellated towers, said to
strongly resemble Mount Sinai, but it brought no
rest nor peace to her.

She had passed the cliff near Giles C. H., had
crawled around or over the huge cliffs just below
the mouth of Stony Creek. She had by some means
gotten beyond that grand wall of cliff jutting into
the river for two miles, extending from opposite
Walker’s Creek to Doe Creek, and, two miles above
this, another seemingly impassable cliff had been
scaled. She had gotten about two miles beyond
these last-named cliffs, and was near the base of the
“Salt Pond Mountain,” with its beautiful lake near
its summit, 4,000 feet above tide, and one of the
greatest natural curiosities of the State; but her mind
was not occupied with the grandeur of the scenery,
nor the beauty of these then nameless localities she
was passing; she only knew that each one passed
put her that much nearer home—sweet home!

Night was approaching; snow had fallen, and it
was bitterly cold (it was now about the last of No-
vember); just before her she was confronted by still
another gigantic cliff, hundreds of feet high, the base
in the water and the crown overhanging. At last
her progress seemed utterly barred; there were no
ledges, no shelving rocks, no foot-holds of any kind
to climb around on. The only chance left, it seemed,
was to wade around the base, as she had done in
other cases; this she tried, but found that, to her, it
was an unfathomable gulf.
Trans-Allegheny Pioneers. 79

Her heart sank within her; night was now upon
her; cold before, she was now wet and colder still.
She had nothing to eat; she could find no soft couch
of leaves, no friendly cave or hollow log.

In despair, she threw herself down on the bare
ground and rocks, and there lay in that pitiable con-
dition, more dead than alive, until next morning.

With the dawning of the day there was a feeble
revival of hope—for while we live we will hope.
She thought of the only possible remaining way of
passing this gigantic barrier; this was to climb
around and over the top of it, but in attempting to
rise she found that her limbs were so stiff, and swollen,
and sore from the wet, cold and exposure that she
could scarcely stand, much less walk or climb. Still,
there was no choice; if she could she must, so again
she tried.

Slowly, as the effort and exercise relieved her
somewhat from the paralyzing chill, she wound her
devious, tedious and painful way, hour after hour,
getting a little higher, and a little higher. So feeble
and faint from hunger, such soreness and pain from
her lacerated feet and swollen limbs, that from time
to time she looked down from her dizzy heights,
almost tempted, from sheer exhaustion and suffering,
to let go and tumble down to sudden relief and ever-
lasting rest. ;

Climbing: and resting, resting and climbing, she
at last reached the summit, and the day was far
spent.

While resting here, her thoughts had wandered on
up the river to her home and friends. She knew
that she must now be within twelve or fifteen miles
80 Trans-Allegheny Pioneers.

of that home. “So near and yet so far.” If she had
strength, how quickly she would fly to it; but, alas!
in her now desperate and deplorable condition the
chance of reaching it seemed fainter, even, than
when she left Big Bone Lick with strength, hope
and resolution. Now, she did not know what hour
her powers might utterly fail; what minute nature
might yield and she would be lost.

As long as she lived, Mrs. Ingles always referred
to this as the most terrible day of her eventful life.
 

ANVIL CLIFF.

 

CHSAR’S ARCH.
CHAPTER XV.

gf | ROUSING herself again to the necessities of the

hour, she started on her painful and perilous
descent; crawling, falling, slipping and sliding, she
at length reached the bottom as the day was about
departing.

I have talked with a friend of mine, born and
reared in this neighborhood, and who is perfectly
familiar with all this part of New River. He tells
me that this cliff is 280 feet high to the top, meas-
ured, the first 100 feet overhanging, and that the
water in the pool at the base has never been fathomed.
He had often tried it in his youth, with long poles
and with weighted lines, but never got bottom.
There is, he says, a whirl-pool, or sort of maelstrom,
here, down into which, when the river is high, logs,
driftwood, ete., are drawn, coming up again some
distance below. No wonder Mrs. Ingles could not
wade around the cliff; no wonder it took her a whole
day, in her exhausted condition, to climb over it.

The highest point of this front. cliff, from some
real or fancied resemblance to a huge anvil, is called
“Anvil Rock.” Just across the river, in a corre-
sponding cliff—all of the blue limestone—is a natural
arch, which is called “Cresar’s Arch.” and near it a
natural column called “Pompey’s Pillar.”

“Sinking Creek,” a considerable stream, which, in
low water,’ loses itself under ground some miles in.

6
82° Trans-Allegheny Pioneers.

the rear, finds its cavernous way under the moun-
tains and into the river, below the surface, in the
deep pool at the base of Anvil Rock cliff. In fresh-
ets, the surplus water finds its way to the river three-
fourths of a mile below.

Mrs. Ingles, after getting to the bottom of the cliff,
had gone but a short distance when, to her joyful
surprise, she discovered, just before her, a patch of
corn. She approached it as rapidly as she could
move her painful limbs along. °

She saw no one, but there were evident signs of
persons about. She hallooed; at first there was no
response, but relief was near at hand. She was about
to be saved, and just in time.

She had been heard by Adam Harmon and his
two sons, whose patch it was, and who were in it
gathering their corn.

Suspecting, upon hearing a voice, that there might
be an intended attack by Indians, they grabbed their
rifles, always kept close at hand, and listened at-
tentively.

Mrs. Ingles hallooed again. They came out of the
corn and towards her, cautiously, rifles in hand.
When near enough to distinguish the voice—Mrs.
Ingles still hallooing—Adam Harmon remarked to
his sons: “Surely, that must be Mrs. Ingles’ voice.”
Just then she, too, recognized Harmon, when she
was overwhelmed with emotions of joy and relief—
poor, overtaxed nature gave way, and she swooned
and fell, insensible, to the ground.

They picked her up tenderly and conveyed her to
to their little cabin, near at hand, where there was
protection from the storm, a rousing fire and sub-
stantial comfort.
Trans-A legheny Pioneers. 83 .

Mrs. Ingles soon revived, and the Harmons were
unremitting in their kind attentions and efforts to
promote her comfort.

They had in their cabin a stock of fresh venison
and bear meat; they set to work to cook and make
a soup of some of this, and, with excellent judg-
ment, would permit their patient to take but little at
a time, in her famished condition.

While answering her hurried questions as to what
they knew about her home and friends, they warmed
some water in their skillet and bathed her stiff and.
swollen feet and limbs, after which they wrapped her
in their blankets and stowed her away tenderly on
their pallet in the corner, which to her, by compari-
‘son, was “soft as downy pillows are,” and a degree of
luxury she had not experienced since she was torn
from her own home by ruthless savages, more than
four months before.

Under these new and favoring conditions of safety
and comfort, it is no wonder that “nature’s sweet
restorer” soon came to her relief and bathed her
wearied senses and aching limbs in balmy, restful
and refreshing sleep.
CHAPTER XVI.

TV\ RS. INGLES had not seen a fire for forty days
(since leaving Big Bone Lick); she had not
tasted food, except nuts, corn and berries, for forty
days; she had not known shelter, except caves, or
hollow logs, or deserted camps, for forty days;
she had not known a bed, except the bare earth, or
leaves or moss, for forty days. She had been con-
stantly exposed to the danger of recapture and death
by the savages; danger from wild beasts, from sick:
ness, accident, exposure and starvation, and danger
from her companion. Yet, notwithstanding all these,
she had, within these forty days, run, walked, crawled,
climbed and waded seven or eight hundred miles, in-
cluding detours up and down side streams, through
a howling wilderness, and was saved at last.

Dr. Tanner’s forty days’ fast, the conditions and
circumstances considered, dwindles into insignifi-
cance compared with this. Indeed, I do not know,
in all history, the record of a more wonderful and
heroic performance than that of this brave little
woman, all things considered.

It is said to be as heroic to endure as to dare; then
Mrs. Ingles was doubly heroic, for she dargd and
endured all that human can.

The immortal “Six Hundred” who “rode into the
gates of death and the jaws of hell” were soldiers,
under military discipline. When commanded, they
Trans-Allegheny Pioneers. 85

knew only to obey; they were accustomed to deeds
of daring and death. They knew their duty and
they did it—grandly, nobly, heroically. When or-
dered to charge, they nerved themselves for the
shock, which could last but afew minutes. Death
might come to them within these few minutes; in-
deed, probably would; but if it came, would be
sudden and almost painless, and if they escaped, the
strain would soon be over, and glory awaited them.

Not so with Mrs. Ingles. This delicate woman,
reared in comfort and ease, and unaccustomed to
hardships, being in the hands of savages, in a vast
wilderness, beyond civilization and beyond human
aid, coolly and deliberately resolved to attempt her
escape, knowing that the odds were overwhelmingly
against her; knowing that if recaptured, she would
suffer death by torture, and if she escaped recapture
it would probably be to suffer a lingering death by

_ exposure, fatigue and starvation; but her resolution
was fixed; she nerved herself, not for the struggle of
a few minutes only, but they were strung to a ten-
sion that must be sustained at the highest pitch, by
heroic fortitude, for weeks—possibly for months—of
mental anxiety and physical suffering, whether she
finally escaped or perished.

But, to return to the Harmon cabin.

Mrs. Ingles awoke next morning greatly rested
and refreshed. . She called to Harmon and told him
of her experience with the old woman, her com-
panion, and begged him to send his boys back down
the river in search of her, but the boys, having heard
Mrs. Ingles relate the story of her adventure with
the old woman, and, very naturally, feeling outraged
86 Trans-Allegheny Pioneers.

and indignant at her conduct, refused to go, and
Harmon, sharing their feelings, declined to compel
them; so the old woman was left, for the present, to
make her own way, aa best she could.

Harmon and his sons had been neighbors of Mrs.
Ingles at Draper’s Meadows, before her capture, and
before they came down here to make this new clear-
ing and settlement. As neighbors on a frontier,
where neighbors are scarce, they had known each
other well.

Harmon considered no attention, labor or pains
too great to testify his friendship for Mrs. Ingles and
tender regard for her distressful condition. He had
brought to this new camp, when he came, two horses
and a few cattle to range on the rich wild pea vine
which grew here luxuriantly.

He had heard in his time, and it impressed itself
upon his memory, that beef tea was the best of all
nourishing and strengthening diets and restoratives
for persons in a famished and exhausted condition;
so, although he had, as before stated, plenty of nice,
fresh game meat in his cabin, he took his rifle, and,
against the protests of Mrs. Ingles, went out, hunted
up and shot down a nice, fat beef, to get a little
piece as big as his hand, to boil in his tin cup, to
make her some beef tea, and make it he did, feeding
her, first with the tea alone, and then with tea and
beef, until within a couple of days, thanks to
her naturally robust constitution and health, she
was sufficiently recovered, rested and strengthened to
travel; when he put her on one of his horses, himself
taking the other, and started with her to her home
at Draper’s Meadows, some ten or twelve miles dis-
 Trans-Allegheny Pioneers. 87

tant, up the river; but when they arrived at the
settlement there was an Indian alarm, and all the
neighbors had congregated at a fort at ‘“Dunkard
Bottom,” on the west side of the river, a short dis-
tance above “ Ingles’ Ferry,” so they went on to this
place, arriving about night, and Mrs. Ingles had,
with glad surprise, a joyful meeting with such of
her friends as were present in the fort.
CHAPTER XVII.

HE next morning, after arriving at the Fort, Mrs.
Ingles again begged Harmon, now that he had
restored her to her friends, to comfort and safety, to
go back and hunt for the poor old woman, and, if
still alive, to bring her in. This he now consented
to do, and started promptly, down the west bank of
the river.

A few miles after she and Mrs. Ingles had parted
company the old woman met with a genuine piece of
good luck. She came upon a hunters’ camp, just
abandoned, apparently precipitately, for what reason
she could not tell—possibly from an Indian alarm—
but they had left on the fire a kettle of meat, cook-
ing, to which she addressed herself assiduously.

She remained here two or three days, resting, eating
and recuperating her strength. The hunters had left
at the camp an old pair of leather breeches; these the
old woman appropriated to her own personal use
and adornment, being by no means fastidious about
the fit, or the lastest style of cut, or fashion, her own

clothes being almost entirely gone.
An old horse had also been left by the supposed

hunters, loose about the camp, but no sign of saddle
or bridle.

The old woman remained at the camp, its sole
occupant (no one putting in an appearance while she
was there) until she had consumed all the meat'in
Trans-Allegheny Pioneers. 89

the pot; she then made a sort of bridle or halter of
leatherwood bark, caught the old horse, put on him
that same bell which was found on the horse cap-
tured opposite Scioto, and taken off by the practical-
minded old woman when that horse had been aban-
doned to his fate among the drift logs in Big Sandy,
and carried through all her terrible struggles and
suffering to this place.

Having taken the wrapper from around the clap-
per, and so hung the bell on the horse’s neck that it
would tinkle as he went, as, being so near the settle-
ment, she now hoped to meet settlers or hunters, she
mounted him, riding in the style best adapted to her
newly acquired dress of leather unmentionables, and
again started up the river on her way to the then
frontier settlement.

Thus slowly jogging along, hallooing from time to
time to attract the attention of any one who might
be within hearing, she was met in this plight, about
the “Horse Shoe,’ or mouth of Back Creek, oppo-
site “Buchanan’s Bottom,’ by Adam Harmon, in
search of her, and taken on to the Fort.

The meeting between Mrs. Ingles and the old
woman was very affecting.

Their last parting had been in a hand to hand
struggle for life or death—not instigated by malice
or vindictiveness, but by that first great law of

‘nature, self-preservation, that recognizes no human
law; but now that they were both saved, this little
episode was tacitly considered as forgotten. Remem-
bering only the common dangers they had braved,
and the common sufferings they had endured to-
gether in the inhospitable wilderness, they fell upon
90 Trans-Allegheny Pioneers.

each other’s necks and wept, and all was reconcilia-
tion and peace.

The old woman remained here for a time, awaiting
an opportunity to get to her own home and ‘friends
in Pennsylvania. Finding, before long, an oppor-
tunity of getting as far as Winchester, by wagon,
she availed herself of it, and from there, with her
precious bell, the sole trophy of her terrible travels
and travails, it was hoped and believed that she soon
got safely home, though I can not learn that she
was ever afterwards heard of in the New River set-
thement. ,

I regret that not even her name has been pre-
served. In the traditions of the Ingles family she
is known and remembered only as “the old Dutch
woman.”

Adam Harmon, having accomplished his mission
of mercy, and improved the unexpected opportunity
of a social reunion with his late neighbors and
friends, took an affectionate leave of Mrs. Ingles and
her and his friends, and returned to his new camp
and clearing down the river.

This settlement of Harmon’s was at a point on
the east bank of New River, now the site of that
well known place of summer resort, the “ New River
White Sulphur,” or “Chapman’s,” or. “ Eggleston’s
Springs,” which, for grandeur and beauty of scenery,
is probably not excelled by any of the beautiful .
watering places of the Virginia Mountains. The
New River branch of the Norfolk & Western Rail-
road runs along the opposite shore of the river,
the station for this place being called “Ripple
Mead.”
Trans-Allegheny Pioneers. 91

The formidable cliff described above, the climbing
over which occupied Mrs. Ingles one whole day, the
most terrible of her life, is immediately below the
springs, is a part of the springs estate, and well
known to the frequenters of that popular resort.

The little cove immediately above the cliff, and the
then site of the Harmon cabin and corn patch, is
now,.as I am informed, called “Clover Nook.”

Tregret that Ido not know the after-history of Adam
Harmon and sons, the pioneer settlers of this beauti-
ful place; but from every descendant of Mrs. Ingles,
now and forever, I bespeak proper appreciation and
grateful remembrance of the brave, tender-hearted,
sympathetic, noble Adam Harmon.

Twenty or thirty years later there was a family of
Harmons—Henry and his sons, George and Matthias—
who distinguished themselves for their coolness and
bravery as Indian fighters in the Clinch settlements
of Tazewell. I presume they were of the same
Harmon stock, but just what relation to Adam I do
not know.

I stated above that Mrs. Ingles, on her arrival at
the Fort, had a joyftil meeting with such of her
friends as she found there; but the two of all others
whom she had hoped and expected to find there—
the two for whom her heart had yearned with deepest
love, and the hope of again seeing whom had sus-
tained her in her captivity and nerved her to her
desperate exertions in her escape—her husband and
her brother—were not there.

They had gone, some weeks before, down to the
Cherokee Nation in the Tennessee and Georgia re-
gion, to see if they could get any tidings of their
92 Trans-Allegheny Pioneers.

lost families, and, if so, to try, through the Chero-
kees—they then being friendly with the whites and
also with the Indian tribes north of the Ohio—to
ransom and recover them; but their expedition had
been fruitless, and they were returning, sad, discon-
solate, despairing, almost hopeless.

On the night that Mrs. Ingles had reached the
Fort, William Ingles and John Draper stayed within
a few miles of it, and about where the town of New-
bern, Pulaski County, now stands.

Next morning they made a daylight start and ar-
rived at the Fort to breakfast, and to find, to their
inexpressible joy and surprise, that Mrs. Ingles had
arrived the night before.

Such a meeting, under such circumstances, and
after all that had occurred since they last parted,
nearly five months before, may be imagined, but can
not be described. I shall not attempt it.

There is probably no happiness in this life without
alloy; no sweet without its bitter; no rose without
its thorn. Though William and Mary Ingles were
inexpressibly rejoiced to be restored to each other,
their happiness was saddened ‘by the bitter thought
that their helpless little children were still in the
hands of savages; and while John Draper was over-
joyed to have his sister return, he could not banish
the ever-present and harrowing thought that his wife
was still in the far-off wilderness—in the hands of
savages, and her fate unknown.
CHAPTER XVIII.

HE danger of an Indian attack, which had lately
been threatening this Fort, now seemed more
imminent, and as Mrs. Ingles became very uneasy,
her husband took her to another and stronger Fort,
called “ Vass’ Fort,” about twenty miles farther east,
where the settlers from the headwaters of the Roa-
noke had gathered for safety.

William Ingles and his wife had been here but a
few days when Mrs. Ingles claimed to have a strong
presentiment that the Fort was about to be attacked,
and prevailed upon her husband to take her to
another Fort, or place of safety, down below the
Blue Ridge, and not far from the “ Peaks of Otter.”
The very day they left Vass’ Fort the presentiment
and prediction of Mrs. Ingles was fully realized.
The Fort was attacked by a party of Indians and
overcome, and every one in it killed or taken
prisoner.

John and Matthew Ingles, the younger brothers of
William Ingles, were at this Fort. John was a bach-
elor. Matthew had a wife and one child. Before the
attack was made, but after the Fort was surrounded,
an Indian climbed a tall poplar tree, which com-
manded a view of the interior, to take an observa-
tion. He was discovered and fired on from the Fort,
and it is the tradition that it was the rifle of John
Ingles that brought him down.
94 Trans-Allegheny Pioneers.

Matthew Ingles was out hunting when the attack
was made; hearing the firing, he hastened back, and
tried to force his way into the Fort, to his wife and
child; he shot one Indian with the load in his gun,
then clubbed others with the butt until he broke the
stock off; by this time the gun-barrel was wrenched
from his hands, when he seized a frying-pan that
happened to be lying near, and, breaking off the
bowl or pan with his foot, he belabored them with
the iron handle, right and left, until he was knocked
down, overpowered and badly wounded. The tradi-
tion says that he killed two Indians with the = ying-
pan handle. —

His bravery and desperate fighting had so excited
the admiration of the Indians that they would not
kill him, but carried him off as prisoner. He was
either released or made his escape some time after,
and returned to the settlement, but never entirely
recovered from his wounds. He died at Ingles’ Ferry
afew months later. His wife and child were mur-
dered in the Fort, as was also his brother John.

When the land about the site of this Fort was
cleared, the poplar tree from which the Indian was
shot was preserved. I have often seen it and the
remains of the old Fort, when I was a boy, forty-
tive to fifty years ago. The tree was blown down by
a storm, thirty to forty years ago.

This Fort, the remains of which are itahably still
visible, was on the headwaters of the Roanoke River,
about ten miles west of where Christiansburg now
stands, about two or three miles east of the present
town of Lafayette, and near the residence of the late
Captain Jacob Kent. The Fort that was destroyed
Trans-Allegheny Pioneers. 95

was, I believe, a small private Fort, built by the
neighbors for their protection; after which the State,
under the superintendence of Captain Peter Hogg,
built a stronger Fort, and Colonel Washington, then
in command of the Virginia forces, came up to see
and advise about it.

Kercheval, the historian, gives, on the authority of
Mrs. Elizabeth Madison, who resided on the Roa-
noke, an interesting anecdote relating to this Vass’
Fort. About the time indicated, it was known that
Colonel Washington was to be up to inspect the
Fort. Seven Indians waylaid the road, intending to
kill him. After waiting until long beyond the time
at which the party was expected, the Chief in com-
mand of the Indians went across a mountain to a
nearly parallel road, about a mile distant, to see if
Washington and party had passed that way, leaving
with the other six positive orders not to fire a gun,
under any circumstances, in his absence. He had
not been long gone when Colonel Washington, Major
Andrew Lewis and Captain William Preston rode
safely by, the Indians obeying their Chief’s instruc-
tions to the letter, though it lost them their game.

At the same time (1756), the State erected a Stock-
ade Fort at Draper’s Meadows, under the direction
of Captain Stalnaker.

In March of this year (1756), the Big Sandy expe-
dition, under General (then Major) Lewis, was sent
out, with Captains Preston, Paul Alexander, Hogg,
Smith, Breckenridge, Woodson and Overton; also,
the volunteer companies of Captains Montgomery
and Dunlap, and a company of Cherokees, under
Captain Paris.

a
96 hrans-Allegheny Pioneers.

They rendezvoued at Camp Frederick, and went
thence by way of Clinch River, Bear Garden, Burk’s
Garden, over Tug Mountain and down the Tug Fork
of Big Sandy; but the expedition was unsuccessful
and returned, or was recalled, before reaching the
Ohio. Partly in retaliation for the raid on Vass’
Fort, and others, and to prevent a recurrence of such,
a second Big Sandy expedition was contemplated,
and preparations for it partly made, but it was after-
wards abandoned.

Mrs. Ingles remained in the settlement below the
Blue Ridge until there seemed a better prospect of
peace and security at the frontier; she then returned
to New River, where her husband and she perma-
nently established themselves at ‘Ingles’ Ferry.”

William Ingles built here a Fort for the security
of his own family and others who were now settling
about him, and several times afterwards the neigh-
bors were gathered in this Fort for safety and com-
mon defense, when Indian attacks were made or
threatened.

Once, when there was no one at the house or Fort
but William Ingles and his wife, she discovered,
stealthily approaching the house, nine armed war-
riors in their war paint. She gave the alarm, and
William Ingles at once posted himself in a position
of defense, but discovered that he had but ohe bullet,
and that in his gun. Mrs. Ingles soon got the lead
and the ladle, however, and molded bullets as fast as
he fired.

Having failed to take the place by surprise, as
they had evidently expected, the Indians, after a few
rounds, fired without effect, abandoned the attack
and left.
Trans-Allegheny Pioneers. 97

About this time, Wilham Ingles and a companion,
named John Shilling, were on Meadow Creek, a
branch of Little River. They were fired on by sev-
eral Indians; all took to trees—white men and In-
dians—and fought Indian-fashion. The result was
that Ingles and Shilling killed two Indians, and the
others fled.

William Ingles came: near having an eye put out
by bark from the tree behind which he stood. Just
as he started to look round, at one time, to get a
shot, an Indian fired at him; the ball struck the tree
and glanced, missing him, but dashed the bark
into his face and eyes with great force and painful
effect.

About 1760, a party of eight or ten Indians passed
Ingles’ Ferry and went up Little River and over to
a settlement on the head of Smith’s River, east of
the Blue Ridge, where they murdered some defenkc-
less settlers, took some women and children prison-
ers, caught their horses, loaded them with stolen
plunder, ‘and were returning by way of the New
River settlement.

Some one from the Ingles’ Ferry Fort had gone
out in search of some strayed horses, and discovered
the Indian camp, at night, about six miles from the
Fort. He returned at once and reported what he
had seen.

William Ingles got together, as speedily as pos-
sible, fifteen or eighteen men, then at or near the
Fort, and, piloted by the man who had made the
discovery, they started for the locality, intending to
make an attack at daylight next morning. They
were a little late, however, and the Indians were up

7
98 Trans-Allegheny Pioneers.

and preparing to cook their breaktast when the party
reached the camp. At a concerted signal the attack
was made; the Indians flew to their arms and made
fight, but they were taken at a disadvantage and
seven of the party shot down; the others fled and
made their escape. One white man trom the Fort
was killed. The prisoners, horses and plunder were
all recovered.

This was the last Indian engagement at or near
this settlement; thenceforth they were undisturbed ;
peace prevailed, and the country began to settle up
rapidly.
CHAPTER XIN.

, RS. BETTIE DRAPER was still a prisoner
among the Indiaus. When separated from
Mrs. Ingles at Scioto, she was taken up to about the
Chillicothe settlement, where she was adopted into
the family of an old Chiet’ (name not mentioned)
who had recently lost a daughter. Although kindly
treated, she, not long after, made an attempt to
escape. She was recaptured and condemned to death
by burning (the usual penalty in such cases); but the
old Chief concealed her for a time, and by his au-
thority and influence at length secured her pardon.

Finding escape impossible, she set to work earn-
estly to secure the favor and regard of the family
and the tribe, so as to render her terrible fate as tol-
erable as possible.

She taught them to sew and to cook, aud was ever
willing and ready to nurse the sick or the wounded,
and was regarded as a‘‘heap good medicine squaw.”
By these means she soon acquired the good will and
confidence of the tribe, and secured for herself very
kind and considerate treatment.

Thus six weary years had passed since her capture,
and since her involuntary parting from Mrs. Ingles
at Scioto. During this time John Draper had per-_
sonally made several trips, and as often sent agents
to try to find and ransom her, but all without effect,
until, in 1761, a treaty between the whites and In-
100 Trans-Allegheny Pioneers.

dians was held somewhere on the border, about the
close of the Cherokee war, the locality and particu-
lars of which are not now known. John Draper
attended this treaty, met the old Chief in whose
. family his wife was living, and, after much negotia-
tion and a heavy ransom paid, he succeeded in effect-
ing her release and restoration to him, when the
once more happy couple set out on their return to
their home at Draper’s Meadows.

In 1761, William Preston married Miss Susanna
Smith, of Hanover County, and first settled at Staun-
ton; afterwards, when Bottetourt County was cut off
trom Augusta (1770), he was made County Surveyor,
in those days a most lucrative position, and moved
to an estate he called “Greenfield,” situated near Am-
sterdam; still later, when Fincastle County was
tormed (1772), and he made its Surveyor, he, in 1773,
acquired the Draper’s Meadows estate, and, in 1774,
moved his family there, changing the name, prob-
ably in honor of his wife, to “Smithfield,” which
name it still bears, and it is still the seat of the Pres-
ton family in the third and fourth generation from
Colonel William.

The Preston family residence was not built upon
the site of the original Ingles-Draper settlement
and massacre, but a mile or so distant, nearly south.

From this point (Draper’s Meadows or Smithfield),
this remarkable family, and its descendants and con-
nections, radiated over the State, and to all parts of
the South and West; and for talent displayed, for
honorable and commanding positions occupied, and
for exalted character and worth, I know of no other
family connection in the whole country which has,
Trans-Allegheny Pioneers, 101

within the last century and a quarter, produced so
many distinguished members. Among them may be
counted the Pattons, the Prestons, Buchanans, Thomp-
sons, Madisons, Breckenridges, Peytons, McDowells,
Floyds, Bowyers, Harts, Crittendens, Bentons, Paynes,
Smiths, Andersons, Campbells, Browns, Blairs, Gam-
bles, Wattses, Carringtons, Hamptons, Johnsons,
Lewises, Woodvilles, Logans, Edmunstons, Alexan-
ders, Wooleys, Wickliffs, Marshalls, and very many

others.
When Colonel Preston moved to Smithfield, there

came with him a young man named Joseph Cloyd,
only son of a widow Cloyd, a near neighbor of Pres-
ton’s at Greenfield, and who had recently been mur-
dered by the Indians.

This Joseph Cloyd settled on the west side of New
River, on “Back Creek,” at the foot of Brush or
Cloyd’s Mountain, now Pulaski County. He after-
wards became the father of General Gordon Cloyd,
David and Thomas Cloyd, whom I remember as in-
telligent, wealthy and prominent citizens of that
region more than half a century ago, and the grand-
father of the late aged and venerable Colonel Joseph
Cloyd, who, with his family, possessed and enjoyed
till his death, recently, a portion of the paternal acres
on Back Creek, near which was faught the “battle
of Cloyd’s Mountain,” in 1864.

This Draper’s-Meadows-Ingles’-Ferry settlement
was an outlying, advanced post of civilization, on the
edge of the then great Western wilderness, and soon
became a place of rendezvous and. point of departure,
for individuals, families and parties bent on Western
adventure, exploration, emigration, or speculation.
102 Trans-Allegheny Pioneers.

This way passed Dr. Thomas Walker and his first
party of explorers, in 1748, and, also, his second ex-
pedition, in 1750.

From here, in 1754, started out the first four or
five family settlements that are known to have been
made, that early, west of New River. James Burke
went to Burke’s Garden, in (now) Tazwell County;
whether accompanied by others or not I do not
know. There were two families (names unknown to
me) settled on Back Creek, now the Cloyd settle-
ment, in Pulaski County; Ingles’ Ferry, on both
sides; Keed at Dublin, McCorkle at Dunkard’s Bot-
tom, two families on Cripple Creek, another tribu-
tary of New River, now in Wythe County, and near
this, just over the divide, one or two families on
the headwaters of the Holston, now in Smythe
County.

From here started, in 1770, a party of hunters and
explorers, reinforced at the then Holston and Clinch
settlements, under Lieutenant (afterwards Colonel)
Knox. They penetrated into Kentucky, were on
Cumberland, Green and Kentucky Rivers, and, from
the long time they were gone, have ever since been
known in border history as “the long hunters.”

From here, in 1773, a surveying party, composed
of James, George and Robert McAfee, James
McCown, Jr., Hancock Taylor and Samuel Adams,
started for Kentucky. They came down New River,
and were joined on the Kanawha by Colonel Thomas
Bullitt and party. Colonel Bullitt, for military ser-
vices in the Braddock and Forbes wars, having just
located the big bottom survey on which the city of
Charleston now stands; they went by canoes down
 

Trans-Allegheny Pioneers. 103

the Kanawha and down the Ohio Rivers to the mouth
_ of Kentucky River, where the party separated. The
McAtees and Hancock Taylor went up the Kentucky
River, and on the 16th of July, 1773, surveyed six
hundred acres where the city of Frankfort now
stands, being the first survey ever made on that river.

This river, like most other Western streams, has
had a variety of names and spellings before settling
down to its present one; thus it has been Milewa-
keme-cepewe, Kan-tuck-kee, Che-no-ee, Cut-ta-wa,
Louisa and now Kentucky. It is generally believed
that Dr. Walker named it Louisa, but this may be a
mistake, as elsewhere shown.

Bullitt and others stopped at Big Bone Lick and
made a survey of land, July 5th; they then went on
to the Falls of the Ohio, called by the Miamis
“Lewekeomi,” where they surveyed, in August, 17738,
a body of land at the mouth of ‘Bear Grass Creek,”
the site of the present city of Louisville; so that
this surveying party located, on this trip, and within
a few weeks of each other, the sites of the now cap-
ital cities of two States—West Virginia and Ken-
tucky—and one of the largest commercial cities of
the Ohio Valley—Louisville.

The surveyors returned overland through Ken-
tucky, by way of Powell’s Valley and Gap, and, after
experiencing extraordinary privation and suffering,
made their way back to the New River settlement.

From here started, the following year (1774), the
surveying parties under John Floyd, Hancock Tay-
lor, Douglas, and others, who were in the wilds of
Kentucky when the border troubles commenced,
which finally culminated in the battle of Point Pleasant;
104 Trans-Allegheny Pioneers.

and to notify whom of the Indian dangers, and pilot
them safely back, Governor Dunmore dispatched
Daniel Boone, then at the Clinch settlement. Boone’s
mission was successful; the surveyors (except Han-
cock Taylor, who was killed), and some colonists,
were found, notified, and the surveyors and Boone
returned overland, by way of the Clinch settlement;
Boone having made eight hundred miles on foot,
going and returning, in sixty-two days.

From this New River settlement went many of the
early, enterprising settlers of Kentucky, whose de-
scendants have since made honorable records in the
history of the State and the Nation, among whom may
be mentioned the Pattons, Prestons, Breckenridges,
Floyds, Triggs, Taylors, Todds, Campbells, Overtons,
McA fees, etc., ete.
CHAPTER XxX.

N 1765, John Draper exchanged his interests at

Draper’s Meadows for land about twenty miles
west of Ingles’ Ferry, and near the present dividing
line between Pulaski and Wythe Counties. This
land had been originally granted to Colonel James
Patton, in 1758, one of the earliest grants in this
region.

It is described as lying “west of Woods River,”
and near the “Peaked Mountain,” now called “Dra-
per’s Mountain,” and the end, “Peak Knob.” John
Draper called this settlement “Draper’s Valley,”
which name it still retains.

Here John Draper and Bettie, his wife, and, after
her, his second wife, Jane, passed the remainder
of their lives, and here their descendants, prominent,
honored and influential citizens, have lived ever since,
John 8. Draper, a great-grandson, being the present
owner and occupant of this beautiful and valuable
estate.

And so with Ingles’ Ferry, a locality so full of
family and general historical associations; it is still
owned and occupied by the descendants of William
and Mary Ingles, of the third and fourth generation,
and after a century and a third of time.

Seven children—four sons and three daughters—
were born to John and Bettie Draper, after her return
from captivity; the sons were George, James, Johu
106 Trans-tllegheny Pioneers.

and Silas; the names of the daughters I do not
know.

I remember Silas Draper, an eccentric old bachelor,
very fond of his cups. He was still alive about fifty
years ago. I remember a quaint way he had of ex-
pressing his contempt for the understanding of any
one who was so unfortunate as to differ from him in
opinion. Of such an one he would say: “ He is a con-
nection of Solomon—a distant connection of Solo-
mon—a very distant connection of Solomon.” And,
seeming to think that this bit of irony was sufficient
to settle the status of his unfortunate adversary, he
would leave him to his fate.

Mrs. Bettie Draper died in 1774, aged forty-two.
John Draper married again, in 1776, a widow, Mrs.
Jane Crockett. The issue of this marriage was two
daughters, Alice and Rhoda.

John Draper lived to the great age of ninety-four.
He died at Draper’s Valley, April 18, 1824. John
Draper was a Lieutenant in one of the companies—
probably Russell's or Herbert’s—at Point Pleasant,
in 1774. His commission, signed by Governor Dun-
more, is now in possession of his great-grandson,
John 8. Draper, of Draper’s Valley.

In 1770, Virginia formed from Augusta a new
county, covering all this western region, and called
it’ Bottetourt, after Governor Lord Bottetourt;
and, two years later (1772), another county was
formed from part of Bottetourt, extending from the
headwaters of the Roanoke northwest to the Ohio
River, and west to the Mississippi. This county was
named “ Fineastle,” from the seat of Lord Bottetourt
in England—* Fin-Castle.”

 
Trans-Allegheny Pioneers. 107

The Cota: seat of this county was at “Fort Chis-
well,” now in Wythe County, and the seat of the
McGavock family.

The Fort was built by the State in 1758, under the
direction and superintendence of the third Colonel
William Boyd, and named by him after his friend,
Colonel John Chiswell, the owner and operator of
the “New River Lead Mines,” then but recently dis-
covered by him, a few miles distant.

Colonel Chiswell was a Tory in the Revolutionary
troubles, and his property was confiscated. He was,
also, so unfortunate as to killa man in a personal
encounter, and died in Cumberland County Jail,
awaiting trial. A son of his successor, Colonel
Stephen Austin, who was born here, was the founder
of the city of Austin, Texas. The town of Austin-
ville, at the Lead Mines, in Wythe, also took its
name from the family.

These mines were the chief source of sagt of
lead, not only for the Indian border wars, but for the
Continental Army during the Revolution, and for
the Confederate Army in the late civil war.

Fincastle County did not long continue. In 1776,
the territory covered by it was divided up into three
new counties—Montgomery, Washington and Ken-
tucky—and Fincastle County abolished.

This Washington County was the first in the
United States named after the illustrious George
Washington. Now, almost every State in the Union
has its Washington County.

The first town in America named after the Father
of his Country was Washington, Georgia. Now,
they are so numerous as to be confusing.
108 Trans-Allegheny Pioneers.

About this time (1774-75-76), before the boundary
line between Virginia and Pennsylvania had been
definitely settled, the Ohio River, the Monongahela
and the Youghiogheny, in the region of Fort Pitt,
where considerable settlements had been made, were
supposed to be parts of Virginia territory, and, as
such, parts of Augusta County, or “ West Augusta.”
So remote were these settlements from the county
seat at Staunton that the State of Virginia provided
for the holding of courts for Augusta County at
both places—Staunton and Fort Pitt—and for some
time they were so held, adjourning from one place to
the other, alternately.

On the return of the expedition of Walker, Patton,
and others, in 1748, they organized the “ Loyal Land
Company,” based on a grant of 800,000 acres of land,
to lie north of the North Carolina line, and west of
the mountains, and incorporated their company in
June, 1749.
CHAPTER XXI.

WYILLUM INGLES purchased the land at and
about Ingles’-Ferry from the Loyal Land Com-
pany—Dr. Thomas Walker, agent.

In establishing himself at this point, he foresaw
that it would be an important crossing place for
Western emigrants, and, so soon as practicable, in
order to enhance the value of his property, he located
and marked out a line of road from the settlements
east of him to the west, on towards Tennessee—no
doubt following, in the main, the route he and John
Draper had traveled in going down to the Cherokee
Nation, in 1755; as above related; and they were,
probably, the first white Americans to traverse this
route, or this region, throughout.

The exploring parties of Dr. Thomas Walker, in
their two trips, traveled up and down Walker’s
Creek, Wolf Creek, East River and Blue-Stone,
streams emptying into New River below here; and by
way of Upper New River, Cripple Creek and Reed
Creek, above here.

It is claimed by Dr. Bickley, historian of Tazwell
County, that as early as 1540, more than two hun-
dred years before Dr. Walker and party, or Ingles
and Draper, the distinguished Spanish explorer and
adventurer, Hernando De Soto, visited or passed
through a portion of this region of Southwest Vir-
ginia. Dr. Bickley, who seems to have examined the
110 Traus-Allegheny Pioneers.

subject with cure, satistied himself, from the official
reports of the historian of the expedition, that De
Soto, after landing, about Tampa Bay, Florida, in
1739, caine, first by Mobile Bay, thence up through
what is now Georgia, South and North Carolina,
East Tennessee and Southwest Virginia. He found
a strong and important tribe of Indians settled on
the Upper Tennessee, with their capital or head-
quarters town, called ‘“Cafitachiqui.” They were
governed by a Queen. In that part of Southwest
Virginia, now Washington and Smythe, Russell and
Tazwell Counties—according to the Doctor’s theory—
was another province, called Xuala, inhabited by a
peaceable, quiet and hospitable race. They were
afterwards driven out or exterminated by the Chero-
kees, who then held the country until they, in turn,
were driven out by the English.

From here, De Soto went on westward, to dis-
cover for his country the great Mississippi River, or
“Rio Grande,” as he called it, and, for himself, a
watery grave beneath its turbid waters.

The mistake of Dr. Bickley, probably, was in
bringing the De Soto expedition too far North. In-
stead of coming by way of Knoxville and Southwest
Virginia, his route is believed, by other authorities,
to have been by way of the present sites of Atlanta,
Georgia, and Chattanooga, Tennessee, and that the
tribes he encountered were on that route, and not in
East Tennessee and Southwest Virginia.

Nearly all the emigration that populated South-
west Virginia, Tennessee, Southern and Middle Ken-
tucky, and parts of Northern Georgia, Alabama and
Mississippi, passed over this route.
Trans-Allegheny Pioneers. 111

THE WILDERNESS ROAD.

Colonel Thos. Speed, of Louisville, Ky., through the
“¥ilson Historical Club,” has recently issued, ‘under
the above title, a valuable and exceedingly interest-
ing contribution to the history of the early routes of
travel of the first emigrants to Kentucky. He de-
scribes two principal routes—one overland by way of
New River, Fort Chiswell, Cumberland Gap and the
Boone trace, and the other by the Braddock trail to
Red Stone, or to Fort Pitt, and thence down the Ohio
River, by boat.

I jhinke's thind and mixed route, partly by land
and partly by water, passing down through this.
(Kanawha) valley, laereee to be mentioned, as it
was traveled by a good many, “in au early day.”
They came from the settlements along the border, or
from farther East, by way of the frontier settlements,
to this river, by land, and went from here by water;
the mouths of Kelly’s Creek and Hughes’ Creek,
where boats were built, being the usual points of
embarcation, by the earlier voyagers. This way went
the McAfees, James McCown, Samuel Adams, Han-
cock Taylor, Colonel Thomas Bullitt, Douglas, John
May, Jacob Skyles, Charles Johnson, John Flinn,
John Floyd, Volney, and others. And many of the
officers and men of Lewis’ army, who afterwards
went to Kentucky, followed this route, having learned
it in their trip to Point Pleasant.

A little later, when settlements began north of the
Ohio River, Basten Virginia and “North Carolina
sent a very large emigration by this route.

The large early travel by way of Ingles’ Ferry
112 Trans-Allegheny Pioneers.

made it one of the most valuable properties in that
region; and long after, when. thriving villages, towns
and cities had been built up in this prosperous coun-
try, their supplies of dry goods, groceries, hardware,
etc., were hauled over this route, first from Balti-
more, via Winchester, and afterwards from Richmond
and Lynchburg, to, finally, as far West as Nashville,
in those picturesque land schooners, or “Tennessee
ships of the line”—the Connestoga wagons, with
their high-bowed and well-racked canvas covers, and
six-horse teams, many of them with the jingling
bells that made lively music as they went.

I well remember, between fifty and sixty years ago,
the long droves of these wagons, going and return-
ing, and how the arches of tinkling bells and red
flannel rosettes, swinging gracefully over the horses’
shoulders, excited my boyish admiration.

The drivers of these teams were a peculiar class;
they were a hardy, honest, jolly, good-natured set,
who knew and were known by everybody on the
route for hundreds of miles. They were greatly
trusted by their employers, and were popular all
along the road.

ORIGIN OF THR COTTON TRADE OF AMERICA.

I will mention here, as an interesting historical
fact—on the authority of the late John W. Garrett,
the distinguished President of the B. & O. R. R.—
that the beginning of the cotton trade of America
was over this road, and in these same Connestoga
wagons.

The Southern and Southwestern emigrants had
begun to raise a little cotton, at their new homes, for
Lrans-Allegheny Pioneers. 113

domestic uses. Their little surpluses were saved up
and traded to their merchants to help pay for their
groceries and other family supplies, and the country
merchant sent a few bags of it, now and then, to-
gether with feathers, pelts, dried fruits and other
country commodities, by these wagons, to their
’ wholesale merchants in Baltimore, who took the cot-
ton to encourage trade; but, as there were then no
cotton mills in America, they did not know what to
do with it. It began to accumulate on their hands,
however, and it became necessary to find some use
for it.

A meeting was called of the prominent merchants,
who traded in this direction, to discuss the matter.
After a consideration of the subject, no other sug-
gestion having met with favor, an old gentleman
present, named .Brown, a successful Scotch-Irish
linen draper, proposed that, if the merchants would
all contribute to the expense, he would send his son,
“Jamie,” to England, to see if it could not be dis-
posed of there. This proposition was agreed to, and
Jamie went, taking with him samples of the cotton.
On his return, he reported that he had not only easily
disposed of all they then had on hand, but had made
satisfactory arrangements for all they might get in
the future.

Jamie was so impressed with the belief that there
was “money in it,” that he and his brothers formed
a copartnership, under the name and style of “Brown
Brothers,” to buy, and ship, and trade in cotton.

The business rapidly grew to large proportions,
and their wealth increased as rapidy, until they
_established branch banking houses at several of the

8
114 Trans-Allegheny Pioneers.

principal commercial centers on both sides of the
water, and the honored names of “ Brown Brothers,”
“ Brown Brothers & Company,” and “ Brown, Shipley
& Company,” are known, to this day, all over the
commercial world. They are, probably, worth their
millions of dollars, and the cotton trade has grown
to millions of bales per year. So much for small
beginnings.

About 1840, the State of Virginia, to facilitate and
encourage the vast overland traffic of this route,
macadamized the road from Buchanan, the head of
canal navigation on the James River, to the Tennessee
line; and Thomas Ingles, the then owner of Ingles’
Ferry, and grandson of William and Mary Ingles,
built a fine bridge over New River (the first to cross
New River or Kanawha), which was afterward de-
stroyed, during the late war.

The progressive spirit of the age, however, was
working’ @ change in all this; the days of the over-
land schoones’s were soon to be numbered—their oc-
cupation gone—and the values of Ingles’ Ferry and
Bridge numbered with the things that were past.

About 1855, the “ Virginia & Tennessee Railroad,”
then so called, now’ known, with its connections, as
the “Norfolk & Western,” was completed and
opened. The iron steed and winged lightning came
to the front to fulfill their missions, and the old
methods, with Connestogas and stage-coaches, van-
ished into the misty realms of the forgotten past.

The railroad, for better grade, crosses New River
two or three miles below the old Ingles’ Ferry route

and macadam road.
CHAPTER XXII.

O return to the story of William and Mary Lugles

and their lost children. These “babes in the
wood” were the “skeletons in their closet.” How-
ever otherwise happy and prosperous, here was an
abiding and ever-present sorrow that marred every
pleasure of their lives.

The first thing heard from the children was that
George, the youngest boy, had died not long after
he was taken from the tender care of his mother, at
Scioto. This information first came, I believe,
through Mrs. Draper, on her return from captivity.
Some years later, and after many ineffectual efforts
had been made to recover, or even hear from the
elder boy, Thomas, they met with a man named
Baker, who had recently returned from a captivity
among the Shawanees, in the Scioto country.

It is believed that this was the William Baker who
passed here in 1766 with Colonel James Smith, on his
way to explore the then unknown region bebween
the Tennessee and Cumberland Rivers.

Tt turned out that Baker had lived in the same
village with the Indian who had last adopted the boy
as his son, and*knew them both.

William Ingles at once bargained with Baker to go
back to the Indian country and ransom his boy and
bring him home.

Baker went down the Valley of Virginia by Staun-
116 Trans-Allegheny Pioneers.

ton to Winchester, across by Fort Cumberland (the
site of an old Indian town called Cucuvatuc) to Fort
Pitt, and thence down the Ohio to the Scioto. He
found the Indian and made known his mission. After
much negotiation, he succeeded in purchasing the
boy, and paid about one hundred dollars for his ran-
som; but the boy was not at all pleased with the
arrangement; he knew nothing of the white parents
they told him about, in the far-off country; he knew
only his Indian father and mother, brothers and sis-
ters, and playmates, and, last but not least, his sweet-
hearts, the pretty little squaws, and he did not want
to be sent away from them.

Partly by coaxing and fair promises, however, and
partly by force, Baker got him started, but kept him
bound until they got forty to fifty miles from the In-
dian village. As they passed along, the dusky little
maidens, as they got a chance to talk, would try to
persuade him not to go, or beg him to come back to
them. The little fellow could not withstand their
appeals unmoved, and determined to escape; but, as
the surest means of doing so, he feigned contentment
and perfect willingness to go, until Baker ceased to
bind him at night, as he at first did, but only took
him in his arms when they went to sleep, thinking
the boy could not get out of his embrace without
awakening him. When he awoke one morning,
however, he found, to his surprise and chagrin, that
the boy was missing.

Fearing to go home and report his carelessness and
the loss of the boy to his parents, Baker went all the
way back to Indian village to try to recover him;
but the squaws had concealed him and would not
Trans-Allegheny Pioneers. W7

give him up, and Baker had, at last, to go home
without him.

This was a sad disappointment and blow to Mr.
and Mrs. Ingles, especially to the mother, whose
womanly heart had been so strongly yearning for
her long lost boy.

They had found him now, however, and must re-
cover him. William Ingles determined to go for
him, himself, and hired Baker to go back with him.
They started, and pursued the same circuitous and
tedious route, but when they arrived at Fort Pitt
they found that hostilities had broken out between
the Indians and the frontier white settlements, and
it was impossible, then, to prosecute the journey.

With deep reluctance, they abandoned the trip, for.
the time, and returned to their homes, to await the
restoration of peace,

It proved to be more than a year before it was con-
sidered safe to renew the effort. William Ingles
then again employed Baker to accompany him, and
started out over the same circuitous route, by Pat-
tonsburg, Staunton, Winchester, Fort Cumberland,
Fort Pitt, and down the Ohio.

When they arrived at the Indian town, they found
that a party of Indians, the father of the boy and
the boy included, had gone to Detroit, and would
not return for several weeks. This was a great dis-
appointment, but there was no help for it; they could
but wait. ‘

A very unwise move on the part of William Ingles,
during this delay, came very near costing him his
life. Knowing the fondness of the Indians for strong
drink, he had taken with him a keg of the “fire-
118 Trans-Allegheny Pioneers.

water,’ in addition to some money, and goods and
trinkets, for trading, hoping, by one. or other, or all
of these, to induce the Indian father to sell him
his boy.

While waiting the return of the absentees, he was
trying to make “fair weather” with the Indians at
Scioto, and, thinking to conciliate them, he gave
some of them some of his rum. He very soon saw
the mistake he had committed, but it was too late to
correct it.

The Indians, having their appetites inflamed by
the small allowance, determined to have more. They
seized his rum, drank it all, and were soon wildly
and uproariously drunk. They threatened to kill
-him, and were about to put their threats into execu-
tion, but this time the squaws came to his relief, and,
no doubt, saved him from a terrible death. They
secreted him and kept him secreted until the Indians
got over their drunken debauch, and came to their
sober senses.

When the Detroit party returned, the Indian father
and the boy came home -with them, as expected.
Much to the gratification and relief of the white
father, the boy took to him kindly at once.

The mysterious influence of “blood” and the in-
stinct of filial love asserted themselves, and the boy
promised, freely and without reserve, to accompany
his father whenever and wherever he pleased.

The terms of his surrender were then negotiated
with his Indian father, and the ransom—this time
about the equivalent of one hundred and fifty dol-
lars—again paid. All these negotiations and con-
ferences were conducted through Baker, as inter-
Trans-Allegheny Pioneers. 119

pretor; the boy had lost all recollection of his mother,
tongue, his Indian father could not speak English,
and William Ingles did not speak Indian.

Arrangements being completed, there was a gen-
eral leave-taking, with good feeling all round. The
boy bade a long farewell to his old, and started with
his new-found father, and Baker, to the far-off home.
After weeks of tedious travel, they at last arrived
safely at Ingles’ Ferry, and the long-lost boy, his
mother’s first-born, was again in her arms and smoth-
ered with a mother’s loving kisses. This was in 1768.
He found here, too, four other little relatives to give
him affectionate greeting. Mrs. Ingles, since her re-
turn from captivity, had borne three daughters and
one son. Thomas was absorbed into this family
circle, and was a sharer of the family affections.

He was very much.of a wild Indian in his habits
and training when he first returned. He was now in
his seventeenth year, and had been among the In-
dians thirteen years. He was dressed in Indian style.
He changed his savage dress for that of civilized life
with much reluctance; his bow and arrow he would
not give up, but carried them with him wherever
he went.

Notwithstanding he was petted, humored and ca-
ressed at home, a wild fit would overcome him now
and then, and he would wander off alone in the wil-
derness, with his bow and arrow, and stay for days at
a time, and, when he returned, would give no account
of himself, nor explanation of his conduct.

These freaks disturbed his mother very much ;,she
feared that he would some day take a notion to re-
turn to his Indian friends and wild life, and that she
should never see him again.
120 Trans-Allegheny Pioneers.

He learned pretty rapidly to speak English, but
very slowly to read and write.

He used often to interest the family and others by’
relating incidents of his Indian life. Once, when
quite young, and learning to use the bow and arrow,
he tried to shoot a red-headed woodpecker from a
tree near the camp. He became so interested in
what he was doing that, while looking up at the
woodpecker and walking backwards, to get in range,
he stepped into a fire of coals the Indians had to
cook their dinner on, and so burned his bare feet
that they never grew to quite their natural size.

When a little older, but still quite young, his In-
dian father and another Indian went to the wilder-
ness, forty or fifty miles distant from the settlement,
to kill a supply of game, as was their wont, and they
took the boy along to teach him to hunt and to make
himself useful.

Not long after they had been in camp his Indian
father was taken very sick. The other Indian pro-
vided some food, and wood for fire, instructed the
boy how to cook and serve the food to his sick father,
and what else to do for his comfort, while he went
back to the town to get assistance to take the sick
man home.

The very day after he left, the sick Indian died, and
the boy was left alone to watch him until the other
Indian returned with help. A heavy snow fell, and
the weather became very cold. The boy, to keep
warm at night, lay close to the old Indian, and cov-
ered with part of his blanket.

After some days, decomposition had so far pro-
gressed that the odor from the old Indian attracted
Trans-Allegheny Pioneers. 121

the wolves. They came, howling, to the camp, and
the boy could only keep them back by throwing fire-
brands at them.

Up to that time the boy had never fired a gun, but
his Indian father’s gun was standing there, loaded,
and he concluded to try what he could do with it.
The first thing he saw to practice on was some wild |
pigeons. Not being able to hold the gun “off-hand,”
he fixed a rest, took aim and fired, and, much to his
delight, he killed his pigeon.

This gave him confidence in himself, and he now
concluded that he could safely defend himself and
father from the wolves.

Having reloaded the gun, he cut a forked stick
with his father’s tomahawk, and drove it in the
ground in such position that he could rest the gun in
the fork and get the proper range tor the wolves.
Sure enough, they came back again that night. He
was ready for them, and, when they came within
proper distanée, he fired, and again had the proud
satisfaction of killing his game.

The other wolves fled, and he was not again dis-
turbed by them.

The messenger Indian soon after returned with
assistance, and, having buried his dead father, took
him (the boy) back to the town, where he was
adopted into the family of another Indian.

 
CHAPTER XNIII.

FTER acquiring, at home, some preliminary

and rudimentary foundation for an education,
his father sent him to the care of his old friend, Dr.
Thomas Walker, of “Castle Hill,” Albermarle Coun-
ty (the present seat of the Rives family, who are
descendants of Dr. Walker), to see what could be
done in the way of educating him. There was a
school for young men at or near Dr. Walker’s resi-
dence, Castle Hill.

While in Albermarle, he made some progress in his
studies; but books were not to his taste, and study
was very irksome to him.

While prosecuting his studies here, some three or
four years in all, his remarkable history attracted
attention, and he made many acquaintances, some of
whom were afterwards very distinguished people.
Among them were Madison, Monroe, Jefferson, Pat-
rick Henry, William Wirt, etc.

His friend, Dr. Walker, had been the guardian of
young Jefferson, during his minority, after his
father’s death. Young Ingles used to relate that he
and Jefferson, both being musically inclined, took
lessons on the violin together, from the same in-
structor.

About this time, young Jefferson was appointed,
and for a time acted, as Surveyor of Albermarle
County, a position which his father had occupied in
his lifetime.
Trans-Allegheny Pioneers. 123

In after years, Jefferson, when Governor of Vir-
ginia, gave him (Ingles) a commission of Colonel of
militia.

He formed here another acquaintance, who made
a deeper and more lasting impression on his after
life. It was that of a young lady who had captured
his wild heart.

Soon after leaving Albermarle, he volunteered with
the forces then being raised to go with General Lewis’
army to Point Pleasant, in 1774. He was made Lieu-
tenant in his company, which was part of Colonel
Christian’s regiment. Young Ingles was in one of
the companies left to garrison the Fort at Point
Pleasant during the following winter.

When relieved at the Point, he met some of his
old Indian friends from Scioto, and, at their earnest
solicitation, went home with them, and spent some
time in a social, friendly visit.

Shortly after his return from this visit—in 1775—
he married Miss Eleanor Grills, the Albermarle sweet-
heart of his schoolboy days. Being disposed to settle
down, but determined to be in the wilderness, his
father gave him a tract of land on Wolf Creek, a
tributary of New River, in (now) Giles County. He
remained here a few years, and had made fair prog-
ress in clearing out a farm, when he determined to
move to what was then called Absalom’s Valley, now
Abb’s Valley, on the Upper Blue Stone, also a branch
of New River, some distance below. This stream is
called “ Blue Stone” from the deep blue valley lime-
stone over which it flows, and which gives such fer-
tility to the beautiful valley.

The same experience was repeated here. After
124 ‘ Trans-Allegheny Pioneers.

one or two years in opening up a farm, he concluded
he was too convenient to the Indian Blue Stone trail,
for safety, as parties were frequently passing over
this route, to make depredations on the settlements
farther south.

He next located in “Burke’s Garden,” in (now)
Tazewell County—a rich and beautiful little lime-
stone valley, or oval basin, about ten miles by seven,
almost surrounded by high mountains, and one of
the most charming spots in the State. It is drained
by Wolf Creek, on which, lower down, he had lived
some years earlier. I have a copy of an old docu-
ment showing that William Ingles had “taken up”
the Burke’s Garden lands, under “Loyal Land Com-
pany” authority, as early as 1753. James Burke,
who came here, from Ingles’ Ferry, in 1754, was the
first settler, as elsewhere stated, and gave the place
his name and his life.

Thomas Ingles had but one neighbor in Burke’s
Garden—Joseph Hix, by name, a bachelor, who
lived within two miles. Ingles lived here, in peace
and apparent contentment, until April, 1782, when a
large party of Indians, led by the noted warrior,
“Black Wolf,’ surrounded his house, while he was
out on the farm, and, after taking his wife, three
children and a negro man and woman prisoners, and
taking as much as they could carry of whatever they
found useful, loading the negro man and woman as
well, they burned the house and everything that was
left in it.

When his attention was attracted by the smoke
and fire, and the noise, Thomas Ingles started to his
house; but, being unarmed and seeing so large a
Trans-Allegheny Pioneers. 125

force, he knew he could do no good, so he ran back
to where he and a negro man were plowing, unhitched
the horses, and, each mounting one, they started to
the nearest settlement for help. This settlement was
in the “Rich Valley,” or “Rich Patch,” on the North
Fork of the Holston, and the present site of the
“Washington Salt Works,’ about twenty miles
distant.

It happened to be a muster day, and most of the
settlers round about were congregated here for drill.
The messengers arrived about noon, and, so soon as
the facts were made known, fifteen or twenty men
volunteered to go in pursuit of the Indians. They
soon made their preparations and started back, ar-
riving at the site of Ingles’ home early next morning;
but there was nothing left but a pile of ashes.

It so happened that Mr. Hix and his negro man
were on their way to Thomas Ingles’ house the
morning before, when they discovered that the In-
dians had attacked and were destroying it. They at
once started, on foot, across the mountain, to a small
settlement, six or seven miles distant. Here they got
five or six volunteers and returned, reaching Burke’s
Garden about the same time that Thomas Ingles’
party got there. They united their forces and started
in pursuit. 7

It was expected that the route of the Indians would
be through or near the Clinch settlement, and it was
about here that the whites first struck their trail.
There was a company of militia stationed here for
the protection of settlers on the frontier. Some of
these joined the pursuing party, and Captain Max-
well was put in command of the whole.
126 Trans-Allegheny Pioneers.

The pursuit was made very cautiously, to prevent
alarming the Indians and causing them to murder
the prisoners. On the fifth day after the capture,
some scouts, sent in advance by the whites, discov-
ered the Indians where they had camped for the
night, in a gap of Tug Mountain.

The pursuers held a consultation and decided that
Captain Maxwell should take half the company,
flank the Indians, and get round to their front and
as near them as practicable, and that Thomas Ingles,
with the other half, should remain in the rear, get-
ting as close as possible, and at daylight the attack
should be made simultaneously by both parties.

Unfortunately, the night being very dark and the
ground very rough and brushy, Captain Maxwell
missed his way, got too far to one side, and did not
get back within reach of the Indians by daylight.

After waiting for Maxwell beyond the appointed
time, and as the Indians began to stir, Thomas Ingles
and his party determined to make the attack alone.

So soon as a shot was fired, some of the Indians
began to tomahawk the prisoners, while others
fought and fled. Thomas Ingles rushed in and seized
his wife just as she had received a terrible blow on
the head with a tomahawk. She fell, covering the
infant of a few months old, which she held in her
arms. The Indians had no time to devote to it.
They bad tomahawked his little five-year-old daugh-
ter, named Mary, after his mother, and his little three-
year-old son, named William, after his father. His
negro servants, a man and woman, captured with his
family, escaped without injury.

In making their escape, the Indians ran close to
Trans-Allegheny Pioneers. 127

Captain Maxwell and party, and, firing on them,
killed Captain Maxwell, who was conspicuous from .
wearing a white hunting shirt. He was the only one
of the pursuers killed.

The whites remained on the ground until late in
the evening, burying Captain Maxwell, who was
killed outright, and Thomas Ingles’ little son, who
died from his wounds during the day. Mrs. Ingles
and the little girl were still alive though badly
wounded.

It was supposed that several Indians were killed in
this engagement, but it was not certainly known.
While the whites remained on the ground they heard
the groans of apparently dying persons, but, as the
sounds came from dense laurel thickets, they did not
find them.

This mountain pass through Tug Ridge has ever
since been known as “Maxwell’s Gap,” after the
unfortunate Captain Maxwell who lost his life here.

When the dead had been buried, and the wounds
of Mrs. Ingles and her little daughter had been
dressed as well as practicable under the circum-
stances, the party started on their return to the
settlements. Although only about twenty miles, it
took four days to travel it, on account of the critical
condition of Mrs. Ingles and her little girl.

News of the capture of Thomas Ingles’ family and
the pursuit had reached the settlement at New River,
and his father, William Ingles, had started out to
Burke’s Garden to see if he could render any assist-
ance, and, very thoughtfully, took with him the best
_ surgeon he could get.

He met the returning party at the Clinch settle-
@
128 Trans-Allegheny Pioneers.

ment. The little girl was beyond the skill of the
doctor; she died from her wounds the next morning;

~ but he rendered invaluable service to Mrs. Ingles,
probably saving her life. He extracted several pieces
of broken bone from her skull, dressed her wounds
and attended her carefully until able to travel safely,
when she and her husband and infant returned with
William Ingles, to Ingles’ Ferry, and remained there
until next season. Mrs. Ingles, in the meantime,
entirely recovered from her terrible wound.

It is difficult now to appreciate the constant dan-
gers which beset the early pioneers, or realize the
readiness and cheerfulness with which they accepted
the dangers, hardships, self-denials and privations
incident to such a life.

Probably the fullest and truest description of the
conditions of border-life and the state of society exist-
ing along the Western frontiers, about the time the
first settlements began, was written by Rev. Dr.
Joseph Doddridge, who was himself reared on the
Western border, on the Upper Ohio, and was an un-
usually close and intelligent observer. His minute-
ness of detail, and lucidity of style, make his writings
invaluable as record-pictures of the primitive condi-
tions of life on our Western borders a hundred years
and more ago.

‘William Ingles owned a number of slaves at Ingles’
Ferry, and gave servants to his children as they were
married and settled. These were, in all probability,
the first slaves ever west of the Alleghanies, and
those above mentioned, that had been given to
Thomas Ingles, when he went to housekeeping, were
probably the first to cross New River westward.
Trans-Allegheny Pioneers. 129

Thomas Ingles was now meditating another settle-
ment. He could only be satisfied in the wilderness,
but he had had enough of Burke’s Garden. As
Southwest Virginia was rapidly filling up, he de-
termined to go down into Tennessee, where he made
a settlement on the Watauga, a branch of the Hol-
ston River. There were then but few settlers in this
region, and these few were frequently harassed by
the depredations of the Cherokees.

Thomas Ingles managed to live here several years,
and had gotten his family pretty comfortably fixed,
when the restless spirit of change again seized him.
He sold his improvements to immigrants coming in,
and moved about fifty miles farther down the river,
to another tributary, called “Mossy Creek,” then on
the frontier; but he found good range there for cat-
tle, and he was very fond of stock-raising. Here he
was constantly subject to the same dangers of Indian
depredations. Some of his neighbors suffered greatly,
but he, fortunately, escaped.

About this time, a military force, under Colonel
Knox, was sent still farther down the Holston, to
erect a Fort for the protection of the frontier; this
was called “Fort Knox.”

Thomas Ingles had now remained at “Mossy

“Creek” about as long as his restless nature would
permit him to live at one place, and he again sold
out his land and stock, and moved down to the vicin-
ity of Fort Knox.

The security given to settlers by the protection of
the Fort induced rapid immigration, to this section,
and the Fort soon began to grow into the village and
town of “ Knoxville.”

9
130 Trans-Allegheny Pioneers.

Thomas Ingles remained on his farm in this neigh-
borhood for some years longer; he had improved his
estate, added to his acres, had large herds of cattle,
was prosperous, comfortable, and, apparently, con-
tented. His daughter Rhoda, the infant of Burke’s
Garden, who had so narrowly escaped massacre at
Maxwell’s Gap, had grown up to womanhood, was a
bright and attractive young lady, and was married to
Mr. Patrick Campbell, of Knoxville. One of the
earliest recollections of my life, when I could not
have been over three or four years old, was a visit
from this, then, elderly lady, to my grandfather—her
uncle—Colonel John Ingles, of Ingles’ Ferry. I re-
member the earnest and interesting discussions of
the family history and adventures, and how they
excited my childish imagination. I was too young,
of course, to remember details. I only remember
the subject, and the interest it excited in me.

 

 
CHAPTER XXIV.

THE MOORE FAMILY.

ie another little gem of a valley, not far distant,

called “ Abb’s Valley,” from Absalom Looney, its
pioneer settler, who came here in 1771, from about
Looney’s Creek, near Pattonsburg, on James River,
another bloody tragedy, similar to that of Burke’s
Garden, above described, was enacted about four
years later.

In July, 1786, a party of Shawanees, from the Ohio
towns, led by the same stealthy and blood-thirsty
Black Wolf, who had devastated the Ingles-Burke’s-
Garden settlement, and who had also captured
James Moore, Jr., in 1784, came up the Big Sandy,
over Tug Ridge and across the heads of Laurel
Creek to Abb’s Valley, where, on the 14th, they
went to the house of Captain James Moore, who,
with his brother-in-law, John Pogue, had located
here in 1772.

They found Captain Moore salting his stock, a
short distance from the house, and shot him down;
then, rushing to the house, they killed two of his
children, William and Rebecca, and John Simpson,
who, I believe, was a hired man or assistant of Mr.
Moore, and sick at the time. There were two other
men in a harvest field, who fled and made their
escape. These disposed of, the savages proceeded to
132 Trans-Allegheny Pioneers.

make prisoners of Mrs. Moore and her four remain-
ing children—John, Jane, Mary and Peggy—and a
Miss Martha Evans, of Augusta, who was living with
the family.

In their rapid retreat, it soon became evident that
the boy, John, who was feeble, was an incumbrance
and hindrance in their flight, and he was tomahawked
and scalped, in his mother’s presence, and left by the
wayside. Two days later, little Peggy, the babe, was
brained against a tree.

Arriving at one of the Indian towns on the Scioto,
they heard of the death of some of their warriors,
who had been killed in some engagement with the
whites in Kentucky, and they determined, in council,
that two of these prisoners should be burned at the
stake, in retaliation. This terrible doom fell to the
lot of Mrs. Moore and her eldest daughter, Jane—a
pretty and interesting girl of sixteen.

They were tied to stakes, in the presence of the
remaining daughter and sister, and Miss Evans, and
a vast crowd of exulting savages, and slowly and
eruelly tortured, after the manner of the fiendish race,
with fire-brands and burning splinters of pine, ete.,
until Death, a now welcome friend, an angel of mercy
and messenger of peace, came to release them from
their persecutors and their agonizing sufferings.

Can pity lead to inflicting pain? Can kindness
kill?) Can mercy commit murder? Aye, even so,
under some circumstances.

What tender mercy it would have been in Simon
Girty to shoot Colonel Crawford, as he piteously
begged him to do, to end his fiery tortures! What
eruelty it was not to kill him!
Trans-Allegheny Pioneers. 133

In this case, an old hag of a squaw, with the feeble
spark of humanity that survived in her savage breast
kindled to a glow, and being surfeited by the exces-
sive tortures and sufferings of Mrs. Moore, in gentle
mercy and the kindness of her heart, gave the final
coup de grace to Mrs. Moore, with a hatchet, thus
shortening somewhat her already protracted agonies.
Mary Moore remained some years a prisoner among
the Indians, and, during the latter part of her stay,
with a white family, who treated her far more cruelly
than the Indians.

In September, 1784, two years prior to the circum-
stances above related, James Moore, Jr., aged four-
teen—eldest son of the above-mentioned Captain
James Moore—had been captured near his father’s
home, in Abb’s Valley, by a small party of these In-
dians, passing through, composed of the same Black
Wolf, his son and one other, and taken, first, to the
Shawanee towns of Ohio, and, afterwards, to the Mau-
mee settlements in Michigan, and, still later, sold to
a white family at or near Detroit. Hearing, through
Indian channels, of the terrible fate of his father’s
family, and that his sister Mary was a captive, not
very far from him, he managed to communicate with
her, first by message, and, afterwards, in person, and
to comfort her.

In October, 1789, James and Mary Moore, and Miss
Martha Evans, were all ransomed by their friends,
and restored to relatives in the Valley of Virginia,
where James Moore, Sr., and wife and Miss Evans
had been reared.

James Moore, Jr., not long after, returned to Abb’s
Valley, where he lived and reared a family, and died,
134 Trans-Allegheny Pioneers.

in 1851, in the eighty-first year of his age, and where
his son, a venerable and honored citizen, now eighty-
four, still owns and occupies, in peace and happiness,
the possessions secured to him and his descendants
by the blood and tears of his ancestors.

Mary Moore married a distinguished Presbyterian
Minister, Rev. John Brown, of Rockbridge County,
and was the mother of a large family, five or six of
whom became Presbyterian ministers; one of whom,
the late Rev. James Brown, D. D., whose memory is
warmly cherished by all the older citizens of this
place (Charleston, W. Va.), was, for a quarter of a
century, pastor of the First Presbyterian Church of
this city.

Dr. James Brown had but two sons who attained
their majority; both were Presbyterian ministers.
The eldest, Rev. Samuel Brown, died at his pastorate
in Greenbriar County, in early life. The younger,
Rev. John Brown, is, and has been for a number of
years, pastor of the Presbyterian Church at Malden,
Kanawha County. Many years ago, Dr. James
Brown, discovering unusual sprightliness in a poor
and friendless Irish boy, took him home with him,
and, in the kindness of his heart, reared and edu-
cated him with his own sons. This (then) poor lad
became the late distinguished Rev. Dr. Stuart Robin-
son, D.D., LL. D., who achieved a national reputation
as a successful teacher, eloquent preacher and able
author.

The story of the sufferings of James Moore and
family, and especially of the survivor, Mary Moore,
was very touchingly told by the late Rev. James
Brown, her son, in a little volume called “The
Trans-Allegheny Pioneers. ; 135

Captives of Abb’s Valley,” published some forty —
years ago, and which is well remembered by our
elderly citizens. From this little volume, chiefly, I
have condensed the foregoing sketch.

There is another incident connected with the mur-
der and capture of Captain Moore’s family which, I
think, is of interest enough to be perpetuated,
especially as it illustrates a fact often mentioned by
the early pioneers—that is, that civilized (?) horses
have a very strong antipathy to Indians. They scent
them at a distance, and show their displeasure and
fear by snorting, pawing, ete., and will flee, if they
can. After the murders and captures, the Indians
proceeded to appropriate the horses, as a matter of
course. Captain Moore had a fine black horse, called
Yorick—a very powerful and a very vicious horse.
He was controllable enough by Captain Moore, and
by Simpson, who had attended him, but he would let
no one else ride him or handle him. One of the In-
dians, in attempting to mount him, was knocked
down and pawed, and killed or crippled; a second
one tried it, and with the same result, when the leader
of the party, a very determined and very powerful
“man, declared that he would ride him or kill him;
he mounted him, but was no sooner on than off,
and, while down, the horse sprang upon him and,
with hoofs and teeth, killed him before he could re-
~ cover his feet; whereupon the other Indians shot and
stabbed the horse to death, after which they buried
the large Indian close to the stable and departed.

Dr. Brown does not mention this incident in his
narrative, but I have taken the pains to ask of Mr.
William Moore, by letter, what he knows or believes
136 Trans-Allegheny Pioneers.

about the tradition. He tells me that he has reason
to believe that it is substantially true, and that when
his father, Mr. James Moore, Jr., the captive, re-
turned to Abb’s Valley, he plowed up, in plowing
his fields, near the old stable, a skeleton of unusual
size, which was believed to be that of the large man
killed by the horse.

It is known that the leader of the several parties
who captured Thomas Ingles’ family, in Burke’s
Garden, in 1782, captured James Moore, Jr., in 1784,
and destroyed the family of James Moore, Sr., in
1786, was named Black Wolf. As he is not after-
wards heard of along the borders, I think it strongly
probable that it was the veritable Black Wolf whose ~
career had been so ingloriously terminated by the horse
Yorick; and this suggests the probable identity of
Black Wolf and Wolf, the son of Cornstalk. It is
said that Cornstalk had a son called Wolf, who went
to Williamsburg with Lord Dunmore, after the
treaty at Camp Charlotte, ostensibly, I believe, as a
hostage, with other Indians, but more likely, really,
to be manipulated in the interest of Dunmore and
the English against the Colonies. When Governor
Dunmore fled, the Indians returned to their wilder-
ness homes. I know of no after history of Wolf,
unless it be as Black Wolf, who had just the huge
physical frame and bold, daring traits of character
that we should expect a son to inherit from such
a father. This, of course, is not history, but simply
conjecture, based upon reasonable probabilities.
CHAPTER XXV.

REBECCA DAVIDSON.

N 1789, about three years after the destruction of
Captain James Moore’s family, and about the time
of the reovery, from captivity, of James Moore, Jr.,
and his sister Mary, the family of one of their former
neighbors, Andrew Davidson, were the victims of
another raid of the Indians into that region. The
family of Mr. Davidson consisted of himself and
wife, Rebecca, two little girls and a little boy, and
two bound children, a girl and boy.

Andrew Davidson had himself gone on a trip
down to the Shenandoah Valley; during his absence,
there being no male protector about his house, the
Indians suddenly made their appearance, and, in
broken English, told Mrs. Davidson she and her
family must go with them. This was a terrible fate,
under any circumstances, but to Mrs. D., at the time,
it was especially painful and trying, as she was about
to become a mother; this, however, was no valid ex-
cuse in their eyes. Go she must, whatever the suf-
fering to her. She undertook to carry her little boy,
less than two years old; seeing that it was too much
for her, the Indians took it from her. She expected
to see them kill it before her eyes, but was greatly
relieved when, instead, they carried it along, good-
naturedly, for her.
138 Trans-Allegheny Pioneers.

Somewhere on the route, nature’s period being
probably somewhat hastened by the unusual physical
exertion and mental anxiety, Mrs. Davidson intro-
duced to this world of suffering and sorrow the little
expected stranger. Both mother and babe were
spared, for the time being; but the circumstance was
not allowed to interfere with the progress of the
journey. Fortunately for Mrs. Davidson, she enjoyed
remarkably fine physical health and strength, un-
enervated by the inactive life and luxurious habits of
the ladies of this day; she was equal to the emer-
gency, and resumed the journey, next morning, with
the babe in her arms. After a day or two, the infant
became ill and troublesome, when one of the Indians
coolly took it from her and pitched it into Tug River
and drowned, together, the little life and its sorrows
and sufferings, so inauspiciously begun, regardless of
the anguish of the sorrowing mother.

When they arrived at the Indian towns, her two
little girls, to her great horror, were tied to trees and
shot to death, for sport. The little two-year-old boy
was given to an old squaw, who started away with
him in a canoe, which, by some means, was upset
and the little fellow drowned. The two bound chil-
dren were separated from her, and were never after-
wards heard of by her.

Two years after this, Andrew Davidson visited the
Indian towns in Ohio, in search of his wife; he found
some of those who had participated in her capture;
they told him she was alive, but would not tell him
where she was. Next year, they sent him word that
she was somewhere in Canada; so he started again
in search of her. In passing a comfortable farm-
house, in Canada, about noon one day, he stopped to
Trans-Allegheny Pioneers. 139

get some dinner, and, while waiting for the meal, a
woman passed him, and seemed to examine him very
critically; but, as he was deeply absorbed with the
thoughts of his wife, and anxious for his dinner, he
paid no attention to her. She went on to where the
lady of the house (her mistress) was, and said to her,
excitedly: “I know who that man is,” and, rushing
back into his presence, and throwing herself into his
arms, cried out: “Andrew Davidson, I am your
wife!” And so she was; but, oh, what changes her
grief and sorrows had wrought! She was looking
thin and haggard, and her once black and glossy hair
had turned snowy white, though she was but a young
woman.

What happiness! and what sorrow! They were
at last restored to each other; but, alas! their little
children were all gone.

The gentleman with whom Mrs. Davidson was
living proved to be a humane man; he gave her up
without ransom or reward, and voluntarily contrib-
uted to the expense of her return home, though he
had paid the Indians a high price for her.

They returned to their home, where they lived to
rear another family.

The Davidsons were related to the Peerys, a prom-
inent family of the Clinch settlement. The Peerys
were intermarried with the Crocketts, one of the
most numerous families of Southwest Virginia, and
the Crocketts and Ingles and Draper families were

- intermarried.

Mrs. Ingles and Mrs. Davidson knew each other
well. With what thrilling interest they must have
compared notes and discussed their painful captive
experiences !
CHAPTER AXVI.

HE family of Thomas Ingles were hoping that
he had gotten well over his wild, roving disposi-
tion, and that he would never care to leave his com-
fortable Knoxville farm and home, but results proved
otherwise.

He met with a person just returned from the far-
off settlement of Natchez, in the Mississippi Terri-
tory. He told Ingles of a man living there who
owed him a considerable sum of money. He, also,
gave him (Ingles) a glowing description of the new
settlement, and the rich lands of that region.

Thomas Ingles at once made up his mind to go to
Natchez. He arranged with two traders, who thought
they could make a successful trading expedition
down the rivers. They procured a boat on joint ac-
count, and stocked it with a joint supply of pro-
visions for the trip; the traders got their goods
aboard. Thomas Ingles took a pair of saddlebags,
with some extra clothing, and the wild adventurers
were off on their perilous journey to the far-away,
promised land.

They intended to go all the way by water; they
proceeded without mishap until they got to the
muscle shoals of Tennessee River; these proved to
be much rougher and more dangerous than they had
anticipated; their boat was violently capsized, and
they came near losing their lives, but were assisted
Trans-Allegheny Pioneers. 141

by some friendly Indians, who happened to be on the
shore, and witnessed their disaster.

They were saved, but were left in a destitute and
distressing condition; they were several hundred
miles from home, and still farther from their destina-
tion, among Indian tribes, remote from any white
settlement—their goods lost, their provisions lost,
their clothing lost, except only the contents of
Thomas Ingles’ saddlebags; these he caught with
one hand as the boat went over, and he caught and
held on to the gunwale of the boat with the other,
when it came up again, and until rescued.

They held a consultation on the situation; the
‘unanimous decision was not to turn back, but to go
forward.

They got some provisions from the Indians, and
on they went, down the Tennessee, down the Ohio,
down the Mississippi—meeting many minor troubles
and vexations, but no further disasters—and finally
reached their objective point, the Natchez settle-
ment. :

Thomas Ingles soon found the man he sought;
but, of course, he got no money. This he might
have known before he went.

He was so charmed with the country, however,
and the rich Mississippi lands, that he determined to
move his family out. He returned to his home, ad-
vised his family of his resolution, then made a last
visit to his now aged mother and his brother, John
Ingles, at Ingles’ Ferry. He spent a week or two
with them in pleasant, social and kindred inter-
course, talking over and over the terrible scenes and
sufferings of their past lives; but the time to part at
142 Trans-Allegheny Pioneers.

last arrived; he bade them a long, last and affecting
farewell, returned to Knoxville, sold his farm, his
furniture, his cattle—whatever he had—for less than
their value, in order to realize promptly, and again,
in 1802, he turned his face towards the setting sun.

How long Thomas Ingles lived at Natchez I do
not know, but probably not long, as he wag next
heard of at Port Gibson, Mississippi Territory. His
next remove was an involuntary one, and to that far
country whence no traveler returns.

Thomas Ingles left a son, Thomas Ingles, Jr., who
was born in Tennessee in 1791, and removed to
Natchez, with the family, in 1802. He also had a son
John, who, somewhat later, is said to have been:
drowned in the Mississippi River.

I remember Thomas, Jr., in 1833, when he re-
turned to Virginia to visit his uncle, Colonel John
Ingles, and to talk over with him the wonderfully
eventful histories of his grandmother and his father
and mother. He urged his uncle to write an outline
sketch of these lives for preservation by the family,
which he did, briefly, and from which I get many of
the facts here related.

The younger Thomas was a worthy and honorable,
though somewhat eccentric, man. He wrote a short
sketch of his father’s life (to which I am also in-
debted for many facts). He also wrote a short auto- .
biographical sketch of himself. He seems to have
been “all things by turns, and nothing long.” He
says he studied law, medicine, theology and politics,
but did not practice any profession.

He was a book-keeper, deputy sheriff, school
teacher, militia commander, trustee, treasurer, sec-
 

TUOMAS INGLES.
Trans-Allegheny Pioneers. 148

retary, etc., of several corporations—business, re-
ligious and literary—a merchant and a planter; but,
perhaps, more than anything else, postmaster.

I met him again in 1848, at Augusta, Ky., where,
for many years, he was their postmaster, and they
never had a better.

Some years later he moved to Cincinnati, where he
died in 1863, aged seventy-two. He had been twice
married, first to Miss Barnes, the issue being four
sons and three daughters; and, second, to Miss
Warren, the issue being three sons and two daughters.
CHAPTER NXXVII.

YUL LIAM INGLES (the elder) died at Ingles’

Ferry, in the prime of life, in the fall of 1782,
aged fifty-three. Colonel William Christian and
Colonel Daniel Trigg were the executors of his will,
and received three hundred and forty-six acres of
Burke’s Garden land for their services. Mrs. Mary
Ingles, his widow, lived to a ripe old age, dying at
Ingles’ Ferry in February, 1815, in her eighty-fourth
year.

She retained a large amount of physical vigor and
mental clearness to the last. Mrs. Governor John
Floyd, who lived near her and knew her well, writing
about her in 1848, speaks of meeting her (Mrs. I.)
at a religious association, or convention, which she
had attended on horseback, thirty miles from home, *
when past eighty. Her step was then still elastic,
her figure erect, and her complexion florid and
healthy, though her hair was white as snow.

About this time, some one started a rumor that
her brother, John Draper, who was two years older
than she, and the second time a widower, was about
to marry a young girl. She was very much worried
by the report, and, fearing that it might be true, de-
termined to go to her brother’s, about twenty miles
distant, and learn the facts for herself.

She ordered her favorite saddle-horse, “Bonny,”
and started, although it was late in the afternoon.
When her son, John Ingles, with whom she was
living, or, rather, near whom, for she kept up her
Trans-Allegheny Pioneers. 145

separate establishment as long as he lived, having
her own house and garden, servants, horses, cows,
etc.—came to the house and learned what had oc-
curred, he was very much disturbed about it, ordered
another horse saddled immediately, and started his
son, Crockett Ingles, in pursuit, to assure the old lady
that it was all a joke, and to bring her back; but
Crockett could not overtake her. She got to Draper’s
Valley after dark, and, satisfying herself that she
was the victim of a practical joke, she started back
early next morning, and was at home to dinner.
Crockett, having failed to overtake his grandmother
the night before, stayed all night at a farm-house by
the way, and joined her and returned home with her
next morning.
Illustrating her wonderful nerve and cool presence
of mind, it is related of her that once, when walking
in her kitchen garden, among the cabbages and other
_ vegetables, she stepped upon the neck of a large
black snake, before seeing it. Instantly the snake,
writhing in its pain, coiled itself about her leg. She
appreciated the situation at once, but. instead of
screaming, or fainting, or running away, she stood
perfectly still, her weight holding the snake firmly in
place, until she called to her cook to fetch her the
butcher-knife, with which she soon released herself
by cutting the snake in two.

In her youth, Mrs. Ingles had learned to spin on
the “little wheel,” a most useful and valuable accom-
plishment in those days, and especially on the fron-
tier, where the pioneers raised their own flax and
wool, and where most of their clothes were of home
manufacture.

10
146 Trans-Allegheny Pioneers.

Stores were then very remote, and “store clothes”
almost unattainable. She kept up her habit of spin-
ning to her latest years. Her temperament was so
restless and active that she could not and would not
be idle. When she found nothing else to do, instead
of sewing or knitting, as most old ladies do, she
would get her wheel and put in her time at spinning,
often despite the remonstrances of her family, who
would have preferred to have her spend her declining
years in restful quiet.

Once her wheel got out of order, and she had asked
her son, more than once, to send it to a workman and
have it repaired. He had neglected to do so, prob-
ably intentionally, in order to discourage her spinning
efforts; but when he was away from home one day,
she ordered her favorite “Bonny” saddled, took the
wheel in her lap, rode eight miles to a carpenter, or
wheelwright, had it repaired and brought it home;
after which the spinning went on as usual, though
she was then over eighty years of age.

The old lady delighted, in her latter years, to tell
over to her children and grandchildren, the story of
her terrible captivity and wonderful escape.

What the theological views or religious professions
of these old pioneers of the Ingles and Draper fami-
lies were I do not know; that they were as honest,
moral and kind-hearted people, as true to their own
consciences and as charitable to their neighbors as
the average church-going people of the present day,
I doubt not; but, in the nature of things, it is not
probable that actual church-going or other devotional
services, public or private, had much part either in
their week day or Sunday exercises.
 

Mrs. MALINDA CHARLTON.
Trans-Allegheny Pioneers. 147

As they were mostly of Scotch-Irish descent, it is
probable that their denominational proclivities—if
they had any—were towards Presbyterianism. Those
of their descendants who were or are church mem-
bers, so far as I know, were or are, with very few ex-
ceptions, Presbyterians.

William and Mary Ingles had four children, three
daughters and one son, born to them after her return
from captivity. They were: Mary, Susan, Rhoda
and John.

Mary married Mr. John Grills, of Montgomery
County, and had two children.

Susan married General Abram Trigg, of Buchan-
an’s Bottom, New River, and had ten children.

Rhoda married Colonel Byrd Smith, of Dunkard
Bottom, and had eight children.

John Ingles, the youngest child, born in 1766, mar-
ried, first, Margaret Crockett, of Wythe County, and,
second, Mary Saunders, of Franklin County; had
nine children—all by his first wife.

MRS. CHARLTON.

One of the children of John Ingles and Margaret
Crockett, now Mrs. Malinda Charlton, an aged and
venerable lady, in her eighty-fifth year, is the last
surviving grandchild of William and Mary Ingles.
She is still clear in mind, and in a fair state of health
and physical preservation. She remembers her
grandmother well, having lived in the same house
with her from her own infancy until the death of the
old lady, in 1815. To her remarkable memory I am
indebted for many facts and incidents related in the
foregoing sketches of the family.
148 Trans-Allegheny Pioneers.

She is a wonderful connecting link between the
past and the present—the old and the new—bringing
down the days of her grandmother to those of her
own grandchildren, the two lives spanning the great
time of one hundred and fifty-four years, or more
than a century and a half, from the birth of Mary
Draper, at Philadelphia, in 1782, to the present
writing, in 1886, and she (Mrs. Charlton) still living.
What wonderful changes the world has witnessed in
these one hundred and fifty-four years! What a
wonderful fact, that a person yet living should have
known, and should still remember, the first white
woman (at least, of English descent) ever between the
Alleghenies and the Pacific; and that woman her
own grandmother !

From another branch of this Crockett family
sprang the eccentric and renowned Davy Crockett.
This Davy Crockett formulated a motto which, for
plain matter of fact, concentrated common sense, is _
one of the wisest ever enunciated. Its authorship
alone was enough to immortalize him. Everybody
knows Davy Crockett’s motto: ‘Be sure you are
right, then go ahead!” as they do, also, that other
grand formula, propounded by the great moral
teacher, combining the substance and essence of all
moral wisdom: “Do unto others as you would have
others do unto you.” These two companion pictures
might be—and, indeed, are—amplified into volumes
and libraries, teaching wisdom and purity in all the
relations of life—political, social, business, moral and
general.

Unfortunately, not every one who is familiar with
these wise formule governs himself by them, or .
either of them.

*
ae

CHAPTER XXVIII.

A “FALL HUNT” OF THE OLDEN TIME.

N illustration of the.customs of half a century and

more ago, it may not be without interest to describe
here an old-time “family Fall hunt,’ an institution
now obsolete in this part of the world, and even the
the recollections of which are fast fading away.

In those days game was very abundant, and the
Fall hunt was one of the events of the year. It was
looked forward to for months in advance with pleas-
urable anticipations, by old and young, male and
female.

In the days of my youth and earlier, my grand-
father, John Ingles, owned large boundaries of wild
land on the “ Little River,” herein above mentioned,
and Reed Island Creek, and had a hunting station
between them, on “ Greasy Creek,” a tributary of the
latter. There were several log cabins on the prem-
ises, for the accommodation of the hunters. <A trusted
family of old servants lived here to take care of
the place, raise poultry and fruit, and keep bees for
honey.

About September, invitations would be sent out
for twenty or thirty friends, male and female, in sev-
eral neighboring counties. Out of these, probably a
dozen or twenty would attend, of whom about one-
third, usually, would be ladies, married and single.
Most of the party would rendezvous at Ingles’ Ferry,
150 Trans-Allegheny Pioneers.

and go together from there; others would join the
company at the camp.

At the appointed time one or more wagons would
start out with bedding, linen, etc., cooking utensils,
table-ware, table comforts, some medicinal liquors, a
few extra guns and necessary ammunition for those
who might come without their own; a keeper of the
hounds, with a large pack of dogs, necessary cooks,
hostlers, etc., a banjo and a fiddle, a pack of cards and
a few books or magazines for the ladies, and the outfit
was complete.

Arrived upon the ground, and the comfort of the
ladies looked after, the first day’s hunt would be
planned by the old campaigners, choosing the ground
over which they should hunt, and allotting each to
his separate duty—some to follow the hounds, some
to still-hunt, and others to be posted at the well
known “stands” where the deer were sure to pass
the gaps or ridges, or cross the streams. This done,
all would retire to an early rest, to dream of the ex-
citing pleasures of the morrow’s hunt.

FLINT-LOCKS.

In those days, there was a famous gun-maker in
the neighborhood, named Spangler, who was a born
mechanic, and had acquired great skill and achieved
great reputation in his art. I think he was the sec-
ond or third of the name, in line, who had followed
the business. No hunter for many counties around
considered his hunting outfit complete, or creditable,
unless he had a rifle with the Spangler brand on it.
They were plain, old-fashioned rifles, with flint-locks,
but wonderfully accurate. 9
Trans-Allegheny Pioneers. 151

Before day, the keeper of the hounds would sound
his horn, which would set all the dogs howling,
making longer sleep impossible, and arouse every-
body on the place. Breakfast would be ready by
daylight, and, by the time that was over, horses were
saddled and ready, and “all hands” were off for the
stands or the chase.

One half of the dogs would be taken out, and the
remainder left in the kennel, and thus alternated day
by day, having each day fresh dogs.

It was a disappointment if at least one or more
deer or bear were not killed each day, beside turkeys,
pheasants, etc. The party would return to the camp
about four or five o’clock, depending upon the dis-
tance, the luck, ete.

By the time all were in, and washed and ready, a
royal game dinner, smoking hot, would be served,
probably supplemented by apple dumplings and
honey in the comb, all seasoned by that best of all
sauces, a sharp appetite.

During and after dinner, the gentlemen would re-
count the adventures of the day, and plan the hunt
for the morrow, after which there might be a game
of cards, some music by Sambo, and a little quiet
courting among the young folks, if the proper par-
ties happened to be present.

After an early rest and refreshing sleep, all would
be ready to renew the pleasures of the chase on the
following day; and so on, successively, for a week,
or ten days, or two weeks, depending upon the
weather, the success of the hunt and the congeniality
of the company.

Tn these everglades and cranberry meadows on the
152 Trans-A llegheny Pioneers.

western slopes of the Blue Ridge, where droves of
deer and other game then roved at will, unmolested
save by these Fall hunts, once a year, are-now settle-
tlements, farms and family habitations, and the
game and the exciting sport of the chase are gone
forever.

In my youth, I attended one of the last, if not, in-
deed, the very last, of these formal family Fall hunts,
of the order above described. Here I experienced
the first touch of the malady termed by the old Nim-
rods “buck ague”’—not very fatal, usually, at either
end of the gun, but violent and exciting while it
lasts. There were, as I remember, on the occasion
mentioned, about a dozen and a half persons pres-
ent, several of them ladies, married and single. I
was the youngest person in the party, and I am now,
save one other, I believe, the only survivor. All the
others have gone over to the happy—or rather, let us

_hope, the happier—hunting ground beyond.

pis
CHAPTER XXIX.

THE INGLES FAMILY CLOCK.

YWysue I write, the grand old family clock is

ticking by my side. As early as I can remem-
ber anything, I remember the slow, measured tick,
tick, tick, of this rare old clock, and the sonorous,
silvery notes of its musical bell. And so it has
ticked and struck, and counted off the fleeting hours,
year after year, for generation after generation.

According to the family tradition, the clock was
constructed about 1738, and has been running since
that time, and is now, consequently, nearly a century
and a half old.

Its early history, before the time of William and
Mary Ingles, is not now accurately known, but,after
this time it is quite clear, and is identified with the
family history.

It probably ticked for Thomas Ingles (the immi-
grant) and his children. It certainly ticked for
William and Mary Ingles and their children. It
ticked for John Ingles and his children. It ticked
for his daughter and her children. It is now ticking
for a miserable old bachelor and his—little dog.

William Ingles, when he died, left it to his widow,
Mary Ingles; when she died, she left it to her son,
John; when he died, he left it to his daughter, my
mother; when she died, she left to me; and when
I die,

 
154 Trans-Allegheny Pioneers.

The clock is a handsome piece of furniture, has
a black walnut case, silvered face, brass works, is
eight feet high, runs eight days, records the hours,
minutes and seconds, the days of the month and
changes of the moon, and bids fair to do duty for an
indefinite time in the future as an accurate and re-
hable time-keeper.

From the early date of the Ingles and Draper set-
tlement west of the Alleghenies, I think it safe to
assume that this remarkable old clock was the Jirst
that ever crossed the Alleghenies, and was the first in
all that vast territory between the Allegheny Mount-
ains and the Pacifie Ocean to tick and tell of the
passing moments which, hitherto, through all past
time, had glided by unheeded, unmeasured and un-
recorded.

This clock suggests some curious and interesting
reflections to those inclined to indulge themselves in
that way.

If every tick records the departure of a soul from
this world, as is claimed, then think of the millions
of millions of humans that have played their brief
parts on the stage of life and passed on since this
clock began its monotonous ticking! Think of how
many mighty rulers, Kings and Emperors, have
reigned, clothed with brief authority, and gone their
way! What Dynasties, great and small, have arisen
and gone down! What changes in the maps of the
world! What progress in art, science, education,
general enlightenment and human comfort!

Look at the changes that have occurred in our
own country—then but a scattered British colony
along the Atlantic slope, now a grand Republic, the
Trans-Allegheny Pioneers. 155

pride of its citizens and the admiration of the world,
extending. from ocean to ocean, with nearly sixty
millions of enlightened people, and with more popu-
lation now, within a radius of five miles around
Trinity steeple, New York, than in the whole coun-
try “when this old clock was new.’

It is not possible, of course, to tell how long this
clock may continue to run, but it is in good and
sound condition, and, if it should meet with no dis-
aster or violent end, I see no good reason why it
should not last another one hundred and fifty years,
or more.

It is a curious thought, and not without sadness,
that of all the millions and millions of living beings
on earth when this clock ticked its first second, and
rang out its first hour, not one is left to bear witness;
and, whatever other changes may come in the future,
it is safe to say that every soul and every living
creature now on earth will have fulfilled its destiny
here and gone hence, and their places been filled by
countless millions yet unborn, before this old clock
ceases to measure, tick by tick, the tiny seconds
that go to make up the years and the ages as Time
rolls on!
CHAPTER XXX.

CHANGES WITHIN A LIFETIME.

js writing the foregoing sketches, I have often had

occasion to think of the wonderful changes that
have occurred in the condition of the world, not only
since the Pioneer-Trans-Allegheny-Draper-Meadows-
Ingles’-Ferry settlements of nearly a century and a
half ago, but of the even more rapid progress that
has been made within the much shorter time of my
own life and recollections—say within a period of
about sixty years.

So much have I been struck and impressed by a
review of the rapid advances of this rapidly ad-
vancing age, that I am led to believe that a retro-
spective glance over the period would astonish, inter-
est and, possibly, instruct very many persons who
have not had occasion or happened to give the sub-
ject special thought.

To aid them in- such a retrospect, I will present,
from my own recollections, a short sketch of the
condition of every-day life existing in a rich, pros-
perous and representative agricultural and grazing
community, at the time indicated, and will enum-
erate some of the many items and instances of prog-
ress and advance in all the needs, uses and operations
of man which scientific invention and discovery have
given to them, and to the world at large, within the
Trans-Allegheny Pioneers. 157

time named, and let each reader, for himself, com-
pare the past with the present, the old with the new,
and each for himself decide whether or not “the
good old times” were better than the new.

A large proportion of the families in the region
about which I have been writing—now Montgomery
and Pulaski Counties, Virginia—were, at the time
indicated, wealthy or well-to-do, and largely engaged
in cultivating the soil and stock-raising, living upon
the fat of the land, very independently and very much ~
within themselves; none the less happy and contented,
perhaps, because they lacked the innumerable conven-
iences and luxuries of this latter day, so many of
which now seem to us indispensable.

Each family had among its servants trained and
skilled mechanics—a blacksmith to shoe the horses,
“upset” the old-fashioned plows, iron the wagons
and carts, repair the farm utensils, and other promis-
cuous work; the carpenter would build and repair
the houses, barns, etc., and make or mend the
wagons, carts, wheel-barrows, water-pails, butter-
ferkins, etc.; the shoemaker would make and mend
the shoes worn by all the family, white and black.

The female servants were all taught to sew, spin
and knit, and a certain number of them were taught
weaving.

On every large estate, the blacksmith’s and carpen-
ter’s shop, the shoemaker’s shop and the loom house
were as invariable as the dwelling house, the barn
and the crib.

The servant women spun and wove linen goods for
Summer, and woolen flannels and jeans for Winter
wear; also, nice bedquilts, counterpanes, etc., and the
hosiery was knitted by the older women.
158 Trans-Allegheny Pioneers.

There were fulling mills near, that -“fulled” and
dyed the woolen goods. They made a beautiful black
jeans, then much worn by men and boys.

The mistress of the house was generally expert. in
cutting the garments, for white and black; and, when
so cut out, the females, white and black, would make
them up by hand sewing. They raised their geese
and made their own feather-beds and pillows.

These farmers raised their own hogs and cured
their own bacon for the year. They had beef and
mutton, poultry and eggs, butter and cheese, milk
and honey, fruit and vegetables, without stint. They
never thought of buying any of these things, but
sold or bartered their surplus for their sugar, coffee,
tea, etc. They never sold, fruit, vegetables, etc., to
their neighbors, but divided freely with those who
needed.

Most of them distilled their own peach and apple
brandies, and enjoyed an apple-jack toddy, or “ peach
and honey.” These were kept on the side-board and
offered to all comers. The ladies made a nice do-
mestic wine from currants.

Every Fall, each farmer would send his teams to
the Washington County Salt Works for the year’s
supply of salt, and land plaster for manure.

In season, a stock of wood was provided for Win-
ter fires, the Winter apples were put up, peaches and
apples dried, fruits preserved, the cider and apple-
butter made, and honey taken for Winter use.

They made their own alkali by leaching wood
ashes, and made their own soap from this alkali and
the kitchen greases. They made a delicious lie hom-
iny by steeping new corn, in whole grains, in this
Trans-Allegheny Pioneers. - 159

strong alkali, to remove the outer bran. They also
made cracked hominy with home-made hominy mor-
tar and pestle. '

They raised their own hemp, spun their own twine
and twisted their own ropes, for all domestic uses.
Flax was raised, retted, broken, scutched, hackled,
spun, woven, cut, made and worn, at home. Wool
was raised, carded, spun, woven or knitted, dyed,
made and worn, at home.

Servants were allowed private patches, in which
they raised their own tobacco, watermelons and some
vegetables, and,-the more provident, a pig or two and
some chickens,

In those days, a few tomatoes, then called “love
apples,” were raised in gardens, as curiosities, but
were not eaten.

The days of canned fruits and vegetables, fish and .
meats, had not yet arrived. Patent butter, made
from tallow or lard, was not then known; the honest
cows still held the monopoly of the butter trade.

Horseshoes and horseshoe nails, now made by ma-
chinery, were then all made by hand. The modern
patent plows and steam plows were not then made.
Grain was cut with sickle or cradle, and threshed with
the flail or by horses’ feet. The patent mowers, reap-
ers, threshers, corn-planters, corn-shellers, and the long
list of modern agricultural implements, had not yet
taken form in the inventive brains of those who were
destined to bless the world with them, and enrich
themselves.

The travel of those days was mostly by horseback,
or private vehicles, or stage-coaches and-canal-boats.
There were no railroads then, no telegraphs, tele-
160 Trans-dllegheny Pioneers.

phones, microphones, photophones, autophones, ete.
No bicycles, no roller skates, no patent spring rubber
bottle-stoppers. There were no modern buggies then,
and no eliptical steel springs for wheeled vehicles.
Private carriages, like stages, were hung on leather
belts or bands. There were no lever brakes for
wagons and carriages. Wheels had to be dead-locked
by looped chains. There were no.screw-propellers
in steam navigation; no sternwheel boats, and but
few of any sort.

Photography was then unknown. Portraits and
miniatures were painted in oil, or. sketched with
crayons.

There were no chromos then, or other cheap pic-
tures; no aniline dyes; no illustrated daily papers.
The number of periodicals then published was but a
beggarly list as compared with to-day.

Percussion caps, needle-guns, fixed ammunition,
modern revolvers, breech-loaders, Gatling and maga-
zine guns, were yet unknown.

The flint-lock rifle was then the standard small
arm, and its accompaniments were the shot-pouch
(generally made of a wild-cat, panther or deer skin),
bullet-molds and a carved powder-horn, and, with
these, a leather belt and a butcher-knife.

There were no rifled nor long-range cannon; no
armor-plated ships; no torpedo boats; no dynamite,
gun-cotton or nitro-glycerine.

No monitors, no submarine armor, no ocean eeblas,
no suspension bridges, no elevated nor underground
railways, no pneumatic tubes.

The cotton gin was not yet invented. Cotton-seed
oil was not made. Lard oil was not known. Peru-
Trans-Allegheny Pioneers. 161

vian guano and South Carolina phosphates were not
discovered, and chemical manures were not manu-
factured.

There were no deep-well boring tools, no Diamond
corn-drills, no deep-sea soundings.

The gulf streams and ocean currents were not
then understood. The atmospheric laws and move-
ments were not then known and charted. “Old
Probs,”’ with his weather predictions and records,
had not yet come to the front.

Geology and chemistry were then in their infancy.
Improved telescopes have, since then, made vast
progress in astronomical discovery and knowledge.
The spectroscope, then unknown, has revealed the
secrets of the far distant fixed stars and nebule. The
microscope has opened up a new world of wonders
in the opposite direction. The little bacillus “ com-
ma,” recently discovered by it, may yet be brought
to a “full stop,” and the cholera scourge with it. In-
oculation for rabies was not yet tried.

Darwin’s evolution theories, now generally ac-
cepted by the intelligent, had not then been broached.
The Northwest Arctic passage had not then been
sailed through, and thus demonstrated. Livingstone
and Stanley had not yet opened up the geographical
and race mysteries of Central Africa. The South
Africa) diamond fields were then unknown. The
California and Australia gold mines, Colorado silver
mines, Lake Superior copper mines, and the Missouri
Tron Moutain, were undiscovered.

Sodium, potassium, aluminum, and other metals
and metalloids and their alloys, were unknown.

There were then no “Jetties” to scour out river

11
162 Trans-Allegheny Pioneers.

mouths, and no adjustable dams for river navigation
improvement.

There were no steam fire engines, no Holly water
system, no steam drills for tunnel boring, no Thames
tunnel, no Alpine tunnels for railroads, no railroads
for tunnels.

There was then no wood paper pulp, no paper
twine, no paper bags, no paper collars, no paper car
wheels, no wall-paper, no parchment paper for
records, no paper-mache. Probably the first paper
mill west of the Alleghenies, and south of Mason’s
and Dixon’s line, was erected in “’Possum Hollow,”
between Ingles’ Ferry and Draper’s Valley.

There were no circular saws, no band saws, nor
patent log turners for saw mills. There were no
steam-pressure brick machines, no steel wire-lines,
no time-locks for bank safes, no elevators nor enun-
ciators for hotels, no aneroid barometers, no ane-
mometers, no self-registerfng thermometers, no elec-
trical clocks, no water-tube safety boilers, no hard-
brick, board-floor street paving, no Nicholson blocks,
asphalt or Belgium-block street-paving, no wood or
iron planing machines, no gimlet-pointed screws, no
coal-digging machines.

There were then no postal stamps, no postal cards,
no postal money-orders, no envelopes, no blotting
paper. The letter was folded, tucked in and stuck
with a wafer, or with sealing-wax. The ink was
dried with a dark sand, instead of blotting paper.
The writing was done with goose-quill pens; steel
and gold pens were yet unknown. There were no
type-writers, no manifold writers, no fountain pens,
no indelible pencils.
Trans-Allegheny Pioneers. ~ 163

The postage on a letter was 25c., 18$c., etc., “C.
oO. D.”

Slavery had not then been abolished in America.
The Russian serfs had not been emancipated. The
African slave trade had not been interdicted by the
civilized powers. Universal suffrage and free schools
had not been adopted in the United States.

Since then, Uncle Sam has enlarged his domains
by a strip of territory extending from the Gulf of
Mexico to the Pacific, from Texas to California in-
elusive, and another Pacific strip from the British
line to the frozen oceans. Our population was then
but ten millions, and is now nearly sixty millions.

There were then no friction matches, or “ Lucifers,”’
as called when first made, and, afterwards, ‘“ Loco-
foco” matches. Gentlemen who smoked carried
“sun glasses” in their vest-pockets, and concentrated
the sun’s rays to light their pipes; and, in the absence
of sunshine, resorted to “flint and steel” (usually a
jack-knife and a gun flint), and a piece of punk.

The currency, at that day, was reckoned more by
pounds, shillings and pence (£ s. d.) than in dollars
and cents, but it was based upon the Virginia stand-
ard of 16% cents to the shilling. “Uncle Sam” had
not then coined the smaller decimal currency. There
were no nickels or dimes, but, instead, 64 and 123
cent pieces, called “fourpence-ha’penny” and “nine-
pence” respectively; 25 cents was “18 pence,’ 50
cents was “three shillings,’ 624 cents was “three and
ninepence,” 75 cents was “four and sixpence,” $1.50
was “nine shillings,” $2.50 was “15 shillings,” ete.
In some places the 124 cent piece was called a “bit,”
in others a “levy,” and, farther South, the 6; cent
164 “ Trans-Allegheny Pioneers.

piece was called a “ picayune.”” Greenbacks were then
unknown, and many have but a slight acquaintance
with them yet. :

Quinine was unknown. Bromine and the bro-
mides were not yet made. Anzesthetics were not yet
introduced. If one had to have a tooth pulled, ora
leg sawed off, he had to “ grin and bear it,” taking
the pain in the old-fashioned way.

Calomel and jalap, opium and ipecac, bark and the
lancet, were the standard remedies of the doctors in
those days. The Thempsonian remedies, Nos. 1 to 6,
were much in vogue with the quacks. The modern
great patent medicine trade was not then developed.
The pedagogues of that day prescribed and adminis-
tered “oil of birch” with great freedom. Parties
differed as to the “happy effects” according to the
stand-point from which the subject was considered.
The preachers prescribed caloric and sulphur with a
reckless disregard to economy.

Sanitary measures were then less perfectly under-
stood and practiced, and the average duration of
human life was considerably less than at present.

For lights at night, the common dependence was
upon the home-made tallow-dips, with accompanying
candlestick and snuffers; and, for a better light, the
wax or the spermaceti candle. Star candles were not
yet known, and petroleum and coal-oil lamps were
far in the future.

There were no gas lights (I believe New York was
first lighted with gas in 1827), no gas engines, no
electric lights, no electric motors. There were no,
street railroads, no horse-cars.

Modern cook stoves and ice machines were alike
Trans-Allegheny Pioneers. 7 165

-unknown. There were no baking-powders, nor patent
yeast-cakes. Gas-well fuel was unknown.

There were no India-rubber nor gutta-percha goods.
Jute fiber was not yet utilized. The long lists of
patent churns and washing machines were not yet
invented.

There were no steam tanneries, no steam pumps,
no steam hammers, no drawn or lap-welded tubes, no
turning lathes for shoe-lasts, axe-handles and other
irregular forms, no electro-plated goods, no sand-blast
carving or glass-cutting, no four-pronged silver table-
forks, nor silver-plated knives. There were no cot-
ton compresses, no grain elevators, no coal elevators. °
No beet root sugar, sorghum molasses, nor glucose;
no rolling mills, no iron, steel nor paper hulls for
boats, no iron or steel bridges, no iron house-fronts,
iron roofs, iron mantels, iron bank safes, iron power
plate-punches and shears, no metallic coffins, no ma-
chine-made barrels, no steam-cut nor cylinder-sawed
barrel staves, no roller-process flour.

Wood was the domestic fuel of the country. Iron
was melted with charcoal. Anthracite was but just
discovered. Coke was not yet manufactured.

World’s Fairs and National Expositions, those
great public educators, had not yet been inaugurated.
Sewing machines had not yet come in response to
the “Song of the Shirt” and the wail of the women.
“Home, Sweet Home” and “ Dixie” had not then
been composed and sung; “The Star-Spangled Ban-
ner” was but newly written and sung, and even
“Hail Columbia” was not old.

Knitting machines, spinning jennies and power-
looms had not yet appeared. Lager beer had not
166 Trans-Allegheny Pioneers.

then tickled.the throats of the thirsty. Spring-bed
mattresses were unknown luxuries. Mosquito bars
were equally unknown. Modern extension dining-
tables and adjustable reclining chairs were not
known. Wooden shoe-pegs were not yet made, nor
pegged shoes, nor metal-tipped shoes. There were
no “incline” tracks and passenger cars in use for
elevated sites, like those up the Cincinnati hills.
There were no steam whistles to torture human
tympanums; no steam calliopic music; no steam
radiators for warming buildings.

In the matter of dress, there have been striking
changes, as in other things. Ladies’ dresses, and the
styles and fashions thereof, come and go, changing
often; as the new becomes old, the old becomes new
again. Jam not learned in the mysteries of ladies’
wear and fashions. I only know that the ladies are
all pretty, and they lend beauty and charm to the
fashions,

Gentlemen’s styles change more slowly. Many
elderly gentlemen, at the time I write of, still wore
queues, ruffled shirts, Knee-breeches and long stock-
ings, knee and shoe buckles, etc. Pantaloons were
then made with a square flap in front, instead of the
up and down seam, as now. Gentlemen’s every-day
wear was home-made jeans; the formal dress goods
was “broadcloth.”

There were then no button gaiters, nor patent-
leather boots and shoes. Spotted calico shirts, and
celluloid cuffs and collars, and even detached linen
cuffs and collars were not then worn, or known, by
the young bloods.

Pins and needles were still made by hand; cloth-

©
Trans-Allegheny Pioneers. 167

covered buttons were nnknown; hooks and eyes were
largely used by the ladies, instead of buttons.

This seems a formidable list, though it is far from
exhaustive, and could easily be very greatly ex-
tended; but this is enough to show what tremendously
progressive strides the world has taken within a life-
- time, and to excite the wonder of the present genera-
tion as to how former generations got along without
the comforts, conveniences and luxuries which we
now take “as a matter of course,’ and enjoy un-
thoughtedly and unthankfully.

Will the world continue to advance as it has done?
is a question often asked. That continued and rapid
progress will still be made seems certain; but that the
next or any future sixty years will witness as won-
derful a forward bound as the last sixty—which has
grown largely out of the unparalleled development
of steam and electricity—may well be doubted;
although, in view of the infinite mysteries and re-
sources of Nature to be discovered, explored and de-
veloped,-and the, as yet, unknown limit of the power
and scope of the human mind to grapple them, it
becomes us to be very modest and conservative in
limiting our predictions as to future progress.

“He is avery bold man,” said the wise French-
man, “who dares to pronounce the word impossible.”
CHAPTER XXNI.

DANIEL BOONE.

HE fact that so remarkable a man as Daniel
Boone was, for about twelve years, a resident of
the Kanawha Valley deserves, I think, more than a
mere passing notice, especially as the fact is not well
known to the public, and not now very generally
known, even here. A year or two ago I published,
in pamphlet form, a short history of his residence in
this valley, and will here give a condensed sketch
from facts therein contained.

His biographers, of whom there are half a dozen
or more, devote themselves to his wonderful IJcen-
tucky experiences, from 1769 to about 1785, after
which they seem to know but little about him,
although he lived for thirty odd years after leaving
Kentucky. His Kanawha experiences are disposed
of ina paragraph or two, to the effect that, about
1792, he settled for a time in Western Virginia, and
about 1797 went to Missouri, etc. Instead of in 1792,
he probably settled at the mouth of the Kanawha as
early as 1786, as there isa deed for land in Kentucky,
signed and acknowledged by himself and wite, at
Point Pleasant, April 28, 1786, and on record in
Fayette County, Ky. While at Point Pleasant, tradi-
tion says, he lived on the bank of Crooked Creek,
made famous by the battle of the Point. Elderly
persons at the Point. still remember the log cabin,
now long gone, in which he is said to have lived.
Trans-Allegheny Pioneers. 169

It is supposed that he moved up to this neighbor-
hood about 1788 or ’89, and, while here, lived on the
south side of the river, nearly opposite the original
salt spring.

Dr. L. C. Draper, LL. D., who has in preparation
and, it is hoped, will shortly publish, an exhaustive
biography of Boone, is inclined to think that his res-
idence opposite the salt spring was not a settled fam-
ily residence, but only a hunting camp, of which he
had many. The local traditions here indicate that it
was his regular family residence, and his son, Jesse
Boone, lived at the same place until about 1816.

When I came to the county, in 1840, there were
still living old men who had hunted and trapped
with him; one of them, Mr. Paddy Huddlestone, in-
terested me greatly by relating the incidents of their
joint hunting, trapping and camping experiences.
Mr. Jared Huddlestone, son of Paddy, still living,
remembers well to have heard his father tell of his
first acquaintance with Boone. <A stranger, with
rifle and pack, came to his father’s (Paddy’s) house
one evening, about dusk, and asked to stay all night ;
he seemed tired, did not tell who he was, had but
little to say, and soon retired to rest. Next morning,
when the family got up for the usual early breakfast,
‘the stranger, with his rifle, was out and gone, but his
pack remained, indicating that he had not gone far.
It was not long until he came in and got his break-
fast, remarking that, as he was an early riser, he had
been looking around a little to see if there were any
signs of game about, and told them he had discov-
ered fresh beaver signs near the house. He asked if
they had any traps; they told him they had no beaver
traps, but had asteel trap for catching foxes. “ Well,”
170 Trans-Allegheny Pioneers.

said he to Paddy, “come, young man, get your trap and
go with me, and I will show you how to catch beaver.”
The first day they caught five, and, within a few days,
exterminated the colony—about a dozen in all.

The sign which Boone had found was two sap-
plings cut down from a triangle of them, and the
beavers had commenced on the third. Catching the
beavers saved the third sappling, which, to-day, is a
red oak tree, about two feet in diameter, standing at
the upper end of Long Shoal, a few miles below the
Kanawha Falls.

On the 6th of October, 1789, Kanawha County was
organized. Of the military organization, Colonel
Samuel Lewis, brother of General Andrew, was
Colonel, and Daniel Boone, Lieutenant Colonel. The
county was entitled to two Representatives in the
Legislature. The first year, George Clendenin, the
founder of Charleston, and Andrew Donnelly, the
defender of Donnelly’s Fort, in Greenbriar, in 1778,
were elected. The next year Daniel Boone and
George Clendenin were elected. Boone went to
Richmond and returned, on foot.

Boone spent much of his time in surveying while
here. Mr. T, A. Mathews, surveyor, tells me that in
rerunning the lines of two surveys, of one hundred
thousand acres each, running from the site of Boone
C. H. to the Kentucky line, he finds the lines plainly
marked, and the names of the party cut in the bark
of the trees still legible; they were: ‘Daniel Boone,
George Arnold, Edmund Price, Thomas Upton and
Andrew Hatfield. 1795.”

I have a report of survey made out by him, in his
own handwriting, still clear and well preserved. The
following is a fac-simile copy:

o>
Trans-Allegheny Pioneers. 171

The last survey made by Boone, before leaving the

valley, was on September 8th, 1798; Daniel Boone,
marker; Daniel Boone, Jr., and Mathias Van Bibber,
chainmen, as shown by the surveyor’s books.

In one of Boone’s hunting and trapping expedi-
tions, up Gauley River, he brought back the top of a

_sprout of yew pine, an unusual growth, and hitherto
unknown to him. He left the brush of pine needles
to the end to show to his friends; when it had served
this purpose, the end with the needles was cut off,
leaving a nice walking-stick. When he left Kan-
awha, he gave this to his friend, “Tice” Van Bibber,
and he left it to his son, David Van Bibber, still liv-
ing, at about ninety. The cane was pre: ented to me
a few years ago, and is now in my possession.

“Tn an early. day,” exact date not known, the fam-
ily of John Flinn, the earliest settlers on Cabin Creek,
this county, wcre attacked by Indians, and Flinn and
wife killed. One daughter made her escape alone to
Donnelly’s Fort, Greenbriar, and one daughter and
son, Cloe and John, were captured by the Indians.

This daughter, Cloe, was afterwards rescued by
Boone, and, being an orphan, was reared by Boone
in his own family, so states Mr. St. Clair Ballard,
her grandson, who was a member of the Legislature
from Logan County, in 1847. When it was proposed
to form a new county from Kanawha and Logan,
Mr. Ballard related the circumstances of this capture
and recovery, and the generous action of Mr. Boone,
and proposed, in personal gratitude, and by way of
public acknowledgment to Boone, that the new.
county be called Boone, and his motion was carried
by a unanimous vote.

The son, John Flinn, who had escaped, or been
172 Trans-Allegheny Pioneers.

rescued, was afterwards recaptured by the Indians,
going down the Ohio, with Skyles, May and Johnson,
and burned at the stale,

Jesse Boone, son of Daniel, was the first State Salt
Inspector here, when salt was the dominant interest
of this valley. His son, Colonel Albert Galletin
Boone, himself a famous early explorer, true to the
Boone instinct, in the Far West, was born here. He
was the first white man to camp on the present site
of the city of Denver, in 1825.

I have examined the old assessors’ books to see
what property Daniel Boone had, when here. I find
he was not blessed, or cursed, with a large share of
this world’s goods. He was assessed for taxation
with two horses, one negro and five hundred acres of

“land; the land remained on the books in his name
until 1808.

Boone left here for Missouri in 1799. His starting
was the occasion of the gathering of his friends and
admirers, from all the region round about, to bid him
a fvienilly adieu and God-speed. They came by land
and water—on boats, by horseback and in canoes—
and, at the final leave-taking, it is said there was
many a dimmed eye and moistened cheek among
those hardy, weather-beaten warriors, hunters and
pioneers. Boone started from here by water, 11 canoes,
embarking at the junction of Elk and Kanawha Rivers.
His friend and companion, Tice Van Bibber, went
with him to Missouri, but returned to Kanawha.

Boone was never again in Kanawha, but twice re-
turned to Kentucky, once to identify the beginning
corner of an important survey, made some twenty or
twenty-five years before, and again to liquidate some
long-standing, scattering indebtedness, which he had
Trans-Allegheny Pioneers. 173

been unable to pay, owing to the loss of all his lands
by the gross wrong done him, or permitted, by the
State of Kentucky and the General Government.

The final payments of these debts, which had so
long borne upon and disturbed his peace of mind,
was, by his own account, one of the happiest inci-
dents and reliefs of his life. While he had but little,
it was, he said, a consolation to know that he did not
owe a dollar, and that no man could say he had
ever wronged him out of a cent.

Boone died at the house of his youngest son,
Colonel Nathan Boone, on the Feme-Osage River,
Missouri, September 26th, 1820. Colonel Albert Gal-
letin Boone, his grandson, still living, told me,
some years ago, that he was with him at the time,
and says he passed off gently, after a short illness,
almost without pain or suffering.

Thus ended the mortal career of one of the most
remarkable men the country has ever produced, leav-
ing an imperishable name and fame to after ages.
He stands out in history as the great type, model and
exemplar of the pioneer, frontiersman, hunter, ex-
plorer, Indian fighter and pilot of civilization.

His fame is secure forever, without the fear of a
rival. The world does not now, and can never again,
present an opportunity to duplicate or parallel his
life and history.

His praises have been sung in the glowing lines of
Lord Byron (in “ Don Juan”), and by the eloquent
tongues and pens of Tom Marshall, Bryan, Flint,
Bogart, Filson, Abbott, and others, and the history
of his wonderful adventures is read with thrilling
interest in the mansions of the rich, and the humblest
log cabins of the remotest Far West.
CHAPTER XNXATI.

THE BATTLE OF POINT PLEASANT.

HE battle of Point Pleasant, considered merely
in relation to the numbers engaged, or the num-
bers slain, on either side, or both sides, was but an
insignificant affair, compared with many of the con-
flicts of the Revolution, which immediately followed,
or the mighty shocks of arms of the late Civil War;
but, up to the time of its occurrence, it was the most
evenly balanced, longest continued and desperately
contested battle that had occurred in our Western
country, and its results were freighted with greater,
more lasting and far-reaching effects than any other
that had occurred.

It was a pivotal turning-point, upon which hinged,
in great measure, the future destinies of the country.
The result of this battle was probably the determin-
ing weight in the scale of Fortune, so evenly balanced,
that decided the fate of the colonies in their struggle
for independence.

It is, indeed, generally considered, in view of the
relations then existing between the colonies and
the mother country, and the course pursued by the
Governor, as the initiatory battle of the Revolution;
and, by demoralizing the Indian tribes, checking for
a time their aggressions on the Western frontiers,
and their co-operation with the English, it gave the
Trans-Allegheny Pioneers. 175

colonies, who were correspondingly encouraged by
their success, time and better opportunities to con-
centrate their powers and efforts for the mighty
-struggle about to be, or already, inaugurated.

Instead of relating simply the isolated story of the
fight at the Point, with which persons in this region
are already more or less familiar, I have thought that
it might add to the general understanding of the
battle and its relations, and a fuller appreciation of
its extraordinary importance, to pass in review, briefly
and unincumbered by voluminous details, the long
series of preceding steps that led up to, and prepared
the way for, this event and the following revolution-
ary struggle.

Beginning this outline review, I shall go back to
1748, the date of the Ingles-Draper pioneer-trans-
allegheny settlement, the first on western-flowing
waters.

At this time, the French occupied Canada and
Louisiana, and, by virtue of the earlier discoveries of
La Salle, Marquette, and others, they were claiming
the entire Mississippi and Ohio Valleys, while Vir-
ginia claimed that her boundaries extended from
ocean to ocean. The French, to make their claim to
the Ohio Valley more formal, sent a company of
engineers down the Ohio, in 1749, with engraved
leaden plates, which they planted at the mouths of
prominent tributaries of the Ohio, claiming for the
French crown all the lands drained by the respective
streams.

About the same time, the “Ohio Land Company,”
recently organized, was making a move to acquire
and colonize five hundred thousand acres of lands
176 Trans-Allegheny Pioneers.

lying along the Ohio, and the “Loyal Land Com-
pany” was organized, based upon a grant of eight
hundred thousand acres, lying north of the North
Carolina line and west of the mountains and New
River.

In 1750-51, Christopher Gist was dispatched by
the “Ohio Company” to examine and select desirable
lands along the Ohio.

The French, meanwhile, were establishing fortified
trading posts, intending to have a chain of them
from the Lakes to the Gulf.

In 1753, when serious trouble seemed to be brew-
ing between the French’ and English, the conflicting
claimants of this vast Western region, Governor
Dinwiddie, of Virginia, dispatched George Washing-
ton, a then promising young man, who had been
private surveyor of Lord Fairfax, official surveyor of
Culpepper County, etc., on a tour of observation,
with letters of inquiry and protest, addressed to the
French commander on the Upper Allegheny. Wash-
ington took with him John Davidson, Indian inter-
preter; Jacob Van Brahm, French interpreter; Chris-
topher Gist as guide, and four attendants. He was
courteously received at head-quarters by the French
commander, M. De St. Piere, as a matter of course,
but as positively as politely informed that they should
maintain their claims to the country.

Washington returned at once to Williamsburg, the -
then seat of government, and in his report, which
was printed, and copies of which were sent to Eng-
land, he laid stress, among other things, upon the
very eligible site for a fortification at the forks of the
Ohio, which would command both streams.
Trans-Allegheny Pioneers. 177

In 1754, the “Ohio Company” sent a force there,
accompanied by a force of forty Virginia militia,
under Lieutenant Trent, sent by the State. Before
their work was completed, the French commander,
Captain Contrecour, sent down a largely superior
force, drove them off, took possession of their Fort,
built it stronger, and called it Fort Du Quesne, after
the Governor of Canada. This was the overt act
that launched the long and bloody French and Eng-
lish war which raged with violence on both conti-
nents for several years.

Virginia immediately organized a large force, un-
der Colonel Joshua Fry and Lieutenant-Colonel
_ Washington, to recapture the position; Colonel Fry
dying, en route, the command devolved upon Colonel
Washington. The expedition resulted in the sur-
prise of a party of French, under Captain Joumond-
ville, near the Great Meadows, in which the leader,
Captain Joumondville, was killed, and all his party
either killed or captured. Later, Washington was
attacked at Fort Necessity, which he had hastily for-
tified, by a largely superior French force, and was
obliged to capitulate.

In the following year (1755), the English Govern-
ment sent over General Braddock, with two regi-
ments of English regulars, to co-operate with the
Virginia troops. This expedition ended in the dis-
astrous defeat of Braddock’s army, almost in sight
of Fort Du Quesne, by the French and their Indian
allies.

In 1758, another and more formidable army was
organized, under command of General Forbes, who
finally sueceeded in capturing and holding Fort Du

12
178 Trans-Allegheny Pioneers.

Quesne, and, the following year, a formidable strong-
hold was built and called Fort Pitt, after the then
English Premier.

The subsequent engagements between the English
and French along the Lakes and the St. Lawrence
need not be followed here (being beyond the geo-
graphical limits treated of), except to state that, upon
the capture of Quebec, the French finally surrendered,
to the English, Canada and all] their possessions and
claims east of the Mississippi, thus terminating the
long and bloody war—the final treaty of peace being
ratified at Paris in 1768.

The French were now out of the way of settle-
ments, but their savage allies, whom they had insti-
gated and encouraged to resist the encroachments of
the whites upon their territory, were still there to
dispute every advance upon their hunting grounds;
and, although the march of settlement continued
steadily westward, every pioneer trail was a trail of
blood, and every pioneer family numbered among its
members victims of the tomahawk and scalping
knife. 3

The expedition sent out from Fort Pitt in 1764,
under Colonel] Boquet, into the Indian country, re-
sulted in checking their atrocities for a time, in the
recovery of over three hundred ‘white prisoners,
mostly from the Virginia borders, and a treaty of
peace, concluded with Sir William Johnson, the fol-
lowing year.

This peace gave an impetus to Western emigration,
and by 1772-73 settlements had reached the Ohio at
several points, and the main tributary streams and
their smaller branches.
Trans-Allegheny Pioneers, 179

Another serious and general colonial trouble was
now brewing, growing out of the levying of taxes
on the colonies by the mother country, for the ex-
penses of the French and Indian wars, and for a
standing army to protect them from the Indians.

These and other measures the colonies: considered
unjust and onerous, and they protested against them
with great earnestness and strong feeling.

In this state of the case, it was charged that the
English instigated the Indians to harass the Western
borders, so as to occupy the attention of the colonial
forces in their protection, and thus prevent resistance
to the oppressive measures contemplated by the
English in the East.

Early in the Spring of 1774, it was evident that
the Indians were combining for aggressive action.
About this time, several murders were committed by

‘both parties, on the Upper Ohio. A white man in
a trading boat was killed by Indians, some distance
above Wheeling Creek; within a few days, early in
April, Captain Michael Cresap and party killed two
Indians, near Wheeling, in a canoe, and followed a
larger party down the river, to about the mouth of
Captina, where they were surprised in camp and
nearly all killed. Within a few days, still in April,
Daniel Greathouse and a party of whites attacked an
encampment of Indians, about the mouth of Yellow
Creek, near Baker’s house, opposite; after plying
them with whisky, they were nearly all murdered.
In these two Indian parties—at Captina and Yellow
Creek—some in each, were all of Logan’s family, and

they were all killed. Logan charged Captain Cresap
with the murder of his kin at Yellow Creek, but
180 Trans-Allegheny Pioneers.

this is probably a mistake. He was undoubtedly re-
sponsible for the killing at Captina (whether justi-
fiable or not, it is impossible to decide now), but it
has been pretty conclusively shown that he was not
present at the Yellow Creek massacre.

About this time, Bald Eagle, an old and friendly
Delaware Chief, was wantonly murdered by some
straggling whites, set up in his canoe, with a pipe in
his mouth, and sent floating down the Monongahela,
not the Kanawha, as stated by some.

The Indians were terribly exasperated by these
murders, and it was soon unmistakably evident that
they meant to be avenged. Dr. Connally and Captain
Cresap sent messengers to Williamsburg to apprise
the Governor of the state of affairs. He dispatched
Colonel Angus McDonald, with four hundred Vir-
ginia militia, in June, to make an incursion into In-
dian territory, to occupy them at hqme and prevent
their raids on the border settlements.

Later, when the Indians seemed determined on a
general border war, Connally and Cresap again com-
municated with the Governor, who sent for General
Andrew Lewis, then a member of the House of
Burgesses for Bottetourt County, to consult about a
plan of campaign. It was decided that an army of
two divisions should be organized as speedily as
practicable—one to be commanded by General Lewis,
and the other by Lord Dunmore, in person.

General Andrew and his brother, Colonel Charles,
then a member from Augusta County, started at
once to the Valley of Virginia to get together their
army from Augusta, Bottetourt and Fincastle Coun-
ties, while the forces of Governor Dunmore were to
Trans-Allegheny Pioneers. — 181

be raised in Frederick, Dunmore (now Shenandoah)
and adjacent counties.

The Governor dispatched Daniel Boone and Michael
Stoner to Kentucky, to notify the several surveying

"parties and the few land hunters and explorers then
there; while from the Greenbriar region, Captain
John Stewart dispatched two runners (tradition says
Philip Hammond and John Pryor) to warn the few
settlers on Kanawha, from Kelly’s Creek to Camp-
bell’s Creek, of the approaching danger.

General Lewis’ army rendezvoused at Camp Union
(Lewisburg), about September Ist, and was to march
from there to the mouth of Kanawha; while Gov-
ernor Dunmore was to go the Northwest route, over
the Braddock trail, by way of Fort Pitt, and thence
down the Ohio River, and form a junction with Gen-
eral Lewis at the mouth of Kanawha. The army of
General Lewis was made up as follows:

1. Regiment of Augusta troops, under Colonel
Charles Lewin, the Captains being George Mathews
(in whose company not a man was under six feet in
height, and most of them over six feet two inches),
Alexander McClannahan, John Dickinson, John
Lewis (son of William), Benjamin Harrison, William
Paul, Joseph Haynes and Samuel Wilson. _

2. Bottetourt Regiment, under Colonel William
Fleming. The Captains were Matthew Arbuckle,
John Murray, John Lewis (son of Andrew), James

. Robertson, Robert McClannahan; James Ward and
John Stewart (author of memoir, ete.).

38. An independent company of seventy men,
under Colonel John Field, raised by him in Culpep-
per County.
182 Trans-Allegheny Pioneers.

+. The force under Colonel Willian Christian »
consisted of three independent companies. under
Captains Evan Shelby, William Russel] and —— Her-
bert, from the Holston, Clinch and New River settle-
ments, then Fincastle County; a company of scouts
under Captain John Draper, of Draper’s Valley, and
an independent company under Captain Thomas
Buford, of Bedford County.

The aggregate strength of this Southern division
of the army was about eleven hundred; the strength
of the Northern division, under Led Dimon, was
about fifteen hundred.

On the 11th of September, General Lewis broke
camp, and, with Captain Matthew Arbuckle, an intel-
ligent and experienced frontiersman, as pilot, marched
through a pathless wilderness, making, as they went,
such road as was necessary to get the pack-horses,
bearing ammunition and provisions, and their beef
cattle over.

Their route was by Muddy Creek, Keeny’s Knobs,
Rich Creek, Gauley, Twenty Mile, Bell Creek and
Kelly’s Creek, to Kanawha, and down Kanawha to
the mouth, following the Indian trail at the base of
the hills, instead of along the river bank, for the ob-
vious reason that it was thus easier to cross or avoid
the creeks and ravines. They reached the Point on
the 80th day of Pepeemb, after a fatiguing march
of nineteen days.

When Lewis’ army started its march from Camp ©
Union for the mouth of Kanawha, Colonel Field,
who, in previous service with Lewis in the North-
west, had been the senior in command, now mani-
fested some unwillingness to take position under .
Trans-Allegheny Pioneers. 183

General Lewis, and, as his company was an inde-
pendent one, raised by himself ouside of the State

_ order for troops, and as he had recently twice passed
through the wilderness, from Camp Union to Kelly’s
Creek and back, and knew something of its topog-
raphy, he started out with his command by a route
of his own; on the next or following day, however,
two of his men, named Clay and Coward, strayed
from the main body to hunt; they were attacked by
two Indians, probably spies watching the movements
of the army. Clay was shot and killed by one of
them, while the other was killed by Coward. |

After this, Colonel Field, acting with judicious
discretion, joined the main body of the army, and
they marched together harmoniously the remainder
of the way.

At the mouth of Elk (the present site of Charles-
ton) the army halted long enough to construct some
canoes, or “dug-outs,” into which the commissary
stores, ammunition, etc., were transferred from the
backs of pack-horses, and taken the remainder of the
way by river.

In most or all the accounts of the battle, it is
stated that Colonel Christian and his regiment were
delayed in getting together, and did not arrive in
time for the battle. This is, in part at least, an
error. Colonel Christian did not arrive until late in
the afternoon, when the fighting was nearly over,

_ bringing with him the portions of his companies that
had been too late in reaching the rendezvous; but
Captains Russell, Shelby and Buford, and parts of
their companies, were certainly on the ground at the
beginning of the fight.
184 Trans-Allegheny Pioneers.

The four men who had made a daylight hunting
excursion up the Ohio River bank, on the morning
of the 10th, who were the first to see the Indians,
and one of whom (Hickman) was killed—the first
blood drawn—were members of Captains Russell’s
and Shelby’s companies; and Captain Buford was
present, and himself wounded during the day.

The army had been gotten together hastily, as were,
also, the supplies, which were not overly abundant.
The army was neither well clad nor well fed; they
were, perforce, “teetotalers.” They had no spirit
rations, and neither tea nor coffee, yet they were in
good health and spirits, though tired and worn by
the hard march through the wilderness.

General Lewis waited several days, anxiously ex-
pecting the arrival of Lord Dunmore, who, by ap-
pointment, was to have joined him here on the 2d of
October. Having no intelligence from him, Lewis
dispatched messengers up the Ohio River to meet
him, or learn what had become of him. Before his
messengers returned, however, three messengers
(probably McCulloch, Kenton and Girty) arrived at
his camp on Sunday, the 9th of October, with orders
from Lord Dunmore to cross the river and meet him
before the Indian towns in Ohio.

This is, substantially, the current version of mat-
ters; but authorities differ. Some say the messen-
gers arrived on the night of the 10th, after the battle
was fought; others say they did not arrive until the
11th, the day after the battle, and Colonel Andrew ”
Lewis, son of General Andrew, says his father re-
ceived no communication whatever from Lord Dun-
more after he (Lewis) left Camp Union, until after
Trans-Allegheny Pioneers. 3 185

the battle had been fought, and Lewis, of his own
motion, had gone on into Ohio, expecting to join
Dunmore and to punish the Indians, when he received
an order to stop and return to the point. This order
(by messenger) Lewis disregarded, when Lord Dun-
more came in person, and, after a conference and as-
surances from Dunmore that he was about nego-
tiating a peace, Lewis reluctantly retraced his steps.

In the very excited state of fecling then existing
between the colonies and the mother country, it was
but natural that the sympathies of Lord Dunmore, a
titled English nobleman, and holding his commission
as Governor of Virginia at the pleasure of the crown,
should be with his own country; but it was not only
strongly suspeeted, but generally charged, that, while
he was yet acting as Governor of Virginia, and be-
fore he had declared himself against the colonies, he
was unfairly using his position and influence to the
prejudice of his subjects.

These suspicions, and the supposed grounds for
them, will be more fully discussed in a subsequent
chapter on Lord Dunmore.

According to the account of Colonel Stewart, when
the interview was over between General Lewis and
the messengers of Lord Dunmore, on the 9th, Lewis
gave orders to break camp at an early hour next
morning, cross the river, and take up their march
towards the Indian towns; but the Fates had decreed
otherwise. At the hour for starting, they found
themselves confronted by an army of Indian braves,
eight hundred to one thousand strong, in their war
paint, and commanded by their able and trusted
leaders, Cornstalk, Logan, Red Hawk, Blue Jacket
186 Trans-A llegheny Pioneers.

and Elinipsico, and some authors mention two or
three others.

Instead of a hard day’s marching, Lewis’ army
had a harder day’s fighting—the important, desper-
ately contested, finally victorious, and ever-mem-
orable battle of Point Pleasant.

No “official report” of this battle has been pre-
served, or was ever written, so far as I can learn.
There are several good reasons, apparently, for this
omission. In the first place, the time, place and cir-
cumstances were not favorable for preparing a formal
official report. In the second place, Lord Dunmore,
the superior officer, to whom General Lewis should,
ordinarily, have reported, was himself in the field,
but a few miles distant, and General Lewis was ex-
pecting that the two divisions of the army would be
united within a few days; and, in the third place, the
“strained relations” between the colonies and the
mother country were such, and the recent action of
Governor Dunmore so ambiguous, that General Lewis
was probably not inclined to report to him at all.

In the absence of an official report, I give below
an account of the battle which, I think, comes nearer
to it than anything else extant.

Being in Belfast, Ireland, in 1874, a short time be-
fore the centennial celebration of the battle at Point
Pleasant, and knowing that Belfast, Ulster district,
and the North of Ireland generally, had sent a large
early emigration to the Valley of Virginia, many of
whose descendants were, no doubt, in General Lewis’
army, and in this battle, I went to the City Library
to see if I could find anything there relating to the
battle. In examining the files of the “Belfast News
Trans-Allegheny Pioneers. : 187

Letter,” a city paper, which I found preserved in
annual bound volumes from its commencement, in
1737 (and now nearly one hundred and fifty years
old), I turned to 1774, and my search was soon re-
warded by finding the following very interesting
letter, a copy of which I sent to the “Charleston
Courier” in time for publication and circulation at
the Point Pleasant celebration:

BELFAST.

Yesterday arrived a mail from New York, brought to Fal-
. mouth by the Harriot packet boat. Captain Lee.

Wriiamsgure, Va., November 10th.
The following letter is just received here from the camp on
Point Pleasant, at the mouth of the Great Kenhawa [as then
spelled], dated October 17, 1774:

“The following is a true statement of a battle fought at this
_place on the 10th instant: On Monday morning, about half an

hour before sunrise, two of Captain Russell’s company discov-
ered a large party of Indians about a mile from the camp, one of
which men was shot down by the Indians; the other made his
escape, and brought in the intelligence. In two or three min-
utes after, two of Captain Shelby’s company came in and con-
firmed the account.

“ Colonel Andrew Lewis, being informed thereof, immediately
ordered out Colonel Charles Lewis, to take command of one
hundred and fifty of the Augusta troops, and with him went
Captain Dickinson, Captain Harrison, Captain Wilson, Captain
John Lewis, of Augusta, and Captain Lockridge, which made
the first division. Colonel Fleming was also ordered to take
command of one hundred and fifty more of the Bottetourt, Bed-
ford and Fincastle troops, viz.: Captain Thomas Buford, from
Bedford; Captain Love, of Bottetourt; Captain Shelby and Cap-
tain Russell, of Fincastle, which made the second division.

“Colonel Charles Lewis’ division marched to the right, some
distance from the Ohio, and Colonel Fleming, with his division,
on the bank of the Ohio, to the left.

“ Colonel Charles Lewis’ division had not marched quite half
a mile from the camp when, about sunrise, an attack was made
188 Trans-Allegheny Pioneers.

on the front of his division, in a most vigorous manner, by the
united tribes of Indians—Shawnees, Delawares, Mingoes, Tawas,
and of several other nations—in number not less than eight hun-
dred, and by many thought to be one thousand.

“Tn this heavy attack, Colonel Charles Lewis received a
wound which, in a few hours, caused his death, and several of
his men fell on the spot; in fact, the Augusta division was
obliged to give way to the heavy fire of the enemy. In abouta
second of a minute after the attack on Colonel Lewis’s division,
the enemy engaged the front of Colonel Fleming’s division on the
Ohio, and in a short time the Colonel received two balls through
his left arm, and one through his breast, and, after animating
the officers and soldiers in a most calm manner to the pursuit of
victory, retired to the camp.

“The loss in the field was sensibly felt by the officers in par-
ticular; but the Augusta troops, being shortly after reinforced
from the camp by Colonel Field, with his company, together
with Captain McDowell, Captain Mathews and Captain Stewart,
from Augusta; Captain Paulin, Captain Arbuckle and Captain
McClannahan, from Bottetourt, the enemy, no longer able to
maintain their ground, was forced to give way till they were in a
line with the troops, Colonel] Fleming being left in action on the
bank of the Ohio.

“In this precipitate retreat Colonel Field was killed. During
this time, which was till after twelve, the action in a small degree
abated, but continued, except at short intervals, sharp enough
till after one o’clock. Their long retreat gave them a most advan-
tageous spot of ground, from whence it appeared to the officers
so difficult to dislodge them that it was thought most advisable to
stand as the line was then formed, which was about a mile und
a quarter in length, and had sustained till then a constant and
equal weight of the action, from wing to wing.

“Tt was till about half an hour of sunset they continued firing
on us scattering shots, which we returned to their disadvantage.
At length, the night coming on, they found a safe retreat.

“They had not the satisfaction of carrying off any of our
men’s scalps, save one or two stragglers whom they killed before
the engagement. Many of their dead they scalped, rather than
we should have them, but our troops scalped upwards of twenty
of their men that were first killed.

“Tt is beyond doubt their loss, in number, far exceeded ours,
which is considerable.
Trans-Allegheny Pioneers. 189

“The return of the killed and wounded in the above battle,
same as our last, as follows:

“‘ Killed—Colonels Charles Lewis and John Field, Captains
John Murray, R. McClannahan, Samuel Wilson, James Ward,
Lieutenant Hugh Allen, Ensigns Cantiff and Bracken, and forty-
four privates. Total killed, fifty-three.

“Wounded—Colonel William Fleming, Captains John Dick-
inson, Thomas Buford and I. Skidman, Lieutenants Goldman,
Robinson, Lard and Vance, and seventy-nine privates. Total
wounded, eighty-seven; killed and wounded, one hundred and
forty.”

Looking further through the “Belfast News Let-
ter’ to see if I could find any additional particulars,
I found the following Williamsburg letter in relation
to the movements of Governor Dunmore:

“ AMERICA.

“ WILLIAMSBURG, IN Virainta, December 1, 1774,

“We have it from good authority that His Excellency, the
(rovernor, is on his way to this capital, having concluded a peace
with the several tribes of Indians that have been at war with us,
and taken hostages of them for their faithful complying with the
terms of it, the principal of which are that they shall totally
abandon the lands on this side of the Ohio River, which river is
to be the boundary between them and the white people, and
never more take up the hatchet against the English.

“Thus, in a little more than the space of five months, an end
is put to a war which portended much trouble and mischief to
the inhabitants on the frontier, owing to the zeal and good con-
duct of the officers and commanders who went out in their
country’s defense, and the bravery and perseverance of all the
troops.’’—Copied from the ‘“ Belfast News Letter” of February
© 10, 1775.”

It will be observed that the foregoing Point Pleas-
ant letter has no signature to it. The letter was,
doubtles, signed when written, but why the name
was omitted at Williamsburg or Belfast is not known.
190 Trans-Allegheny Pioneers.

While there is no name to the letter as printed, it is
circumstantially conclusive, I think, that it was
written by Captain Matthew Arbuckle, whom Gen-
eral Lewis had left in command of the garrison,
and charged with the care of the wounded at the
Point.
There were no enterprising newspaper correspond-
ents at the front in those days; no literary camp-
followers or hangers-on; no amateur aids-de-camp,
or other fancy gentlemen, to write sensational battle
reports; there was no Point Pleasant town there
then; no citizens nor neighbors to write army letters
or battle reports. Outside of Captain Arbuckle’s
camp, there was absolutely not a white man within
one hundred miles of Point Pleasant, or nearer than
the armies then out on Pickaway Plains. I assume,
therefore, that the letter was written by Captain
Arbuckle, possibly by order of General Lewis, to be
forwarded to the State capital. It was, probably,
sent by runners to Camp Union, forwarded thence to
Williamsburg, and published in the little weekly
“Virginia Gazette,” published by Purdie & Dixon,
and the only newpaper then published in the State.
This report of the battle is quite meager, it is true,
and it is to be regretted that it had not given more
of detail; but, as far as it goes, it is evidently a true
and accurate account of what transpired, as seen by
the writer, himself an active participant throughout.
The style of the letter is plain, simple and clear, with
no effort at fine writing; no thought of making or
glorifying pet heroes, and no wish to be sensational.
It was written on the ground, just one week after
the battle, with all the facts fresh and clear upon his
Trans-Allegheny Pioneers. 191

own mind, and the memories of his garrison and
wounded, with whom, doubtless, he had discussed
the exciting events over and over, and compared
notes, day by day, during the week past.

Though short, the simple and unpretentious style
of the report is probably calculated to give the av-
erage general reader as clear a comprehension of the
prominent facts and features of the battle as a half-
dozen-column article from a modern army corre-
spondent, largely made up of fulsome flattery of in-
cipient heroes, and of sensational incidents of doubt-
ful authenticity. ,

About ten years after the battle, Colonel John
Stewart, who had been one of the first permanent
settlers of Greenbriar, and who had taken a most
active and efficient part in the prominent Indian wars
and raids of the period, in this region, wrote a not
very full, but exceedingly interesting, memoir of
these early times and troubles, including the battle
of the Point; and to this memoir, probably more
than to any other one document, we are indebted for
what has been preserved of the eventful history of
this valley at that period, and it is the basis of much
of the history of the region since written.

Many years later, Dr. 8. L. Campbell, of Rock-
bridge, wrote a somewhat similar sketch, the mate-
rial being gathered from the recollections of those
who had taken part in the events described, chiefly
from Mr. Alexander Reed and Mr. William Moore,
of Rockbridge.

Later, Colonel Andrew Lewis, of the Bent Mount-
ain, Va., son of General Andrew, gave, briefly, his
recollections of the long ago; and many other longer
192 Trans Allegheny Pioneers.

or shorter sketches relating to the battle of the
Point, and other events of this region, have been
written mostly from traditions, more or less imper-
fectly and inaccurately transmitted from those who
were personal actors or witnesses.

Each of these sketches contains some fact, item or
incident unknown to or omitted by the others, but
as each item fills a gap and helps to make up the
general picture, it is only possible now to get a tol-
erably full and clear idea and understanding of the
conditions then existing by gleaning from all the ac-
counts, each of which, alone, gives so little of circum-
stantial detail.

That there are some discrepancies, and conflicts of
statement is but natural and to be expected under
the circumstances; they are generally unimportant,
however, and must be reconciled by comparisons and
weight of probabilities.

Colonel Stewart, one of the first to write about the
battle, after Arbuckle’s short account, was himself
present, was well known to General Lewis (and a rel-
ative by marriage), says General Lewis received a
message from Governor Dunmore, on the 9th, telling
him to cross the Ohio and join him, and he (Stewart)
mentions McCulloch as one of the messengers.

Burk, and others, say the messengers came after
the battle, and mention Simon Kenton and Simon
Girty among the messengers.

Colonel Andrew Lewis says his father received no
communication of any sort from Governor Dunmore,
until ordered to return from Ohio.

Dr. Campbell says there was considerable dissatis-
faction in Lewis’ camp, for some days before the
Trans-Allegheny Pioneers. 193

battle, growing out of the manner of serving the
rations, and especially the beef rations; the men
claimed that the good and bad beef were not dealt
out impartially. On the 9th, General Lewis ordered
that the poorest beeves be killed first, and distributed
to all alike. The beef was so poor that the men
were unwilling to eat it, and, although it was posi-
tively against orders to leave camp without permis-
sion, about one hundred men started out before day,
next morning (the 10th), in different directions, to
hunt and provide their own meat. Many of these
did not get back, nor know of the battle, until night,
when it was all over. ©

This was a serious reduction of the army at such a
time. This circumstance has not been mentioned, so
far as I know, by any other of the early writers.

Of the several men belonging to Captains Russell’s
and Shelby’s companies who went immediately up
the bank of the Ohio, the two (Hickman and Robin-
son) who first encountered the Indians belonged, as
Arbuckle tells us, to Captain Russell’s company. Of
these, Hickman was killed, as above stated, and Rob-
inson escaped to the camp with all speed, and re-
ported an army of Indians that would cover four
acres or more.

When the approach of the Indians was reported,
it is said that General Lewis first quietly lighted his
pipe, and then coolly gave his orders for the disposi-
tion of the forces as described by Captain Arbuckle,

-and generally confirmed by others.

Nearly all the accounts of the battle state that Colonel
Charles Lewis was shot down on the first round, and
soon expired at the root of a tree. Dr. Doddridge

13
194 Trans-Allegheny Pioneers,

says he was carried to his tent by Captain Morrow
and Mr. Blair, from Captain Paul’s company, while
Colonel Andrew Lewis says he received his wound
early in the action, but did not let it be known until:
he had gotten the line of battle extended from the
Ohio to Crooked Creek; he then asked Captain
Murray, his brother-in-law, to let him lean on his
shoulder and walk with him to his tent, where he ex-
pired about twelve o’clock. This does not conflict
with the statement of Captain Arbuckle, who says:
“He received a wound which, in a few hours, caused
his death.”

The terrific grandeur of a battle scene can not well
be described in cold, common-place language. I shall
not attempt the elevated strain necessary to do the
subject justice, but will quote, briefly, from two
authors who have written on this battle. De Hass
Says:

“The battle scene was now terribly grand. There stood the
combatants—terror, rage, disappointment and despair riveted
upon the painted faces of one, while calm resolution and the un-
bending will to do or die were marked upon the other. Neither
party would retreat, neither could advance. The noise of the
firing was tremendous. No single gun could be distinguished—
was one common roar.

“The rifle and the tomahawk now did their work with dread-
ful certainty. The confusion and perturbation of the camp had
now arrived at its greatest height. The confused sounds and
wild uproar of the battle added greatly to the terror of the
scene. The shouting of the whites, the continued roar of fire-

arms, the war-whoop and dismal yelling of the Indians, were
discordant and terrific.”

Colonel J. L. Peyton, in his valuable history of
Augusta County, says:
Trans-Allegheny Pioneers. 195

“It was, throughout, a terrible scene—the ring of rifles and
the roar of muskets, the clubbed guns, the flashing knives—the
fight, hand to hand—the scream for mercy, smothered in the
death-groan—the crushing through the brush—the advance—the
retreat—the pursuit, every man for himself, with his enemy in
view—the scattering on every side—the sounds of battle, dying
away into a pistol-shot here and there through the wood, and a
shriek—the collecting again of the whites, covered with gore and
sweat, bearing trophies of the slain, their dripping knives in one
hand, and rifle-barrel, bent and smeared with brains and hair,
in the other. No language can adequately describe it.”

_ After these eloquent and thrilling descriptions of

the desperate conflict, one can hardly fail to be sur-
prised, when he comes to foot up results, to tind that
the casualties are so few.

Different accounts of the battle state the losses on
the part of the whites, in killed and wounded, at one
hundred and forty to two hundred and fifteen; but I
assume that Captain Arbuckle’s account, above
given, is correct; that is, nine officers and forty-four
privates (53) killed, and eight officers and seventy-
nine privates (87) wounded; total, killed and wounded,
one hundred and forty.

All the early writers claim that the losses of the
Indians were greater than those of the whites, but
this, I think, admits of much doubt. The historians
all claim that the Indians were seen throwing their
dead into the river all day, but it seems only a vague
“they say” sort of statement, not given upon the
positive authority of any reliable person who saw it.
While, per contra, Colonel James Smith, who was
several years a prisoner among the Indians, spoke.
their language, knew many of them well, and com-
municated with them after this battle, says they only
admitted the loss of twenty-eight killed outright,
196 Trans-Allegheny Pioneers.

and eight who died from their wounds—total, thirty-
six; but as they had no muster-rolls, and the tribes
scattered, they had probably overlooked at least five,
as twenty-one were found lying as they fell, and
twelve where their friends had partially buried or
secreted them, making thirty-three, and the eight
who afterwards died from their wounds would in-
crease their loss to forty-one—one of whom Corn-
stalk himself had killed.

This Colonel Smith was one of the most intelli-
gent and observant of the many early pioneers who
had the hard fate to serve a captivity of several years
among the Indians; but to his misfortune we are in-
debted for his published narrative, after his release,
of his personal adventures and results of his obser-
vations, which is probably the best record extant, of
the manners and customs, and every-day life of the
Indians at that period of their history.

Among the eighty-seven wounded whites, it would
seem probable that some died of their wounds in the
hospital; but, if so, I have seen no list or mention
of them.

To Colonel Christian, who, as generally stated, ar-
rived about four o’clock, when the battle was nearly
over, was assigned the duty of gathering up and
burying the dead whites; most of them were buried
in a common grave or trench, with only their blankets
for coffins and shrouds. A few, whose friends wished
to remove them, were buried in separate graves.

. The Indians were not given burial at all, but left
to pollute the air until the birds, the animals and the
elements had disposed of them.

The Indians, during the battle, had some of their
Trans-Allegheny Pioneers. 197

warriors stationed on both sides of the river, below
the Point, to prevent the possible escape of the
whites by swimming the river from the extreme
point, in the event of defeat.

Colonel Fleming was early wounded by two balls
through his left wrist, but he contined to give his
orders with coolness and presence of mind, calling
loudly to his men: “Don’t lose an inch of ground!
Try to outflank the enemy! Get between them and
the river!” but he was about to be outflanked him-
self, and was only saved by the timely coming up of
Colonel Field, with reinforcements, when he was
again shot, through the lungs, and carried off the
field. Several times the Indians retreated, to draw
out the whites from cover—a favorite ruse of theirs—
and then advanced again. During one of these
moves, Colonel Field was leading on his men in pur-
suit, when he was fatally shot.

General Lewis, warned by the loss of so many
brave officers and men, of the danger of possible dis-
aster, put a large force of his reserves to cutting and
felling trees in a line across the angle between the
rivers, making a breastwork for his men, and protec-
tion for the camp, if he should be driven back to it.

It is rather remarkable that not one of the Indian
leaders was killed or wounded. They certainly
fought bravely.

During the battle, it is said that the stentorian
voice of Cornstalk was often heard, commanding and
encouraging his men.

Captain Stewart at one time asked some one near
him, who understood something of the Indian lan-
guage, what it was that Cornstalk was saying; in

°
198 Trans-Allegheny Pioneers.

reply he said, the English equivalent of the expres-
sion was: “Be strong! Be strong!”

To punish an individual act of cowardice, during
the battle, and to serve as a warning to others, and,
possibly, prevent demoralization in his army, it was
said that Cornstalk cleft the skull of one of his own
men with his tomahawk. This, I believe, is given
on the authority of Cornstalk himself, subsequently
obtained; he also stated that he had opposed the
battle, and advised a conference with General Lewis,
on the eve of the fight, to treat for peace, but he was
overruled, when he said to them: “Then if you will
fight, you shall fight, and I will see that you do
fight!”

It was about four o’clock in the afternoon when
General Lewis detailed Captains Shelby, Matthews
and Stewart to makea detour and flank movement up:
Crooked Creek. This was entirely successful, and
was the decisive move of the day. As soon as the
Indians discovered it, thinking it was Colonel Chris-
tian arriving with fresh reinforcements, they began
their final retreat. They kept up a show of fighting
by desultory firing, to keep the whites in check while
getting away with their wounded, which they accom-
plished with entire success.

Some historians of the battle claim that the In-
dians were pursued, on their retreat, by the whites,
from one to three miles, but the evidence is not sat-
isfactory. General Lewis’ army had fought from
sunrise to sunset, without food or rest, and were, con-
sequently, fatigued, hungry and exhausted, and in
no condition to pursue. To have attempted it in the
darkness of night would have been to risk being
Trans-Allegheny Pioneers. 199

ambushed and exterminated. In the exhausted con-
dition of the armies, I assume that one side was as
glad to be let alone as the other, and that there was
no pursuit.

Probably the first man killed when the battle
opened, and after the hunter, Hickman, had been
killed a mile above the camp, was Captain Frogg.
He was not commanding a company, but was a sut-
ler. When the order was given to advance, he took
his gun and volunteered to fight with the rest. He
was a nervous, excitable man, and kept not only even
with the front rank, but generally several steps in
advance, as there were yet no Indians in sight. He
was gaudily dressed in bright colors, and had his hat
rigged with ribbons or feathers; suddenly the Indians
arose from an ambush in a pawpaw thicket, and fired
a volley into the advance. Captain Frogg, from his
advanced position and gaudy dress, had probably
been mistaken for an officer of rank, and was rid-
dled with bullets. He had, unfortunately for himeelf,
drawn the fire of the enemy, and, possibly, saved the
lives of several others.

A few days after the battle, there was a sale, at
auction, of sundry articles captured from, or lost by,
the Indians during the day. They brought, in the
aggregate, £74. 4s. 6d.

These two last items I give on the authority of
Colonel B. H. Smith’s centennial address at Point
Pleasant in 1874, and he got them from the tradi-
tions of his ancestors, who were in the battle.

It is said that three Indians were successively shot
down over one body in the, at last, unsuccessful effort
to secure a much-coveted scalp.
200 Trans-Allegheny Pioneers.

The wonderful powers of endurance of the In-
dians may be estimated from the facts that they
occupied the night of the 9th in crossing the river,
marched three miles by sunrise on the morning of
the 10th, fought from sunrise till dark, remarched
three miles, and recrossed the river on the night of
the 10th, with little or no opportunity for food
or rest.

Collins, in his admirable history of Kentucky, says
that Captain James Harrod, who had a company of
forty-two colonists in Kentucky, taking up lands
and building improvers’ cabins, in 1774, left the
country with the surveyors and others, when warned
out by Boone, took most of them with him up to
the Point, and “lent a helping hand” in the bloody
fight.

The weather. on the 10th of October, the day of
the memorable battle, was clear and pleasant, and
the rivers were low. On Tuesday, the 11th, General
Lewis strengthened the Fort, provided for the
wounded and prepared for the march, and on Wednes-
day, the 12th, crossed the Ohio and started to join
Lord Dunmore. It is believed that he crossed not
far below the mouth of “Old Town Creek,” and
about where the Indians had crossed and recrossed.

The original camp and Fort at the Point stood in
the angle of the rivers, a little nearer the Ohio, and
a little below the present Virginia street; and here
the brave Virginians, who had lost their lives in de-
tense of her borders and their own homes, were laid
to rest. Since that day the Ohio has cut away its
banks very much, encroaching upon the site.

One of the last official acts of Governor Dunmore,
Trans-Allegheny Pioneers, 201

before fleeing from the wrath of his unloving sub-
jects, was to order the disbanding of the garrison at
the Point, in 1775, hoping thus to encourage and
facilitate Indian raids upon the Western settlements.
The Governor was then fully committed to the Eng-
lish side in the Revolutionary struggle.

It was not long, however, till a larger Fort was
constructed, changing the location to the site of the
large brick storehouse of the late James Capeheart,
and it was called Fort Randolph.

How long this Fort stood, I do not know, but
Colonel Andrew Lewis says he was at the Point in
1784, when there was little or no sign of it left.
CHAPTER XXXIII.

LORD DUNMORE.

T has been stated that there were not only suspi-
cions, but grave charges, that Governor Dunmore
acted a double part, and that he was untrue and
treacherous to the interests of the colony he gov-
erned.

As he is inseparably connected with this campaign
(often called the Dunmore war), and its accompany-
ing history, and the inauguration of the Revolution,
it may be well to briefly allude to his official course
just before, during and after the campaign, that his
true relations to it, and to the colony, may be under-
stood; and, also, to show that the “ Revolution” was
really in progress; that this campaign was one of the
important early moves on the historical chess-board,
and that the battle of Point Pleasant was, as gen-
erally claimed, the initiatory battle of the great
drama.

In the Summer of 1773, Governor Dunmore made,
ostensibly, a pleasure trip to Fort Pitt; here he
established close relations with Dr. Connally, making
him Indian Agent, Land Agent, ete. Connally was
an able, active and efficient man, who thereafter ad-
hered to Dunmore and the English cause.

It, is charged that Connally at once began foment-
ing trouble and ill-feeling between the colonies of
Trans-Allegheny Pioneers. 203

Virginia and Pennsylvania in regard to the Western

frontier of Pennsylvania, then claimed by both col-

onies, but held by Virginia, hoping by such course to

prevent the friendly co-operation of these colonies

against English designs; and, also, to incite the In-
dian tribes to resistance of Western white encroach-

ments upon their hunting grounds, and prepare the

way for getting their co-operation with England

against the colonies, when the rupture should come.

In December, 1773, the famous “cold-water tea”
was made in Boston harbor. In retaliation, the
English Government blockaded the port of Boston,
and moved the capital of the colony to Salem. When
this news came, in 1774, the Virginia Assembly, being
in session, passed resolutions of sympathy with Mas-
sachusetts, and strong disapproval of the course of
England; whereupon Governor Dunmore peremp-
torily dissolved the Assembly. They met privately,
opened correspondence with the other colonies, and
proposed co-operation and a Colonial Congress.

On the 4th of September, 1774, met, in Philadel-
phia, the first Continental Congress—Peyton Ran-
dolph, of Virginia, President; George Washington,
R. H. Lee, Richard Bland, Patrick Henry, Benjamin
Harrison and Edmund Pendleton members from
Virginia.

They passed strong resolutions; among others, to
resist taxation and other obnoxious measures; to
raise minute men to forcibly resist coercion; and,
finally, resolved to cease all official intercourse with
the English Government.

In the meantime, Dr. Connally had been carrying
out the programme of the Northwest. He had taken
204 Trans-Allegheny Pioneers.

possession of the Fort at Fort Pitt, and renamed it
Fort Dunmore; was claiming lands under patents
from Governor Dunmore, and making settlements on
them; had been, himself, arrested and imprisoned
for atime by Pennsylvania; had the Indian tribes
highly excited, united in a strong confederacy and
threatening war; then came the massacre of Indians
above Wheeling, at Captina and at Yellow Creek,
said to have grown out of Connally’s orders.

While the Continental Congress was passing the
resolutions above mentioned, and which created a
breach between the colonies and the mother country
past healing, Governor Dunmore and General Lewis
were organizing and marching their armies to the
West. Instead of uniting the forces into one army,
and marching straight to the Indian towns and con-
quering or dictating a lasting peace, Lord Dunmore
took the larger portion of the army by a long detour
by Fort Pitt, and thence down the Ohio, picking up,
on the way, Dr. Connally and Simon Girty, whom he
made useful.

At Fort Pitt, it is said, he had held a conference
with some of the Indian Chiefs, and came to some
understanding with them, the particulars of which
are not known.

Instead of uniting with Lewis at the mouth of Kan-
awha, as had been arranged, but which was probably
not intended, he struck off from the Ohio River at
the mouth of the Hockhocking and marched for the
Indian towns on the Pickaway plains, without the
support of Lewis’ army, delaying long enough for
the Indians to have annihilated Lewis’ division, if
events had turned out as Cornstalk had planned. He
Trans-Allegheny Pioneers. 205

(Cornstalk) said it was first their intention to attack
the “Long Knives” and destroy them, as they
crossed the river, and this plan would have been car-
ried out, or attempted, but for the long delay of
Lewis, awaiting the arrival of Lord Dunmore. They
afterwards, upon consultation, changed their plans,
and determined to let Lewis cross the river, and then
ambush him somewhere nearer their own homes, and
farther from his (Lewis’) base; but the Indians have
no organized commissary or transportation arrange-
ments, and can only transport such amount of food
as each brave can carry for his own sustenance; this
is, necessarily, a limited amount, and Lewis’ delay in
crossing had run their rations so short that they
were obliged to cross, themselves, and force a fight,
or break camp and go to hunting food. They crossed
in the night, about three miles above the Point, on
rafts previously constructed, and expected to take
Lewis’ army by surprise; and it has been seen how
near they came to accomplishing it. It was pre-
vented by the accident of the early hunters, who
were out before daylight, in violation of orders.

Colonel Andrew Lewis (son of General Andrew),
in his account of the Point Pleasant campaign, says:
“Tt is known that Blue Jacket, a Shawanee Chief,
visited Lord Dunmore’s camp, on the 9th, the day
before the battle, and went straight from there to the
Point, and some of them went to confer with Lord
Dunmore immediately after the battle.”

It is also said that Lord Dunmore, in conversation
with Dr. Connally, and others, on the 10th, the day
of the battle, remarked that “ Lewis is probably hav-
ing hot work about this time.”
206 Trans-Allegheny Pioneers.

When Lewis had crossed the river, after the battle,
and was marching to join Dunmore, a messenger
was dispatched to him twice in one day, ordering
him to stop and retrace his steps—the messenger, in
both instances, being the afterwards notorious Simon
Girty. General Lewis had, very naturally, become
very much incensed at the conduct of Lord Dun-
more, and took the high-handed responsibility—ad-
vised and sanctioned by his officers and men—of dis-
obeying the order of his superior in command, and
boldly marching on towards his camp.

When within about two and a half miles of Lord
Dunmore’s head-quarters, which he called Camp
Charlotte, after Queen Charlotte, wife of ‘his master,
George ITI., he came out to meet Lewis in person,
bringing with him Cornstalk, White Eyes (another
noted Shawanee Chief), and others, and insisted on
Lewis’ returning, as he (Dunmore) was negotiating a
treaty of peace with the Indians. He sought an in-
troduction to Lewis’ officers, and paid them some
flattering compliments, etc.

Evidently, it did not comport with Lord Dunmore’s
plans to have General Lewis present at the treaty, to
help the negotiation by his suggestions, or to have
the moral support of his army to support them.

So much did Lewis’ army feel the disappointment
and this indignity, that Colonel Andrew, his son,
says it was with difficulty General Lewis could re-
strain his men (not under very rigid discipline, at
best) from killing Lord Dunmore and his Indian
escort. But the result of the personal conference
was that General Lewis, with the utmost reluctance
of himself and army, consented to return, and to dis-
Trans-Allegheny Pioneers. 207

band his army upon his arrival at Camp Union, as
ordered. -

Suppose Lewis had attempted to cross the river,
and been destroyed, or had crossed and been am-
bushed and demolished in the forest thickets of Ohio,
or that Cornstalk had succeeded, as he came so near
doing, in surprising him in his own camp, on the
morning of the 10th, or after that; suppose the In-
dians had succeeded in turning the so evenly bal-
anced scale in their favor, during the fight, as they
came so near doing, and had annihilated Lewis’
army, as they might then have done, having them pen-
ned up in the angle of two rivers, who can doubt, in
view of all the facts above noted, that Lord Dun-
more would have been responsible for the disaster?
Who can doubt, as it was, that he was responsible
for the unnecessary sacrifice of life, at the Point, on
the 10th? Who can doubt that, with the two divi-
sions of the army united, as per agreement, and Lord
Dunmore and Lewis acting in unison and good ‘faith,
they could have marched, unopposed, to the Indian
towns, and utterly destroyed them, or dictated a
favorable and lasting peace, and maintained it as long
as they pleased, by holding important hostages? But,
clearly, the policy of the Governor was dictated by
ulterior and sinister motives; his actions were not
single-minded.

Colonel Andrew Lewis says: “It was evidently
the intention of the old Scotch villain to cut off
General Lewis’ army.” Burk, the historian, says:
“The division under Lewis was devoted to destruc-
tion, for the purpose of breaking the spirit of the
Virginians.” Withers, Doddridge, and others, ex-
208 Trans-Allegheny Pioneers.

press the same views. General Lewis and his army
were convinced of the fact; Colonel Stewart had no
doubt of it, and nearly every one who has written on
the subject has taken the same view of it. <A few
only are willing to give him the benefit of a doubt. _

If this design to destroy Lewis’ army had suc-
ceeded, it is almost certain that the English, through
Lord Dunmore, would have perfected an alliance,
offensive and defensive, with the victorious Indians,
against the colonies, and every white settlement west
of the Alleghenies would probably have been cut
off. It would have been difficult or impossible, for a
time, to raise another army for the defense of the
Western border; the Tory element would have been
encouraged and strengthened, the Revolutionary ele-
ment correspondingly discouraged, the Rebellion (7)
crushed, and Lord Dunmore would have been the
hero of the age.

Upon what slender and uncertain tenures hang
the destinies of Nations, and the fate of individuals!
The closely-won success of Lewis was not only an
immediate victory over the Indians, but a defeat of
the machinations of the double-dealing Governor,
and the projected Anglo-Indian alliance.

In this view of it is established the claim of the
battle of Point Pleasant as being the initiatory battle
of the Revolution; and, although small in itself,
when its after results and influences are considered,
it stands out in bold relief as one of the important
and decisive victories of history.

A few words more and we shall be done with Lord
Dunmore.

Upon his return to Williamsburg, the Assembly,
Trans-Allegheny Pioneers. 209

upon his own ex parte statement of the results of
the campaign, passed a vote of thanks for his “val-
uable services,” etc., which, it is said, they very much
regretted when they learned more of the facts.

Just after the battle of Lexington (April 18, 1775),
he had all the powder that was stored in the colonial
magazine at Williamsburg secretly conveyed on
board an armed English vessel lying off Yorktown,
and threatened to lay Williamsburg in ashes at the
first sign of insurrection.

Patrick Henry raised a volunteer force to go down
and compel him (Dunmore) to restore the powder ; but
as this was impracticable, he agreed to pay, and did pay,
for it, and then issued a proclamation declaring “ One
Patrick Henry and his followers rebels.” He had pre-
viously threatened Thomas Jefferson with prosecu-
tion for treason, and had commenced proceedings.

About this time, having previously sent his family
on an English naval vessel, he made his own escape,
by night, to the English fleet, and commenced a sys-
tem. of depredations along the coast, burning houses,
destroying crops, etc.

He tried to bring his scheme of Indian co-opera-
tion to bear, and sent a message to his old friend,
Connelly, with a commission as Colonel, and in-
structed him to secure the co-operation of as many
of the Western militia commanders as possible, by
large rewards; to form an alliance with the Indians,
collect his forces at Fort Pitt, and march through
Virginia and meet him. Fortunately, Colonel Con-
nelly was captured and imprisoned, and the scheme
exposed and thwarted.

He (Dunmore) issued a proclamation granting

14
210 Trans-Allegheny Pioneers.

freedom to all the slaves who would flock to his
standard, and protection to the Tories.

Among other acts of violence, he burned Norfolk,
the then largest and most important town in Vir-
ginia.

Upon his flight, the Assembly met and declared
his office vacant, and proceeded to fill it; and, for the
first time, Virginia had entire “home rule.”

Upon the petition of citizens of Dunmore County,
which had been named in his honor, the name was
abolished, and the county called Shenandoah.

In 1776, Lord Dunmore and his fleet and hangers-
on were at Guynne’s Island, in the Chesapeake Bay,
where, as an interesting example of poetic or retri-
butive justice, General Lewis, in command of the
Virginia troops, attacked, defeated and drove them
off, with heavy loss, General Lewis, himself, firing
the first gun, soon after which the ex-Governor, a
sadder and wiser man, “left the country for the
country’s good.”
CHAPTER NXXIV.

POINT PLEASANT AS A DEVELOPING MILITARY HIGH
SCHOOL, ETC.

OINT PLEASANT was a sort of developing high

school, which prepared a class of military heroes
and statesmen from the apt pupils who had been
learning and practicing the preliminary lessons of
border warfare in the isolated settlements, and oc-
casional Indian raids that had been made upon their
-families, all along the Western frontiers, and sent
them out to serve their country usefully, and make
honorable records for themselves, in after years, all
along the borders and newly developing Western
States, and elsewhere.

A brief sketch of, or allusion to, the nore prominent
persons known to have been present on this memo-
rable occasion, or otherwise connected with it, may
be of interest.

General Andrew Lewis, one of the high professors
and proficients in this military school, had had event-
ful experiences. He commenced his military career
with Washington at Great Meadows and Fort Neces-
sity, in 1754, where he was twice wounded. In the
following year, with three brothers, he was with
Braddock and Washington, in Braddock’s disaster,
where three of the four brothers were wounded.

In the following year (1756), he commanded the
212 Trans-Allegheny Pioneers.

“Big Sandy expedition” against the Shawanees; in
1758 he was with General Forbes and Washington at
the capture of Fort Du Quesne, where he was again
wounded. Subsequently, he was in the service of his
colony in defending her Western borders, acting as
commissioner in negotiating treaties, or as member
of the House of Burgesses. It was at the treaty of
Fort Stanwix that the Governor of New York, in
commenting on his majestic figure and commanding
appearance, said of him: “He looks like the genius
of the forest, and the very ground seems to tremble
under him as he walks along.” Colonel Stewart, in
his memoir, says of him: “He was upwards of six
feet high, of uncommon strength and agility, and his
form of the most exact symmetry. He had a stern
countenance, and was of a reserved and distant de-
portment, which rendered his presence more awful
than engaging.” Mr. Alexander Reed, of Rock-
bridge, who was in the battle of the Point, says of
him: “He was a man of reserved manners, and
great dignity of character—somewhat of the order
of General Washington.”

It is known that Washington considered him one
of the foremost military men of the country, and
recommended him as Commander-in-Chief of the
armies. General Lewis had, beside his brother
Charles, three sons in the battle of Point Pleasant;
John, a Captain, and Samuel and Thomas, privates.
Samuel was wounded. There were a number of
others here, his relatives by blood or marriage, and a
large part of his army was composed of the sons of
his friends and neighbors. It was a class of mate-
rial not accustomed to restraint, and not amenable
Trans-Allegheny Pioneers. 213

to very rigid discipline. This may account for the
statement sometimes made that the discipline of his
camp was somewhat lax. He knew their metal, and
knew that when fighting was to be done he could de-
pend upon them, and contented himself with this
knowledge. Up to this time, General Lewis had fought
under British colors, against the French and against
the Indians, but this battle was the pivotal point;
henceforth his guns were turned against the British
flag (and, strangely enough, in conjunction with the
French), until it was driven from our shores. Like
Moses of old, he was not permitted to enter into the
rewards of his long and arduous labors. He was
taken ill with fever, not long before the surrender at
Yorktown, and started for his home on the Roanoke,
in then Bottetourt, now Roanoke, County, but died
on the way, at the house of his friend, Colonel Bu-
tord, at the Eastern base of the Blue Ridge. He
was brought home and buried on his own magnificent
estate, called “Dropmore,” lying just outside of the
limits of the town of Salem, where he rests, solitary
and alone, under the spreading branches of the forest
trees, on an eminence overlooking, for many miles,
up and down, the river and valley of the beautiful
Roanoke.

But there is yet more to be told, though it is pain-
ful to report the sad condition of this lonely grave;
there is no marble shaft, nor granite column, nor slab
of stone, nor mound of earth, to mark the spot
where the hero sleeps. It is enclosed by no wall of
stone, or brick, no railing of brass, or iron, or wood,
and loose stock roam over it at will.

Shall the grave of the old patriot, who tought his
214 Trans-Allegheny Pioneers.

counti¥’s battles for twenty-seven years—from 1754
to 1781—from “Great Meadows” almost to York-
town; who mingled his own blood with the first
French blood shed in the first engagement of the
great Anglo-French war; who saw his brother slain
and his son wounded at the battle of the Point, the
first blood shed in the great Revolution that gave us
our liberties, and who drove-the last foreign Gov-
ernor from our colonial shores; the friend and com-
panion of the immortal Washington, longer suffer
this cold neglect ?

Will not some appreciative and patriotic Ameri-
can—I need not say Virginian—in our halls of Con-
gress, do himself the honor to bring this matter to
the attention of our justice-loving and merit-reward-
ing Government, that is spending millions in pen-
sions to the brave men who fought her more recent
battles, and hundreds of thousands to honor the
memories of the brave officers who led them, or served
their country in other fields, and give them the op-
portunity to honor themselves by doing the tardy
justice to embalm in marble, or granite, or brass,
either on the site of his grave or at the capital of
the Nation, the memory of the “Hero of Point
Pleasant ?”’

Colonel Charles Lewis, a younger brother of Gen-
eral Andrew, and the youngest of five brothers, was,
by many, considered “the flower of the flock.” He
was a man of magnificent physique, as were all the
family. He was credited with a more amiable temper-
ament and genial disposition than General Andrew,
and was more beloved by his neighbors and his
soldiers, while both, alike, were honored and esteemed
Trans-Allegheny Pioneers. 215

for their acknowledged bravery, high character and
spotless integrity.

Colonel Charles was said to be the idol of the
army. He had had large, active and honorable mili-
tary experience, from Braddock’s war down to date,
and it is believed that he would have achieved greater
honors and distinction in the Revolutionary struggle
if his life had been spared; but his brilliant career
was ended in glory on this field.

The remains of Colonel Charles were afterwards
removed from the Point to the mouth of Old Town
Creek, on the Ohio, four. miles above, where they are
well cared for in the family burying-ground of his
descendants.

Colonel William Fleming was a Scotchman of
high lineage by birth, a doctor by profession, a resi-
dent of Bottetourt County, a man of learning and
culture. He was thrice severely wounded in this
battle, but recovered, and was afterwards, for a time,
Acting Governor of Virginia, but not an elected
Governor, as sometimes stated.

Colonel John Field was a native of Culpepper
County, Va., had seen active service in Braddock’s
war and after, had been on the Kanawha a few
months before, entering and surveying lands at
Field’s Creek (named after him), and Kelly’s Creek,
where Walter Kelly was shot down by his side, and
he narrowly escaped by running eighty miles through
the wilderness, to the Greenbriar settlements.

Colonel Field raised a force of volunteers in his
own county for this campaign, and united it with
General Lewis’ army. It was his timely and vigor-
ous advance on the field that checked the retreat
216 Trans-Allegheny Pioneers.

both of Lewis’ and Fleming’s forces, when both
leaders had been wounded. He received his fatal
wound at the front, after he had succeeded in turning
the tide of battle, and was bravely leading on his
command in active pursuit of the then retreating foe.
Colonel Field’s remains were never removed from
the Point, but still lie there, surrounded by the other
brave men who fell around him.

Colonel Christian was descended from an ancient
Scotch family of high degree, who lived on the Isle.
of Man. The immediate ancestors of Colonel Wil-
liam were among the earliest to settle in the Valley
of Virginia, on Christian’s Creek, near the site of
Staunton. Colonel William was a man of education
and refinement. He married a sister of Patrick Henry.
He was not, himself, present in the early part of the
battle of the Point, though a portion of his regiment
was, and he arrived, with the remainder, about four
o'clock in the afternoon, when the fighting was
nearly over. He removed to Kentucky a few years
after this date, and was finally killed, near the Falls
of the Ohio, while in pursuit of a raiding party of
Indians, who had committed some depredations upon
his neighbors.

Colonel William Preston, of Smithfield, intended ©
to accompany General Lewis and participate in the
events of this campaign, but as his young wife was
on the eve of becoming a mother, he remained at
home to await the interesting event, which occurred
about the date of the battle, and too late for him to
join the army. The child born afterwards became
Governor James Preston, of Virginia, the father-in-
law of Governor John Floyd, and the gr andfather of
Governor John B. Floyd.
Trans-Allegheny Pioneers. 217

Captain Evan Shelby, originally from Maryland,
settled on the Holston, in Southwest Virginia, about
1771. He raised a volunteer company for Lewis’
army, and joined Colonel Christian’s regiment. He
was present when the fight began. After Colonels
Lewis, Fleming and Field had been killed or dis-
_abled, he was the ranking officer, until Colonel Chris-
tian arrived. He it was who led the three companies
(his own, Matthews’ and Stewart’s) on the flank move-
ment up Crooked Creek, which was so successful in
finally putting the Indians to flight, and deciding
the fortunes of the day. Captain Shelby afterwards
became Colonel Evan Shelby, and had a distinguished
career in Kentucky and Tennessee.

Captain George Matthews, of Augusta County,
with his splendid company, nearly every man of
whom, as heretotore stated, was over six feet two
inches in height, was one of the three Captains who
made the successful Crooked Creek detour. He
afterwards became the distinguished General George
Matthews of the Revolution, hero of Brandywine,
Germantown and Guilford, Governor of Georgia,
United States Senator, etc.

Captain John Stewart, one of the first permanent
settlers and defenders of Greenbriar, and one of the
three Captains who executed the Crooked Creek
flank movement, afterwards became Colonel John
Stewart, took an active part in several subsequent
Indian engagements, built on his estate a private
fort, called “ Fort Spring,” was first Clerk of Green-
briar County, author of the fullest account of this
battle, and ancestor of a large and honorable family
of descendants.
218 Trans-Allegheny Pioneers.

Captain William Russell raised a volunteer com-
pany in the Clinch and New River settlements, and
joined Colonel Christian’s regiment. He was in the
battle at its commencement; the first blood shed was
that of Hickman, one of his men, who had started
out for an early hunt up the Ohio River. Captain
Russell afterwards became Colonel William Russell,
and father of Colonel William Russell, both dis-
tinguished citizens of Kentucky.

Captain Moore became General Andrew Moore, of
Rockbridge County, United States Senator, etc.

Captain McKee became Colonel William McKee,
of Kentucky.

Lieutenant Shelby became General Isaac Shelby, a
prominent factor at King’s Mountain, Long Island
(Holston), battle of the Thames, and other engage-
ments, first Governor of Kentucky, and afterwards
Secretary of War, under Monroe.

Lieutenant Thomas Ingles, who had been the first
white child born west of the Alleghenies, and had
been thirteen years prisoner among the Indians, be-
came Colonel Thomas Ingles, and had a very eventful
career, as herein elsewhere related.

William and John Campbell became General Wil-
liam and Colonel John Campbell, the heroes of King’s
Mountain.

Charles Cameron became Colonel Charles Came-
ron, of Bath County, Va.

Buzaleel Wells became General Bisiedl Wells, a
distinguished citizen of Ohio.

John Steele, who was shot through the lungs here,
survived and became Colonel John Steele, of the
Revolution, a large land owner and salt dealer in this
valley, and Governor of Mississippi.
Trans-Allegheny Pioneers. 219

John Lewis became Major John Lewis, a promi-
nent citizen of Monroe County, Va.

Lieutenant Tate became General Tate, a dis-
tinguished citizen of Washington County, Va.

Lieutenant John Draper, who had been one of the
founders of the “Draper’s Meadows” settlement,
was the ancestor of the prominent and honorable
family of Draper’s Valley, Va.

Captain Ben Harrison, according to the family
tradition, was engaged in the successful flank move-
ment up Crooked Creek, with Shelby and others.
The Harrisons were a prominent and influential fam-
ily in the Valley of Virginia, and founders of Har-
risonburg; related to Benjamin Harrison, signer of
the Declaration of Independence, President W. H.
Harrison, ete.

Captain Daniel Smith was with Colonel Charles
Lewis at the front, when Lewis received his fatal
wound. Captain Smith was afterwards a prominent
man in the Valley of Virginia, was long the pre-
siding justice in his county, was the ancestor of
Judge Daniel Smith, of that district, and of Colonel
B. H. Smith, of this city.

Captain John Dickinson, a few years later, “ en-
tered” and surveyed the five hundred and two acres
of land at and about the mouth of Campbell’s
Creek, containing the original salt spring, or Buffalo
Licks.

George Clendenin afterwards became the founder
of Charleston, the capital of West Virginia; was
first member of the Legislature from Kanawha
County, and, next year, fellow-member with Daniel
Boone. He was father-in-law of Governor Return
Jonathan Meigs, of Ohio.
220 Trans-Allegheny Pioneers.

William Clendenin (brother of George) became
Colonel William Clendenin, a prominent citizen and
long-time representative, first of Kanawha, and after-
wards of Mason County, in the Legislature.

James Trimble was afterwards the founder of the
distinguished family of that name in Kentucky and
Ohio, father of Governor Allen Trimble, United
States Senator Trimble, etc.

Anne Trotter, made a widow by the death of her
husband in this battle; remarried and became the
eccentric and renowned “Mad Anne Bailey,” the
useful border scout, reliable messenger and valuable
conveyor of ammunition, ete., between the Forts at
Point Pleasant, Charleston, Lewisburg and Jackson’s
River. She is still remembered by some of our older
citizens, and is said to have been nearly one hundred
and twenty years old when she died.

Captain Matthew Arbuckle, who is said to have
been the first white man to pass down through this
valley to the Ohio and return (in 1764), and was
guide and pilot of General Lewis’ army to the Point,
was the commander of the garrison left at the Point
after the battle, and was probably the author of the
first written account of the battle, above given.

James Welch was afterwards appointed, by Governor
Patrick Henry, first surveyor of Greenbriar County.
After the death of Captain Arbuckle, Mr. Welch
married his widow, and, upon his death, his brother,
Mr. Alexander Welch, succeeded to the survey-
orship. ;

John and Peter Van Bibber, brothers, came with
the army from the Greenbriar, and afterwards set-
tled in this valley, and became the ancestors of a
_ Lrans-cillegheny Pioneers. 221

large and prominent family. One of them, Matthias,
called “Tice,” was the esmpanion of Boone in his
hunting and trapping excursions, and chain carrier
on his surveys. He became the father-in-law of
Jesse Boone, Colonel Andrew Donnally, Colonel
John Reynolds and Mr. Goodrich Slaughter, all
prominent citizens of the valley, and, still later,
through the daughters of Jesse Boone, he became
the grandfather-in-law of Governor Boggs, of Mis-
souri, and Mr. Warner, a member of Congress from
Missouri.

Captain James Harrod, who brought up his col-
onists from Kentucky and took part in the battle, as
elsewhere related, next year founded Harrodsburg,
Ky., became Colonel James Harrod, and one of the
most prominent citizens of the State.

Philip Hammond and John Pryor, who had come
down from Camp Union to warn the few settlers on
the Kanawha, remained in the garrison at the Point,
and, in 1778, volunteered as runners to Greenbriar,
to warn the citizens of the approach of the Indians,
and then helped to fight them at Donnally’s Fort,
having passed the Indians on the way.

Mr. Robertson, one of the two soldiers who met
the Indians above the Point, on the morning of the
battle, and who made his escape, his companion
(Hickman) having been killed, became Brigadier-
General Robertson, of Tennessee.

Colonel Daniel Boone was not in the battle, but
was the commander of three frontier garrisons (be-
lieved to have been the three Greenbriar Forts), to
protect the citizens while the fighting men were
absent with the army. He, next year, founded Boones-
222 Trans-Allegheny Pioneers.

borough, Ky. He will be treated of briefly in a sep-
arate chapter.

Simon Kenton was not in the fight, but was pilot,
scout and messenger for Lord Dunmore, in connec-
tion with Simon Girty, and, on account of the friend-
ship then formed, Girty afterwards saved his life,
when a prisoner, and after Girty had gone over to
the Indians. Kenton was the first white man ever
to camp in this valley (1771), and he was the first to.
raise corn in Northern Kentucky. He became
Colonel Simon Kenton, and had a most eventful
career as frontiersman, Indian fighter, etc.

Samuel McCulloch was one of Lord Dunmore’s
scouts and messengers. He was one of the bearers
of orders from Dunmore to Lewis, on the day before
the battle. He lived to become one of the most re-
nowned and successful Indian fighters on the West-
ern borders.

Captain Logan, afterwards General Benjamin Lo-
gan, was with Dunmore. He became, next year, the
founder of St. Azaph, or Logan’s Fort, one of the
first permanent centers of settlement in Kentucky,
and a distinguished commander in the early Ken-
tucky Indian troubles.

George Rogers Clark was with Dunmore; had,
probably, joined him at Wheeling, where, it is said,
he planned and laid out the Wheeling Fort, called
Fort Henry. He went to Kentucky the following
year,zwhere he, Boone, Harrod; Logan and Kenton,
became the founders, developers and defenders of a
great commonwealth. A little later, General George
Rogers Clarke became the hero of Vincennes and Kas-
kaskia, amoug the most brilliant achievements in
Trans-Allegheny Pioneers. 223

history, winning for himself the proud appellation of
“The Hannibal of the West.”

Major (afterwards Colonel) Crawford, the unfortu-
‘nate, was also with Dunmore.

William Eastham was the father of.Mr. A. G.
Eastham, a prominent citizen of Mason County,
some time member of the West Virginia Legislature,
and now, as he believes, the last surviving immediate
descendant of any of the participants in the Point
Pleasant battle. :

The admittedly last survivor of those who per-
sonally participated in this memorable fight was Mr.
Ellis Hughes, one of the remarkable family of border
settlers and Indian fighters of that name. After
Wayne’s treaty, he and a neighbor, Radcliff, removed
to Ohio, and were the first to settle in (now) Licking
County. Hughes died in 1845, near Utica, aged in
the nineties.

There were, probably, others connected with this
memorable Point Pleasant campaign, who after-
wards attained to positions of prominence or emi-
nence in the stirring times that followed, as most of
them, when disbanded, re-enlisted in the Revolution-
ary armies, but of whose connection with this event
no record has been preserved.

While the names of those above mentioned will
long be remembered and cherished with pride and
pleasure by their descendants, there is one other
whose “bad eminence” will ever be remembered
with execration and horror.

Simon Girty had joined Dunmore at Fort Pitt and
was acting as scout and pilot. He had not then
turned Judas, forsworn his race and betrayed his
224 Trans-Allegheny Pioneers.

color, kith and kin; he was an active and useful
scout, and probably, up to that time, loyal to the
whites.

There is a tradition that, while at the Point, with
the other scouts and messengers (McCulloch and
Kenton), the day before the battle, Girty made some
demand of General Lewis in regard to pay for his
services. General Lewis, very properly, replied that
it was not his business to settle such accounts, and
referred him to the proper authority; at this Girty

. became quite insolent to General Lewis, who rapped
him severely, with his cane, over the head, and put
him out of his tent. Girty left, bleeding profusely
from his scalp wounds, threatening vengeance, and
swearing that the camp should “run with blood”
for the insult.

This incident was, doubtless, considered trifling at
the time, and, in view of the tragical events of the
following day, was probably very nearly lost sight of
and forgotten; but, it seems highly probable, if the
account of this incident be true, that Girty’s defec-
tion and renegadeism dated from this time, and was
probably occasioned by this unfortunate circum-
stance, as he very soon, if not immediately after,
joined his fortunes with the Indians and the English,
and became the bitter, relentless and dangerously
efficient enemy of his former friends, probably caus-
ing them, directly and indirectly, more bloodshed
and suffering, for the next twenty years, than any
half dozen of the most bloodthirsty Indian warriors.
Girty had not far to go when he “went over to the
enemy;” he did but little violence to his feelings.
He, with his brothers, George and James, had been
Trans-Allegheny Pioneers. 225

captured near Fort Pitt, in their infancy or very
early youth, and retained as captives eight or nine
years, trained up in all the habits and imbibing the
feelings and prejudices of the Indians, learning their
language thoroughly, while nearly forgetting their
own, acquiring a strong taste and lasting fondness for
the roving, unrestrained and exciting Indian life,
and thus these wild Irish lads were converted into
wilder savage Indians. It has frequently been said
that it is impossible to make a white man of an In-
dian, but very easy to make an Indian of a white
man; the history of the Girtys fully illustrates the
latter.

Of the Indians who participated in this memorable
battle of the Point, two—Cornstalk and Logan—
stand out in bold relief above all the rest. In phys-
ical development, manly beauty and intellectual ca-
pacity, they were magnificent specimens of their
race. For bravery they could not be excelled, and
for self-composed dignity of bearing, ease of manner
and fervid eloquence they will, from the accounts we
have of them, compare favorably with the best ora-
tors of any age. Mr. Jefferson, who has immor-
talized Logan and his touchingly eloquent speech,
thought him the equal of any of the ancient Greek
or Roman orators. It has been doubted by many
whether Logan was the author of the speech, but it
has also been doubted whether Mr. Jefferson was the
author of the Declaration of Independence ; whether
Shakespeare or Lord Bacon wrote Hamlet; William
Tell has been pronounced a myth, and Barbara
Fritche is said never to have had visible, tangible
existence.

16
226 Trans-Allegheny Pioneers.

There are always believers—always doubters. 1
give the speech of Logan as it was reported by
Colonel John Gibson, who was with Lord Dunmore
at Camp Charlotte, who claimed to have heard it
direct from Logan, and vouched for its authenticity.
Let those believe who can, those doubt who must.
Voltaire said: “ History does not always lie.”

When Lord Dunmore was holding his peace con-
ference with the Chiefs, at his camp, it was observed
that Logan was not present. Feeling the importance
of securing his assent to the terms of the treaty,
Lord Dunmore sent Colonel Gibson to his tent,
where he found him brooding over his wrongs. In
reply to the request to attend the council, he said: “TI
am a warrior, not a councilor, and I will not go,”
but instead he sent the following speech by Colonel
Gibson:

é LOGAN’S SPEECH.

“T appeal to any white man to say if he ever entered Logan’s
cabin hungry, and he gave him not meat; if ever he came cold
and naked, and he clothed him not. During the course of the
last long and bloody war, Logan remained idle in his cabin, an
advocate of peace. Such was my love for the whites that my
countrymen pointed as they passed, and said: ‘Logan is the
friend of the white man.’ I had even thought to live with you,
but for the injuries of one man. Colonel Cresap, the last Spring,
in cold blood and unprovoked, murdered all the relations of
Logan, not even sparing my women and children. There runs
not a drop of my blood in the veins of any living creature. This
called on me for revenge. I have sought it: I have killed
many ; I have glutted my vengeance. For my country, I rejoice
at the beams of peace; but do not harbor a thought that mine is
the joy of fear. Logan never felt fear. He will not turn on

his heel to save his life. Who is there to mourn for Logan?
Not one.”

Logan, weighed down by his sorrows, gave himself
up to intemperance, becoming a sot, and was finally
Trans- Allegheny Pioneers. 227

murdered by a brother-in-law, on his return from a
trip to Detroit.

The dominant character, not only in this Indian
army, but probably throughout the Ohio tribes, at
this period, was the great Shawanee chief, and king
of the confederacy, Cornstalk. He was born in this
valley, within the present limits of Greenbriar
County, says Colonel Peyton in his “ddiatony of Au-
gusta County.”

Colonel Benjamin Wilson, who was with Lord
Dunmore at Camp Charlotte, heard Cornstalk at
this peace conference, and says of him:

‘When he arose, he was in no wise confused or daunted, bvt
spoke in a distinct and audible voice, without stammering or
repetition, and with peculiar emphasis. His looks, while ad-
dressing Dunmore, were truly grand and majestic, yet graceful
and attractive. I have heard the first orators in Virginia—
Patrick Henry and Richard Henry Lee—but never have I heard
one whose powers of delivery surpassed those of Cornstalk on
this occasion.”

Some one else present says:

‘“* His clear, bugle voice could be distinctly heard all through
the camp.”

Colonel Andrew Lewis (son of General Andrew)
Says:

“T have often heard my father speak of his being the most
dignified looking man, particularly in council, he ever saw.”

That greatness and great misfortunes are apt to go
together there are many examples among the illus-
trious names of the white race, and the histories of
Cornstalk, Logan, Pontiac, Tecumseh, and others,
illustrate the same rule in their race.
CHAPTER XANXAV.

DEATH OF CORNSTALK.

JHREE years after the battle of the Point, the
brave Cornstalk, who had here led his army
almost to victory, who had himself withstood the
flying bullets of a thousand murderous rifles, from
sunrise to sunset, and escaped; who was now here as
a messenger of peace, unarmed, and trusting his life
to the protection of the garrison, was foully and
and shamefully murdered. The most reliable, in-
deed, the only reliable, account of it is that by
Colonel John Stewart, who happened to be present
on the occasion, and was an eye-witness of the un-
fortunate occurrence. I quote, entire, Colonel Stew-
art’s account, as it also gives valuable collateral
history :

“In the year 1777, the Indians, being urged by British agents,
became very troublesome to frontier settlements, manifesting
much appearance of hostilities, when the Cornstalk warrior,
with the Red Hawk, paid a visit to the garrison at Point Pleas-
ant. He made no secret of the disposition of the Indians, de-
claring that, on his own part, he was opposed to joining in the
war on the side of the British, but that all the nation, except
himself and his own tribe, were determined to engage in it; and
that, of course, he and his tribe would have to run with the
stream (as he expressed it). On this, Captain Arbuckle thought
proper to detain him, the Red Hawk, and another fellow, as hos-
tages, to prevent the natioi from joining the British.

“Tn the course of that Summer, our Government had ordered
an army to be raised, of volunteers, to serve under the command
Trans- Allegheny Pioneers. 229

of General Hand, who was to have collected a number of troops
at Fort Pitt, and, with them, to descend the river to Point Pleas-
ant, there to meet a reinforcement of volunteers expected to be
raised in Augusta and Bottetourt Counties, and then proceed to
the Shawanee towns and chastise them so as to compel them to a
neutrality. Hand did not succeed in the collection of troops at
Fort Pitt, and but three or four companies were raised in Au-
gusta and Bottetourt, which were under the command of Colonel
George Skillern, who ordered me to use my endeavors to raise
all the volunteers I could get, in Greenbriar, for the service.

“The people had begun to see the difficulties attendant on a
state of war, and long campaigns carried on through wilder-
nesses, and but a few were willing to engage in such service. But
as the settlements which we covered, though less expesed to the
depredations of the Indians, had showed their willingness to aid
in the proposed plan to chastise the Indians, and had raised
three companies, I was very desirous of doing all I could to pro-
mote the business and aid the service. I used the utmost en-
deavors, and proposed to the militia officers to volunteer our-
selves, which would be an encouragement to others, and by such
means to raise all the men who could be got.

‘‘The chief of the officers in Greenbriar agreed to the pro-
posal, and we cast lots who should command the company. The
lot fell on Andrew Hamilton for Captain, and William Renick,
Lieutenant. We collected, in all, about forty, and joined
Colonel Skillern’s party on their way to Point Pleasant.

“When we arrived, there was no account of General Hand or
his army, and little or no provision made to support our troops,
other than what we had taken with us down the Kanawha. We
found, too, that the garrison was unable to spare us any sup-
plies, having nearly exhausted, when we got there, what had
been provided for themselves. But we concluded to wait there
as long as we could for the arrival of General Hand, or some ac-
count from him.

“During the time of our stay, two young men, of the names
of Hamilton and Gilmore, went over the Kanawha one day to
hunt for deer; on their return to camp, some Indians had con-
cealed themselves on the bank, among the weeds, to view our
encampment, and as Gilmore came along past them, they fired
on him and killed him on the bank.

“Captain Arbuckle and myself were standing on the opposite
230 Trans-Allegheny Pioneers.

bank when the gun fired, and while we were wondering who it
could be shooting, contrary to orders, or what they could be
doing over the river, we saw Hamilton run down the bank, who
called out that Gilmore was killed.

“Gilmore was one of the company of Captain John Hall, of
that part of the country now Rockbridge County. The Captain
was a relative of Gilmore’s, whose family and friends were
chiefly cut off by the Indians in the year 1763, when Greenbriar
was cut off. Hall’s men instantly jumped into a canoe and went
to the relief of Hamilton, who was standing in momentary ex-
pectation of being put to death. They brought the corpse of
Gilmore down the bank, covered with blood and scalped, and
put him into the canoe.

“As they were passing the river, I observed to Captain Ar-
buckle that the people would be for killing the hostages as soon
as the canoe would land. He supposed that they would not
offer to commit so great a violence upon the innocent, who were
in no wise accessory to the murder of Gilmore; but the canoe
had scarcely touched the shore until the cry was raised, ‘Let us
kill the Indians in the Fort,’ and every man, with his gun in
his hand, came up the bank, pale with rage. Captain Hall was
at their head, and leader. Captain Arbuckle and I met them,
and endeavored to dissuade them from so unjustifiable an action,
but they cocked their guns, threatened us with instant death if
we did not desist, rushed by us into the Fort, and put the In-
dians to death.

“On the preceding day, the Cornstalk’s son, Elinipsico, had
come from the nation to see his father, and to know if he was
well or alive. When he came to the river, opposite the Fort, he
hallooed. His father was, at that instant, in the act of delin-
eating a map of the country and the waters between the Shawanee
towns and the Mississippi, at our request, with chalk upon the
floor. He immediately recognized the voice of his son, got up,
went out, and answered him.

“The young fellow crossed over, and they embraced each
other in the most tender and affectionate manner. The inter-
pretor’s wife, who had been a prisoner among the Indians, and
had recently left them, on hearing the uproar the next day, and
hearing the men threaten that they would kill the Indians, for
whom she retained much affection, ran to their cabin and in-
formed them that the people were just coming to kill them, and
vw
Trans-Allegheny Pioneers. 231

that because the Indians who had killed Gilmore had come with
Elinipsico the day before. He utterly denied it; declared that he
knew nothing of them, and trembled exceedingly.

“His father encouraged him not to be afraid, for the Great
Man above had sent him there to be killed and die with him.
As the men advanced to the door, the Cornstalk rose up and met
them. They fired upon him, and seven or eight bullets went
through him.

“So fell the great Cornstalk warrior, whose name was be-
stowed upon him by the consent of the nation, as their great
strength and support. His son was shot dead as he sat upon |
a stool.

“The Red Hawk made an attempt to go up the chimney, but
was shot down. The other Indian was shamefully mangled, and
I grieved to see him so long in the agonies of death.

“The Cornstalk, from personal appearance and many brave
acts, was undoubtedly a hero. Had he been spared to live, I be-
lieve he would have been friendly to the American cause, for
nothing could induce him to make the visit to the garrison at
the critical time he did but to communicate to them the temper
and the disposition of the Indians, and their design of taking
part with the British. ,

“On the day he was killed we held a council, at whivh he was
present. His countenance was dejected, and he made a speech,
all of which seemed to indicate an honest and manly disposi-
tion. He acknowledged that he and his party would have to run
with the stream, for that all the Indians on the Lakes and north-
wardly were joining the British. Hesaid that when he returned
to the Shawanee towns, after the battle at the Point, he called a
council of the nation, to consult what was to be done, and up-
braided them for their folly in not suffering him to make peace
on the evening before the battle. ‘What,’ said he, ‘will you do
now? The Big Knife is coming on us, and we shall all be killed.
Now you must fight, or we are undone.’ But no one made an
answer. He said: ‘Then let us kill all our women and children,
and go and fight till we die.’ But none would answer. At
length he rose and struck his tomahawk in the post in the
center of the town-house. ‘I’ll go,’ said he, ‘and make peace,’
and then the warriors all grunted out, ‘ough! ough! ough!’
and runners were instantly dispatched to the Governor’s army
to solicit a peace, and the interposition of the Governor on their
behalf.
232 * Trans-Allegheny Pioneers.

“When he made his speech in council with us, he seemed to
be impressed with an awful premonition of his approaching fate,
for he repeatedly said: ‘When I was a young man and went to

‘war, I thought that might be the last time, and I would return
nomore. NowIam here among you; you may kill meif you
please. I can die but once, and it is all one to me, now or
another time.’ This declaration concluded every sentence of
his speech. He was killed about one hour after our council.”

Thus fell this rude child of Nature, and denizen
of the forest, who, with the lights before him, and
true to the nature within him, had lived and acted
well his part. His creed required an eye for an eye,
blood for blood, life for life, and he had lived up to
it bravely and fearlessly. He had fought for his
country and his race when duty, as he saw his duty,
required it; but he was a lover of peace, and, a coun-
cilor of peace, when peace was practicable. He was
here now, this rude savage, in the interest of peace,
when he and his son, the pride of his heart, and his
companion in arms, Red Hawk, were cruelly mur-
dered by those who had been reared in the light of.
the eighteenth century civilization, and under the
teaching and preaching of peace gospels. Which

were the savages /
RED HAWK.

Kercheval, in his “History of the Valley,” says,
on the authority of Major Lawrence Washington,
that Dr. Daniel Craig, of Winchester, met this In-
dian brave, Red Hawk, soon after Braddock’s defeat,
when Red Hawk told him that he had fired eleven
well aimed shots at Washington during that mem-
orable day, and had then desisted, believing Wash-
ington to to be under the protection of the Great
Spirit, as his gun never missed its mark before.
Trans-Allegheny Pioneers. 233

It is related by one of the biographers of Wash-
ington that, in 1770, when at the mouth of the Kan-
awha, looking after his lands, he met an Indian, who
gave him the same story. This was probably Red
Hawk himself, though no name is given.

Cornstalk was first buried not far from the camp
where he fell, near the intersection of the present
Virginia and Kanawha streets, but in after years
(1841) his remains were removed to the court house
enclosure, where they yet remain; but, like the
grave of his illustrious adversary of 1774, there is
neither stone nor mound—nothing—to indicate the
spot. Iam informed by Mr. V. A. Lewis, however,
a citizen of the county, and well informed in her his-
tory, that the spot is where a westward extension of
the southern jail wall bisects a southern extension
of the western old court house wall. Prior to the
late civil war, Mr. Charles Dawson, son of the then
jailor, at his own expense and pains, put a rail fence
around the grave, and his sister, Miss Susan Dawson,
in the kindness of her heart, planted rose bushes
upon it, but during an occupation of the town by
Federal troops, about 1863, they burned the rails and
fences, and stock destroyed the rose bushes, since
when the grave has had no care.

When General Lewis’ monument shall be erected,
as I predict it will be, shall not Cornstalk also be re-
membered, in acknowledgement of the good that
was in him, and in atonement of wrong that was
done him?

The directing brain and executing right arm of
the great Cornstalk were stilled forever, but his
blood cried aloud to his tribe and his race for re-
234 Trans-.dllegheny Pioneers.

venge, and revenge they took in large measure. Who
can estimate the amount of blood-shed, the number
of innocent lives sacrificed, and the consequent heart-
aches, all along the Virginia border, in retaliation for
the wicked murder of Logan’s kindred, and Corns-
talk and his party? It is said that Logan, in retalia-
tion for his wrongs, himself brought in nineteen
scalps and one prisoner, and yet he was kind to that
prisoner, a Mr. Robinson, and he afterwards helped
Girty to save Simon Kenton’s life, when Girty was
about to fail. Would the slayers of his family, and
of Cornstalk, have been as humane under like cir-
cumstances?

Many of the individual murders, interior raids, and
attacks in force on the Forts, all along the frontier,
from the Kanawha to the Monongahela, within the
next year or two, were largely due to the determina-
tion, on the part of the Indians, to avenge the death
of their honored chief.

When the news of Cornstalk’s death, and the at-
tendant circumstances, reached the capital, the Gov-
ernor of Virginia, Patrick Henry, offered a reward
for the apprehension and conviction of the guilty
parties. Asa result, Captain Hall and some of his
men were arrested in their county (Rockbridge), and
went through the forms of a pretended trial, but
there was scarcely a family in that region that had
not, at some time, suffered from Indian raids and
murders, or had not lost friends or relatives in the
battle of the Point, or other Indian wars, and their
prejudices were so strong against Indians generally,
that, although the facts were generally known, there
was no one to prosecute, no one to testify; the trial
Trans-Allegheny Pioneers. . 235

was a farce, and the case was dismissed by default.
Public sentiment went so far as to condemn the act,
but was not willing to punish the guilty parties.

In the Fall of 1777, not long after the death of
Cornstalk, a small party of Indians made their ap-
pearance near the Fort at Point Pleasant, and Lieu-
tenant Moore was dispatched from the garrison, with
some men, to drive them off. Upon his advance,
they commenced retreating, and the Lieutenant,
fearing they would escape, ordered a quick pursuit.
He did not proceed far before he fell into an ambus-
cade. He and three of his men were killed at the
first fire; the rest of the party saved themselves by
a precipitate flight to the Fort.

In the following May (1778), a few Indians again
came in view of the Fort, but as the garrison had
been reduced by the removal of Captain Arbuckle’s
company, and the experience of the last season had
taught them prudence, Captain McKee, the then
commander, forebore to detach any of his men in
pursuit of them. Disappointed in their expectations
of enticing others to destruction, as they had Lieu-
tenant Moore in the Winter, the Indians suddenly
rose from their cover, and presented an unbroken
line, extending from the Ohio to the Kanawha River,
and in front of the Fort. A demand was then made
for the surrender of the Fort, and Captain McKee
asked till next morning to consider it. In the course
of the night the men were busily employed bringing
water from the river, expecting that the Indians
would continue before the Fort for some time.

In the morning, Captain McKee sent his answer
by the Grenadier squaw (sister to Cornstalk, and who,
236 Trans-Allegheny Pioneers.

notwithstanding the murder of her brother and
nephew, was still attached to the whites, and was re-
maining at the Fort in the capacity of interpretor),
that he could not comply with their demand.

The Indians immediately began the attack, and
for one week kept the garrison closely besieged.
Finding, however, that they made no impression on
the Fort, they collected the cattle about it, and, in-
stead of returning towards their own country with
the plunder, proceeded up the Kanawha River
towards the Greenbriar settlements.

Some accounts state that Captain McKee and three
or four others met as many of the Indians, under a
flag of truce, and had a conference. Captain McKee
disclaiming for himself and garrison all part in the
murder of Cornstalk, explained that it was a sudden
act of lawless violence, done under excitement, dep-
recated and deplored by all conservative people, ete.
Some of the Indians seemed satisfied and returned
home, but the larger number were bent on revenge,
and moved off up the Kanawha.

Satisfied that so large a force would be able to de-
stroy these settlements, if unadvised of their ap-
proach, Captain McKee started two men to Colonel
Andrew Donnally’s (the then frontier house), with
intelligence. These men soon came in view of the
Indians, but finding that they were advancing in de-
tached groups, and dispersed in hunting parties
through the woods, they despaired of being able to
pass them, and returned to the Fort.

Captain McKee then made an appeal to the chiv-
alry of the garrison, and asked: “Who would risk |
his life to save the people of Greenbriar?” John
Trans-Allegheny Pioneers. 287

Pryor and Philip Hammond at once stepped forward
and replied: “We will.” They were then habited
after the Indian manner, and painted in Indian style
by the Grenadier squaw, and departed on their haz-
ardous, but noble and generous, undertaking.

Traveling night and day, with great rapidity, they
passed the Indians at Meadow River, where they
were killing and eating some of Mr. McClung’s
hogs for their breakfast, and arrived, about sunset
that day, at Donnally Fort, twenty miles farther on.
Colonel Donnally at once had all the neighbors ad-
vised, and during the night they collected at his
house. He also dispatched a messenger to Captain
John Stewart, at Fort Union, to acquaint him with
the facts, and made every preparation practicable to
resist the attack. Pryor and Hammond explained
how the precaution of Captain McKee in providing
a plentiful supply of water had saved the garrison at
the Point from suffering, and advised similar precau-
tion here. Accordingly, a hogshead was filled and
rolled behind the door of the kitchen, which adjoined
the house.

Early next morning, John Pritchet (a servant of
Colonel Donnally’s) went out for some firewood, and
was fired at and killed. The Indians then ran into
the yard, and endeavored to force open the kitchen
door, but Hammond and Dick Pointer (a negro be-
longing to Colonel Donnally), who were the only
persons within, aided by the hogshead of water, pre-
vented their accomplishing it. They next proceeded
to eut the door in pieces with their tomahawks,

Hammond, seeing that they would soon succeed in
this way, with the assistance of Dick, rolled the
238 Trans-Allegheny Pioneers.

hogshead to one side, and, letting the door suddenly
fly open, killed the Indian at the threshold, and the
others who were near gave way. Dick then fired
among them with a musket heavily charged with
swan shot, and no doubt with effect, as the yard was
crowded with the enemy. A war club with swan
shot in it was afterwards picked up near the door.

The men in the house, who were asleep at the
commencement of the attack, being awakened at
the firing of Hammond and Dick, now opened a
galling fire upon the Indians. Being chiefly upstairs,
they were enabled to do greater execution, and fired
with such effect that, about one o’clock, the enemy
retired a short distance from the house. Before they
retired, however, some of them succeeded in getting
under the floor, when they were aided by the whites
below, in raising some of the puncheons of which it
was made. They (the whites) did this for a purpose,
and profited by it. Several Indians were killed in this
attempt to gain admittance, while but one white man
received a wound, which but slightly injured his hand.

When intelligence was conveyed to Captain Stew-
art of the approach of so large a body of savages,
Colonel Samuel Lewis was with him, and they both
exerted themselves to save the settlement from de-
struction, by collecting the inhabitants at Fort
Union (now Lewisburg). Having succeeded in this,
they sent two men to Donnally’s, to learn whether
the Indians had advanced that far. As they ap-
proached, the firing became distinctly audible, and
they returned with the tidings.

Captain Stewart and Colonel Lewis proposed
marching to the relief Donnally’s Fort with as many
‘Trans-Allegheny Pioneers. 239

men as were willing to accompany them, and ina
short time commenced their march with sixty-six
men. Pursuing the most direct route, without re-
gard to road, they approached the house from the
rear, and thus escaped an ambuscade of Indians
placed near the road to intercept and cut off any as-
sistance which might be sent from the upper set-
tlements.

Adjoining the yard was a field of well grown rye,
into which the relief from Fort Union entered about
two o’clock, but as the Indians had withdrawn to a
distance from the house, there was no firing heard.
They soon discovered the savages, however, in the
field, looking intently towards Donnally’s, and it was
resolved to pass them. Captain Stewart and Charles
Gatliff fired at them, and the whole party rushed
into the yard, amid a heavy discharge of balls from
the savage forces.

The people in the Fort, hearing the firing in the
rear of the house, soon presented themselves at the
port-holes to resist what they supposed was a fresh
attack on them; but quickly discovering the real
cause, they opened the gates, and all the party, led by
Stewart and Lewis, entered safely.

The Indians then resumed the attack, and main-
tained a constant fire at the house until near dark,
when one of them approached, and, in broken Eng-
lish, called out: ““Me want peace.” He was told to
come in and he should have it; but he declined the
invitation to enter, and they all retreated, drag-
ging off those of their slain who lay not too near
the Fort.

Of the whites, only four were killed by the enemy—
240 Trans-Allegheny Pioneers.

Pritchet before the attack commenced, James Burns
and Alexander Ochiltree as they were coming to the
house, early in the morning, and James Graham,
through a port-hole, while in the Fort. It was im-
possible to ascertain the entire loss of the Indians.
Seventeen lay dead in the yard, and they were known
to have carried off others of their slain.

There were twenty-one men at Donnally’s before
the arrival of the reinforcements under Stewart and
Lewis, and the brunt of the battle was over before
they came. The Indian force exceeded two hun-
dred men.

It was believed that the invasion of the Greenbriar
country had been projected some time before it was
actually made. During the preceding season an In-
dian, calling himself John Hollis, had been very
much through the settlements, and was observed to
take particular notice of the different Forts, which
he entered under the garb of friendship. He was
with the Indians in the attack on Donnally’s Fort,
and was recognized as one of those who were left
dead in the yard.

On the morning after the Indians departed, Cap-
tain Hamilton went in pursuit of them with seventy
men, but following two days, without perceiving that
he gained on them, he abandoned the chase and re-
turned.

After this unsuccessful attack on Donnally’s Fort,
the Greenbriar settlements were not again molested
until sometime in 1780, when a party of twenty-two
warriors made a raid into that country. The first
act of atrocity committed was at the house of Law-
rence Drennon, above the Little Levels. Here they
Trans-Allegheny Pioneers. 241

shot Henry Baker and Richard Hill. Baker was
killed, but Hill escaped into the house.

Mr. Drennon dispatched a messenger to the Little
Levels for assistance. He soon returned with twenty
men, who remained all night, but next morning,
seeing nothing of the Indians, and supposing they
had departed, they buried Baker, and, with Drennon
and family, started to the Levels. Two brothers,
named Bridges, to save distance, took a narrow path-
way, which the Indians had waylaid, supposing the
whites would go that way. They were both killed.

The Indians next proceeded to the house of Hugh
Melver, whom they killed, and made his wife pris-
oner.

In going from here, they met John Pryor and his
wife and child, on their way to the south side of the
Kanawha. Pryor was shot through the breast, but,
anxious for the fate of his wife and child, stood still,
till one of the Indians came up and laid hold of him.
Notwithstanding the severe wound he had received,
Pryor proved too strong for his opponent, and disen-
gaged himself from him. Pryor then, seeing that
no violence was offered his wife or child, walked off
without any attempt being made to stop or otherwise
molest him. The Indians, it was supposed, suffered
him to depart, expecting that he would obtain assist-
ance and endeavor to regain his wife and child, and
that an opportunity would be given them of waylay-
ing any party coming with this view. Pryor re-
turned to the settlement, related the tacts above
mentioned, and died that night. His wife and child
were never again heard of. It was supposed that
they were murdered by the Indians on the way,

16
242 Trans-Allegheny Pioneers.

being unable to travel as rapidly as the Indians
wished.

Thus, at last, perished the brave John Pryor and
his family. He was a noble fellow and deserved a
better fate. JI can not learn what became of Philip
Hammond, his partner in danger, and equal in daring
and endurance. They deserve to be remembered by
their country.

This party of Indians next went to a house occu-
pied by Thomas Drennon and a Mr. Smith, and cap-
tured Mrs. Drennon, Mrs. Smith and a child. Thence,
going towards their homes, they wounded Captain
Samuel McClung, and killed an old man named
Monday.

Withers, to whom, chiefly, I am indebted for this
account, says this was the last murder committed by
them in the Greenbriar settlements, but there was at‘
least one other instance of murder. During the same
season, Mr. William Griffith, his wife and daughter,
were killed, and a son, a lad, taken prisoner. In
passing through the Kanawha Valley, some hunters
got on their trail. Mr. Atkinson says that John
Young, Ben Morris, Bob Aaron, William Arbuckle,
and two others, followed them across to Elk, up Lit-
tle Sandy and branches, towards Poca, and discov-
ered their camp. There were but two men anda
boy. They fired and killed one man, the second
man took to his heels, and the boy was unhurt. The
man killed proved to be a white man painted as an
Indian, the man who escaped was an Indian, and the
boy was the captive Griffith lad.

The stream on which this incident occurred is, to
this day, called White Man’s Fork of Aaron’s Fork
of Little Sandy.
Trans-Allegheny Pioneers. 243 |

HANNAH DENNIS AND GREENBRIAR SETTLEMENTS.

In 1760, a party of Shawanees made a raid by way
of the Kanawha and Greenbriar Rivers, then unset-
tled, over to the then frontier settlement in that direc-
tion, on Jackson’s River. They killed several per-
sons, among them Robert Renix and Thomas Dennis,
and took a number of prisoners, among them Mrs.
Hannah Dennis, and Mrs. Renix and her five chil-
dren. They were pursued by a party of whites,
under Captain Matthews; they were overtaken, and
in the engagement that followed nine Indians and
three whites were killed, but the remainder of the
Indians made good their escape, with their prisoners.
In accordance with the stipulations of Colonel
Boquet’s treaty, Mrs. Renix and her sons, William
and Robert, were returned to their friends in 1765.
William and Robert became prominent citizens of
Greenbriar; another son, Thomas, came in, in 1783,
but returned and settled on the Scioto. Joshua never
returned; he married an Indian wife, became a Miami
Chief, and rich and influential among the tribe. The
daughter, Betsy, died in captivity.

Mrs. Hannah Dennis was separated from the other
captives and allotted to live at the Chillicothe towns.
She learned their language, she dressed and painted
herself as they did, and conformed to their manners
and customs. Finding them very superstitious, she
professed witchcraft, and claimed to be a prophetess.
She was attentive to the sick and wounded, and soon
became a great favorite with them, and acquired
great influence over them. She was all the while
meditating an escape, and awaiting a favorable op-
portunity.
244 Trans-Allegheny Pioneers.

At last, in June, 1763, she made a start; she was
pursued, but, after many hair-breadth escapes, she
reached the mouth of Kanawha, where she crossed
the Ohio on a drift log, and then made her way up
Kanawha and Greenbriar Rivers. She traveled
chiefly by night to avoid discovery, and lived upon
river muscles, green grapes, herbs, etc. She finally
sat down by Greenbriar River utterly exhausted with
fatigue and hunger, and gave up, thinking it impos-
sible to proceed any farther. Here she was found by
Thomas Athol and three others, who took her to
Archibald Clendenin’s house, where she was kindly
cared for, and, when sufficiently recuperated to travel,
was sent on horseback to Young’s Fort, on Jackson’s
River, and to her relations.

At this time there were but two settlements in the
Greenbriar country; these were on Muddy Creek
and the Big Levels, and the two contained about
twenty families, or, say, one hundred souls of all ages.
Within a few days after Hannah Dennis had left
Clendenin’s, in the Muddy Creek settlement, about
sixty Indian warriors made their appearance, led by
the afterwards distinguished Cornstalk. They came
professing friendship, and, as the French and English
war had but recently been terminated by treaty
of peace, the settlers did not doubt their sincerity,
and treated them with hospitable kindness; when,
suddenly, they fell upon the unsuspecting whites and
killed every man, and killed or made every woman
and child prisoners. They then hurried on to the
Big Levels, fifteen miles distant, where the same
treacherous and murderous scenes were re-enacted.
Mr. Archibald Clendenin had just returned from a
Trans-Allegheny Pioneers. 245

successful hunt, bringing in three fine clk, upon
which they had a glorious feast, and after which, at
a concerted signal, the massacre was executed upon
their helpless victims. Thus, within a few hours,
two prosperous and happy settlements were ex-
terminated.

Only Conrad Yolkum, out of the one hundred
persons in both settlements, escaped death or capture
by timely flight. The brave Mrs. Clendenin, as be-
low related, made her escape from captivity, but
with the sacrifice of her infant child.

At Clendenin’s, a negro woman, who was endeav-
oring to eseape, was followed by her crying child.
To facilitate her own escape, and to prevent the
child falling into Indian hands, she stopped and mur-
dered it herself.

Mrs. Clendenin, who seems to have been a woman
of fearless nerve and strong force of character,
boldly denounced the Indians for their perfidy and
treachery, alleging that cowards only could act with
such duplicity. To silence her, they slapped her
face with the bloody scalp of her husband, and
raised a tomahawk in a threatening attitude over her
head; but she was not to be silenced nor intimidated.
She would not hold her peace, nor her tongue.

In passing over Keeny’s Knobs, on the retreat,
the Indians being in the front and rear, and the
prisoners in the center, Mrs. Clendenin handed her
infant to another woman to hold, and she slipped
aside in the brush, and succeeded in making her
escape. The crying of the child soon led to the dis-
covery of her absence, when one of the Indians, ob-
serving that he could “bring the cow to her calf,”
246° Trans-Allegheny Pioneers.

took it by its heels and beat its brains out against
a tree.

Mrs. Clendenin returned to her home, about ten
miles distant, that night. She covered the remains
of her husband with brush, and weeds, and fence-
rails, to protect it from the wild beasts, and after an
effort to get some rest and sleep in an adjoining corn-
field, tortured by visions of murderers and murders,
she resumed her flight and finally reached, in safety,
the settlements on Jackson’s River.

These melancholy events, occurring so immediately
after the escape of Mrs. Hannah Dennis, whom they
were so unwilling to lose, induced the supposition
that the raid was made in pursuit of her. If such
were the fact, dearly were others made to pay the
penalty of her fortunate deliverance.
CHAPTER XXXVI.

CHRONOLOGICAL RECORD OF EVENTS OF MORE OR LESS
IMPORTANCE ALONG THE WESTERN BORDER.

ELIEVING that dates, systematically arranged,

very much aid the general reader in under-
standing the relation of facts to each other and help
the memory to retain them, I herewith give a table
of dates, chronologically arranged, of the more im-
portant and interesting events that have occurred
all along the Western Virginia border, but more
especially along the New-River-Kanawha and trib-
utaries.

To get early historical dates with accuracy is no
easy task, as those who have tried it know. This
trouble arises from the fact—heretofore stated—that
those who made the history did not themselves
record it, at the time. This was generally done
years after, either by themselves, or by their friends
from their dictation, after the dates—never much
regarded by them—had become somewhat dim and
uncertain.

“IN AN EARLY DAY.”

Those who have enjoyed the pleasure of listening
to the interesting traditions of old, as related by the
lingering members of the rear guard of a generation
now past and gone, those whose experiences dated
back to the primitive days of border life, can not fail
248 Trans-Allegheny Pioneers.

to remember how often they used this almost stereo-
typed phrase in recounting the incidents of “the
long, long ago,” away back in the dim distant past.
“The good old times,” which they remembered with
so much interest and pleasure, forgetting, or but
dimly remembering, the dangers and hardships
which accompanied their daring but successful, and
therefore pleasurable, adventures.

Their goings and comings and their doings were
not guided by fixed rules nor programmes, nor
cramped and fettered by cold records. They had a
contempt for calenders and a negligent disregard of
dates.

Facts they remembered, and could relate with
minutest detail; but they neither knew nor cared
whether the events related occurred five, or ten, or
twenty years earlier or later; all that they knew or
cared to remember was, that they occurred “in an
early day”—in the dim, indefinite and distance-
enchanted past.

I have taken great pains, however, to examine and
compare dates, as given by all the authorities,
records, traditions and other sources available to me,
and believe that the accuracy of those given below
may be relied on with reasonable certainty.

1654. Colonel Abraham Wood was the first to.
cross the Blue Ridge, and the first to discover New
River, and to name it “ Wood’s River.”

1666. Captain Henry Batte was the next to cross
the Blue Ridge. It is possible that he was in the
Kanawha Valley, as he says he followed a westerly
flowing river for several days to near where a tribe
of Indians made salt.
Trans-Alleghen ry Pioneers. 249

1716. Governor Spottswood crossed the Blue
Ridge with his Knights of the Golden Horse Shoe;
and, seeming to be ignorant of the two preceding
expeditions mentioned, claimed the honor of being
the first to cross it, and was knighted for the feat.
He crossed at Swift Run Gap, and not at Rock Fish
Gap as generally stated.

1726. Morgan Morgan, a Welshman, is said to
have been the first white man to settle and build a
house west of the Blue Ridge and south of the
Potomac.

1727. Cornstalk was born in this valley. Colonel
J. L. Peyton, in his valuable history of Augusta
County, says he was born 1747, within the present
limits of Greenbriar County, but the date is wrong
by twenty years. His son, Elinipsico, was a com-
manding officer under him at the battle of Point
Pleasant.

1730. John Salling, captured on James River,
crossed New River on his way to the Cherokee towns.
He was probably the first white man to cross it.

1732. Joist Hite, John Lewis and others first
settled the valley of Virginia.

1734. Orange County was formed, and embraced
all Virginia territory west of the Blue Ridge.

1735-6. Christian, Beverly, Patton, Preston,
Borden and others, made settlements in this valley
of Virginia.

1736. John Salling, above mentioned, who had
escaped after six years captivity, made a settlement
at the forks of the James River, below the Natural
Bridge, the first settlement on James River, west of
the Blue Ridge.
250 Trans-Allegheny Pioneers.

1738. Augusta County was formed, but was not
organized until 1745.

Staunton was laid out and commenced building,
and Winchester had but two houses.

1744. Rapin DeThoyer’s map issued, giving wild
guesses at the geography of the Great West.

1748. Dr. Thomas Walker and party crossed New
River westward and were the first, from this direc-
tion, to penetrate into Kentucky.

Draper’s Meadows settlement made by Ingles and
Draper.

1749. The Loyal Land Company, organized by
Walker, Patton and others, based on a grant of
800,000 acres of land, lying north of the North
Carolina line and west of the mountains.

In April, first Indian depredation west of the Alle-
ghenies, upon Adam Harmon, one of the Draper’s
Meadows settlers.

A lunatic from about Winchester wandered across
the mountains westwards. He was much surprised
to find the waters flowing westward and reported the
fact on his return.

1749. Captain DeCeleron, a French engineer,
planted an inscribed leaden plate at the mouth of
Kanawha, claiming all the country drained by the
River for the French crown.

1750. William Ingles and Mary Draper were
married, at Draper’s Meadows, the first white
wedding west of the Alleghenies.

Jacob Marlin and Stephen Sewell, influenced by
the account of the lunatic above mentioned, came
out and settled on the waters of Greenbriar, in what
is now Pocahontas County. They occupied the same
Trans-Allegheny Pioneers. 251

camp for a time in peace and harmony; but, one
being a Catholic and the other a Protestant, they
quarreled on religious subjects and separated; the
seceder taking up his abode in a hollow tree, within
speaking distance of his late associate. Every morn-
ing, when they got up, they exchanged salutations
across the way, and that was the last. communication
of the day. They were thus found by Colonel John
Lewis, who came to survey lands on the Greenbriar,
in 1751. Soon after this, Marlin returned to the set-
tlements; Sewell came, alone, down to New River,
about Sewell Mountain and Creek, which bear his
name, and was there killed by the Indians.

Dr. Thomas Walker made his second trip with a
second party, crossing New River and going up Peak
Creek, Cripple Creek, Reed Creek, over to Holston,
to Clinch, to Cumberland Gap, etc. Returning, he
came along the Flat Top Mountain, by the present
site of Pocahontas, down Blue Stone to New River,
down New River to Greenbriar, up Greenbriar and
Anthony’s Creek, over the mountains, and by the
Hot and Warm Springs, home.

1751. Thomas Ingles born at Draper’s Meadows;
the first white child born west of the Alleghenies.

Colonel John Lewis and son, Andrew, surveying
lands on Greenbriar River, which they so name from
the green briars which greatly annoyed them in their
surveying; and the county was named from the river.

1752. Peter Fontaine, a surveyor, by order of the
Governor of Virginia, made a map, giving what was
then known of the Western part of the State. See
map.

“The Ohio Land Company” established a station
252 Trans-Allegheny Pioneers.

at the mouth of Red-stone Creek, on the Mononga-
hela, the extreme Northwestern post at that date.
It was built of stone.

1753. Colonel James Patton and William Ingles
taking up lands, under the “ Loyal Land Company,”
on Peak Creek and in Burke’s Garden.

Frazier, an Indian trader, erects a little cabin on
the Monongahela, ten miles from the mouth.

1753-54. George Washington, accompanied by
Christopher Gist and others, was the bearer of a
communication from the Governor of Virginia to the
commander of the French forts in the Northwest.
He says that Frazier’s cabin, above mentioned, was
then “the ultima thule of Western settlement.”

1754. The Ohio Land Company, and a force of
Virginia militia, commence fortifying the forks of
the Ohio (Duendaga), as advised by Washington, but
were driven off by a superior force of French.

Washington surprises a party of French, under
Captain Joumonville, near Great Meadows. The
commander was killed and the entire party killed or
captured. This was the first blood shed that
launched the Jong French and English war of both
continents, that resulted in the loss of Canada to the
French, and her other American claims east of the
Mississippi.

Washington was compelled to capitulate to a
superior French force, at Fort Necessity, which he
had hastily fortified.

Ingles’ Ferry located and settlements about it
begun.

James Burke settles in Burke’s Garden and is mur-
dered by Indians.
Trans-Allegheny Pioneers. 253

Two families settle on Back Creek, opposite
Draper’s Meadows.

James Reed settles and names hie first “ Dublin,”
of this neighborhood. (See history of Dublin, Pas
laski County.)

A McCorkle family (Dunkards) settle at Dunkard
Bottom, near Ingles’ Ferry.

Two families settle on Cripple Creek, a few miles
above.

One family settles at or near the head of Reed
Creek.

All these being on the west side of New River.

Christopher Gist made a settlement at the foot of
Laurel Hill, not far from where Uniontown, Pa.,
now stands.

David Tygart and a Mr. Files settled near each
other, on an eastern branch of the Monongahela,
since known as Tygart’s Valley River. Files settled
at the mouth of a creek, where Beverly, the county,
seat of Randolph, now stands, and Tygart a few
_ mniles higher up the river. They had not been here

a great while when they concluded that it was not
safe, and determined to go back to nearer the bordeP
settlements; but before they had found it convenient
to do so, the family of Files was attacked by Indians,
and every member killed, except a son, who was ab-
sent from the house, but within hearing and sight of
the terrible massacre. He fled to the house of Ty-
gart, and the timely warning given by him enabled
_the Tygart family to escape and leave the country.

1755. Simon Girty and his brothers, George and
J&mes, were captured at Girty’s Run, not far from
Fort Du Quesne:
254 Trans-Allegheny Pioneers.

Draper’s Meadows settlement attacked, and all
present massacred or captured.

Braddock’s disastrous defeat near Fort Du Quesne.

Mary Ingles and Bettie Draper, the first white
persons ever in Kanawha Valley.

Mrs. Ingles and Mrs. Draper help make the first
salt ever made by white persons in Kanawha, or else-
where west of the Alleghenies.

1756. Settlements again made west of New River.

Vass’ Fort built under direction of Captain Hogg,
and advice of Colonel George Washington.

A Stockade Fort built at Draper’s Meadows, under
direction of Captain Stalnaker.

Vass’ Fort captured by a party of French and In-
dians, and the inmates murdered or taken prisoners.

The Big Sandy expedition, under Major Andrew
Lewis, was made.

1757. Another Big Sandy expedition was pro-
jected, but afterwards abandoned.

The New River Lead Mines were discovered by
Colonel Chiswell, and operations begun.

Daniel Boone married on the Yadkin, North Caro-
fina, and settled on the head of the Holston, Vir-
ginia.

1758. Fort Du Quesne captured by General Forbes,
and called Fort Pitt; two hundred of Washington’s
command left to garrison the place.

Fort Chiswell, in (now) Wythe County, Va., built
under direction of Colonel William Byrd.

Dr. Thomas Eckerly and two brothers, from Penn-
sylvania, settle on the Monongahela, eight or ten
miles below the present site of Morgantown. The
Eckerlys were Dunkards, and the creek at the mouth
Trans-Allegheny Pioneers. 255

of which they settled was named Dunkard’s Creek.
From this point the Eckerlys explored the surround-
ing country, and ultimately selected and settled on
a fine bottom on Cheat River, which they called
Dunkard Bottom. Here they built a cabin, planted
and raised corn, vegetables, etc., got their supplies of
meat by their guns, and their clothes from skins and
furs; they had lived here in this way, for some years,
in peage and quiet, when it became necessary to visit
the settlements to procure a supply of ammunition
and other necessaries. Dr. Eckerly took a pack of
furs and skins and went to a trading post on the
Shenandoah. On his return, upon getting in sight of
where his cabin had stood, he saw but a pile of ashes.
On approaching nearer, he found the mutilated and
decaying remains of his brothers in the yard, and
the hoops upon which their scalps had been dried
lying near. After burying the remains of his un-
fortunate brothers, the doctor returned to the settle-
ments on the south bank of the Potomac.

Thomas Decker, and others, settled on the Monon-
gahela, at the mouth of a creek, now called Decker’s
Creek.

1759. This Decker settlement was broken up, and
nearly every one killed. One of the party, who
escaped, made his way to Fort Red-stone and reported
the disaster. Captain Paul, the commander, dis-
patched a runner, with information, to Captain John
Gibson, at Fort Pitt. He left the Fort under com-
mand of Lieutenant Williamson, and, taking thirty
men, attempted to intercept the raiding party on
their return to their towns. He did not tind the
party he was seeking, but came on a party of Min-
256 Trans-Allegheny Pioneers.

goes on Cross Creek, near where Steubenville now
stands. In an engagement which followed, Kiskepila,
or Little Eagle, a prominent Mingo Chief, and Cap-
tain Gibson came into close quarters. Captain Gib-
son, being a very powerful man, entirely severed the
head of Little Eagle from his body with one stroke
of his sword. This was a novel experience to the
Indians, and they fled precipitately, two others being
shot down. Upon reaching their towns, they re-
ported that the white Captain had cut off the head
of Little Eagle with a “long knife.” This gave to
the Virginia militia generally the name of the “ Long
Knives,” or the “ Big Knife Nation.”

A more substantial and defensible Fort was built
at Fort Pitt.

A Fort was built at Red-stone, under direction of
Colonel Byrd; also, a number of smaller Forts for
local defense. Among them were Westfall’s and
Cassino’s, on Tygart’s Valley River; Prickett’s, on
Prickett’s Creek; Jackson’s, on Ten Mile Creek;
Shepherd’s, on Wheeling Creek; Nutter’s, near
Clarksburg, and several others.

1760. An Indian raiding party surprised by Wil-
liam Ingles, and others, near Ingles’ Ferry; six or
seven Indians killed, and a few escaped. One white
man killed. This was the last Indian raid or trouble
that occurred in that region.

Selim, the Algerine, of remarkable history, passed
up the Kanawha Valley in search of the white set-
tlements to the Hast. Selim was a wealthy and edu-
cated young Algerine; he was captured in the Med-
iterranean by Spanish pirates; was sold to a Louis-
iana planter, escaped, made his way up the Missis-
Trans-Allegheny Pioneers. 267

sippi, and up the Ohio. Somewhere below the
Kanawha he met with some white prisoners; and a
woman among them told him, as best she could in
sign language, to go towards the rising sun, and he
would find white settlements. As it was just about
this time that an Indian raid had been made through
this valley over to the Jackson’s River settlements,
and captured the Renix family and Mrs. Hannah
Dennis, I think it is possible, and even probable, that.
they were the prisoners he met, and who told him of
the Eastern settlements. At any rate, he turned up
Kanawha, then Greenbriar, etc., and was finally dis-
covered, nearly entirely naked, and on the point of
starvation, not far from Warm Springs, and kindly
taken care of. Through a Greek Testament in pos-
session of some minister who saw him, it was dis-
covered that he was a good Greek scholar; and thus
communication was opened up between him and the
minister, who understood Greek. Selim studied
English, became a Christian, returned to his home in
Algiers, was repudiated by his parents because he
had given up the Moslem for the Christian religion.
He returned to America, heart-broken, and finally
died in an insane hospital.

1761. The Cherokee war was terminated.

John and Samuel Pringle, William Childers and
Joseph Linsey deserted from the garrison at Fort
- Pitt; they went up the Monongahela to the mouth
of George’s Creek, where Albert Gallatin afterwards
founded New Geneva; after remaining here a while,
they crossed over to the Glades of the Youghiogheny,
where they remained a yearorso. Making a trip to
the settlements on South Branch, Childers and Linsey

17
258 Trans-Allegheny Pioneers.

were captured as deserters, but the Pringles escaped
and returned to the Glades.

1762. Archibald Clendenin, and others, settled on
Muddy Creek and the Big Levels, now Greenbriar
County.

Ingles’ Ferry established by law—the first on New
or Kanawha Rivers. ‘

1763. Mrs. Hannah Dennis, having escaped from
Indian captivity, made her way up through this Val-
ley, and, after great suffering, reached the Muddy
Creek settlement. ;

Soon after this, a large Indian raiding party, under
Cornstalk, passed up the valley to Greenbriar, and
exterminated the Muddy Creek and Big Levels set-
tlements.

Final treaty of peace between the French and
English, at Paris.

1764. John and Samuel Pringle explored the Valley
River and the Buchanan Branch; finally settled at
the mouth of Turkey Creek, taking up their abode in
a hollow sycamore tree, where the town of Buchanan,
Upshur County, now stands, while Hacker, and oth-
ers, settled a little higher up the river.

John Simpson, who had hunted and trapped all
over this region, discovered and named Simpson’s -
Creek. Going thence, westwardly, he got over on to
a stream he called Elk, at the mouth of which he
camped and where he remained till permanent settle-
ments were made in the vicinity and Clarksburg
started.

Captain Paul, pursuing a returning raiding party
of Indians with prisoners, surprised them in camp at
the mouth of Indian Creek, on New River, killed
several and recovered the prisoners.
Trans-Allegheny Pioneers. 259

Matthew Arbuckle, a hunter and trapper from the
Greenbriar region, passed down the Kanawha Valley
with peltries, to a trading post at the mouth, and re-
turned, being the first white man to do so,

Colonel Boquet’s expedition into Ohio, against the
Indians, recovered about three hundred prisoners,
mostly from the Virginia frontiers.

1765. Sir William Johnson’s treaty of peace with
the Indians, the result of the Boquet campaign.

Settlements were rapidly made in the Northwest,
especially about Redstone, upon the conclusion of
this treaty of peace. Michael Cresap owned three
hundred acres, and built the first house.

1766. Butler and Carr hunted and trapped about

the heads of Bluestone and Clinch.
. Colonel James Smith, Joshua Horton, Uriah Stone
and William Baker passed by New River and Hol-
ston settlements, and explored the country between
the Cumberland and Tennessee Rivers.

1767. Butler, Carr, and others, settled families
about the heads of Clinch and Bluestone.

‘Adam Ice} and others, had a settlement at Ice’s
Ferry, on Cheat River; Adam Ice, Jr., was born
there.

1768. The Pringle brothers brought out, as set-
tlers, John, Edward and George Jackson, Hacker,
Hughes, Radcliffe, and others, and they located on
Buchanan River, Turkey Run, Hacker’s Creek, Bushy
Fork, ete.

Jacob Van Meter, John Swan, Thomas Hughes,
and others, settled on Muddy Creek, of Mononga-
hela, the site of the present Carmichaelstown.

David and Zackwell Morgan settled at the mouth
260 Trans-Allegheny Pioneers.

of Decker’s Creek, where the Deckers had been
killed, in 1759, remained a while and left, to return
later.

Tennessee first. began to be settled.

1768-69. George Washington, R. H. Lee, F. L.
Lee and Arthur Lee petition King George for two
and a half million acres of Western lands, for “The
Mississippi Company.”

1769. Ebenezer, Silas and Jonathan Zane were
out locating lands about the mouth of Wheeling
Creek.

A man named Tygart had then a solitary cabin on
the river, below Wheeling Creek. His history and
fate are unknown. Could he have been the same
Tygart who settledgin Tygart’s Valley, in 1754?

John Stewart, Robert;McClennahan, Thomas Ren-
nix and William Hamilton settled in the Greenbriar
country, about where Frankfort now is.

Daniel Boone, John Finley, and others, go to Ken-
tucky.

Richard and Hancock?Taylor, and others, were the
first to go by water from Fort Pitt to the mouth of
the Mississippi River.

The Pringles brought in other settlers from the
North Branch of thet Potomac and located them in
the now Beverly region.

1770. The Pringle colony brought out their fam-
ilies, and their settlements were permanently estab-
lished. These Pringles, starting out into the wilder-
ness, originally, as deserters and fugitives, had been
the most active and useful men in the Northwest, in
exploring the wilderness, locating settlements, and
bringing in colonies.
Trans-Allegheny Pioneers. 261

Joseph Tomlinson and brother, and Mrs. Rebecca
Williamson, their sister, made the first actual settle-
ment on the Ohio River, below Fort Pitt, at the
mouth of Grave Creek, the present site of Mounds-
ville,

David Morgan, who had been at Decker’s Creek
(Morgantown), in 1768, with Prickett, Hall, Ice, and
others, settled at Prickett’s Creek, now Monongalia
County, five miles below Bairmounts

Captain James Boothe and John Thomas settled on
Boothe’s Creek, a branch of the West Fork, and
site of Boothesville, above Fairmount.

George Washington, says Collins (History of Ken-
tucky), surveyed for John Fry 2,084 acres of land at
the forks of Big Sandy, the present site of Louisa.
Washington was also at the mouth of Kanawha the
same year, looking after his own lands, and his
agent, Colonel Crawford, is said to have been
with him. :

Camp Union, or Fort Savannah (now Dennehey g),
was built.

Captain (afterwards Colonel) Knox’s party of “long
hunters” hunted in Southwest Virginia and Ken-
tucky.

1771. Kenton, Yeager and Strader, the first white
men to camp in Kanawha Valley, settled about the
mouth of Two-Mile Creek of Elk River.

Absalom Looney, from Looney’s Creek, on James
River, settled in Abb’s Valley, on the Bluestone.

1771-72. Colonel Andrew Donnally built “Don-
nally’s Fort;” Colonel John Stewart, “Fort Spring;”
and Captain Jarrett, the “ Wolf Creek” or “ Jarrett’s
Fort,” all in the Greenbriar country.
262 Trans-Allegheny Pioneers.

1772. Daniel Davidson settled the first family on
the present site of Clarksburg; Nutter, Cottrail,
Beard, Hickman, and others in the vicinity.

The medicinal virtues of the Greenbriar white sul-
phur waters first tested by the whites. It had long
been a famous elk and deer lick, among the Indians.

John Powers, James Anderson and Jonas Webb:
settled along Simpson’s Creek, a branch of the West
Fork of the Monongahela, now Harrison County.

Settlements were made in Tygart’s Valley by Had-
den, Riffle, Connelly, Whiteman, Westfall, and oth-
ers, and there were large accessions, this year, to the
Buchanan and Hacker’s Creek settlements.

Captain James Parsons settled at the “Horse
Shoe,” on Cheat River, and near him Robert Cun-
ningham, Henry Fink, John Goff and John Minear;
and Robert Butler, William Morgan, and others, at
“Dunkard Bottom.”

A German; named Stroud, settled in the Glades of
Gauley River, where his family were murdered by
the Indians.

Indian Captain Bull and five families, living at
Bull-town, Little Kanawha, were murdered by Wil-
liam White and William Hacker, in retaliation for
the Stroud massacre.

Zackwell Morgan returned with his family, and
made a permanent settlement at the mouth of Deck-
er’s Creek, the present site of Morgantown.

1772-73. The Tomlinsons bring out their families
to Grave Creek, and, soon after, the Zanes, McCul-
lochs, Wetzels and Shephard bring their families to
Wheeling Creek.

1773. John Doddridge, George Lefler, Benjamin
Trans-Allegheny Pioneers. 263

Briggs, Daniel Greathouse, Joshua Baker and An-
drew Swearengen settled above Wheeling Creek, on
Short Creek, Buffalo Creek, and vicinity.

‘Tradition (from Ballinger, the recluse,) of the high-
est water ever known in New River or Kanawha.

Boone, with several families, started to Kentucky;
were attacked by Indians, near Cumberland Mount-
ains, several killed, and the trip delayed till 1775.
Boone took his family to the Clinch settlement.

Walter Kelly, a refugee from South Carolina, set-
tled at the mouth of a creek nineteen miles above
Charleston, now Kelly’s Creek.

Colonel Thomas Bullitt, Thomas Alsbury, Joshua
Morris, John Campbell, and, perhaps, others, were in
this valley, looking up lands.

Kenton, Yeager and Strader were attacked at their
Two-mile camp by Indians, Yeager being killed, and
the other two wounded.

The McAfee brothers, McCown, Adams, and oth-
ers, from the New River settlements, joined by
Colonel Bullitt, Hancock Taylor, and others, on
Kanawha, go to Kentucky to locate and survey lands.
Bullitt surveyed Big Bone Lick, July 5th; McAfee
brothers and Hancock Taylor, the site of Frankfort,
July 15th; and Bullitt, the site of Louisville, Au-
gust 5th.

John and Peter Van Bibber, Rev. Joseph Alder-
son, and another (probably Matthew Arbuckle),
came down through the Kanawha Valley from the
Wolf Creek Fort.

The Kanawha Burning Spring was first discovered
by these parties, on this trip.

Fort Pitt was abandoned by the English Govern-
264 Trans-Allegheny Pioneers.

ment, and was taken possession of by Dr. Connelly,
in the name of Virginia, and called “Fort Dun-
more.”

Captains Thomas Hedges und Thomas Young sur-
veyed a tract of land, and built an “improvers’ cabin,”
on the Ohio River, five miles below where Augusta,
Kentucky, now stands. They had to abandon it, but
Captain Hedges returned to it in 1775. This, says
Collins, was the first cabin built within the limits of
Kentucky.

1774. Captain Cresap sold his house and land at
Redstone to the Brown brothers, who founded
Brownsville, and he (Cresap) settled on the Ohio,
near the mouth of Little Kanawha.

Captain James Harrod, Abram Hite, James and
Jacob Sandusky, and about forty others, came by
boat from Redstone to Kentucky, to secure land and
build “improvers’ cabins.”

William Morris settled at the mouth of Kelly’s
Creek, on Kanawha, Leonard Morris at the mouth of
Slaughter’s Creek, John Flinn on Cabin Creek, and
Thomas Alsbury, and perhaps others, at points
lower down.

The family of John Lybrook, on Sinking Creek,
now Giles County, was attacked by Indians; five of
the children were murdered, and Lybrook narrowly
escaped by secreting himself in a cave.

In the same neighborhood, Jacob and John Sni-
dow, and a smaller brother, were captured and taken
to the Indian country. Jacob and John made their
escape and returned, not long after; but the boy re-
mained among them until he was completely Indian-
ized; and, although he afterwards came home ona
Trans-Allegheny Pioneers. 265

visit, he returned to the Indians and spent his life
with them.

A Miss Margaret McKinsie was, also, captured:
she remained a prisoner eighteen years, when she
was recovered and returned to New River: she mar-
ried a Mr. Benjamin Hall, and lived to a very old age.

In April of this year, several unfortunate murders
occurred on the Upper Ohio, by the Indians, by
Cresap, and by Greathouse, which, it is believed,
were largely instrumental in precipitating the war
which culminated, the following Fall, in the battle
of Point Pleasant, and treaty of Camp Charlotte.

When a general outbreak seemed inevitable, the
Governor of Virginia, in June, dispatched Colonel
Angus McDonald, with four hundred Virginia mili-
tia, to penetrate the country north of the Ohio, to
hold the Indians in check, while he (Governor Dun-
more) and General Lewis were arranging and pre-
paring a more formidable campaign, to follow, later.

The Wheeling Fort—first called “ Fort Fincastle,”
and, afterwards, “Fort Henry’’—was built. It is said
to have been planned by George Rogers Clarke.

Governor Dunmore dispatched Daniel Boone and
Michael Storer to Kentucky, to warn the surveying
parties, land hunters and settlers, of the impending
danger.

Captain Stewart, of Greenbriar, was notified, and
he dispatched runners (tradition says Hammond and
Pryor) to notify the few settlers on Kanawha.

Walter Kelly was killed at the mouth of Kelly’s
Creek (Kanawha), Colonel Field narrowly escaping.

General Lewis’ army, about eleven hundred strong,
left Camp Union (now Lewisburg), September 11th,
piloted by Captain Matthew Arbuckle.
266 Traus-Allegheny Pioneers.

Daniel Boone left in command of three frontier
garrisons (probably Camp Union, Donnally’s Fort,
and Wolf Creek or Jarrett’s Fort).

The first Continental Congress met at Philadelphia,
September 5th, and passed strong resolutions of re-
sistance to, and non-intereourse with, the English
Government.

General Lewis’ army arrived at Point Pleasant,
September 30th.

October 9th, three messengers arrive in camp, with
dispatches from Lord Dunmore, changing the plans
of the campaign. No one authority mentions the
names of all the messengers, but McCulloch, Kenton
and Girty, one by one, are mentioned by several
authors, and I have seen no other names mentioned
by any.

There is a tradition that, for some insolence on the
part of Girty, on this occasion, General Lewis caned
him over the head and drove him out of his tent.

October 10th, the ever-memorable battle of Point
Pleasant was fought.

October 12th, General Lewis crossed his army over
the Ohio, and started to join Lord Dunmore before
the Indian towns.

Captain Matthew Arbuckle was left in care and
command of the wounded and the garrison at the
Point.

1774-75. Augusta County, Va., held courts alter-
nately at Staunton and Fort Pitt. The latter was
still considered to be part of Virginia territory, and,
as such, a part of Augusta County.

1775. Boone eut the Boone trail, or wilderness
road, from Long Island, in Holston, into Kentucky.

o
Trans-Allegheny Pioneers, 267

Boone, Harrod, Kenton and Logan founded perm-
anent settlements in Kentucky.

Generals Washington and Lewis “took up” two
hundred and fifty acres of land at and embracing the
famous Kanawha Burning Spring.

Rey. Joseph Alderson cut out the first wagon road
across the mountains as far west as the Greenbriar.

Thomas Ingles settled on Wolf Creek.

1776. Virginia defined the boundaries of “ West
Augusta,” and then divided it into three counties—
Ohio, Monongalia and Youghiogheny. When the
disputed Pennsylvania and Virginia State boundaries
were settled, Youghiogheny County was abolished,
and the lines of the other two conformed to the new
State line.

Colonel Christian, in an expedition against the
Cherokees, burned their towns, and compelled them
to sue for peace.

Robert Hughes, the first settler at the mouth of
Hughes Creek, Kanawha, was captured by Indians,
and remained two years a prisoner.

General Andrew Lewis, in command of the Vir-
ginia troops, drove Lord Dunmore, and his fleet and
rabble, from Gwyne’s Island, with heavy loss, soon
after which Dunmore left the country.

1777. At Black’s Cabin, on Short Creek, Ohio
County, January 6th, was organized the first civil
court in the Mississippi Valley.

John Finley, the long-time frontiersman and wil-
derness pilot, being old, and poor, and wounded, asks
Washington County, Va., for aid.

Cornstalk, Elinipsico, Red Hawk, and another In-
dian, murdered at Point Pleasant.
268 Trans-Allegheny Pioneers.

Desperate attack on Fort Ifenry (Wheeling) by
three hundred Indians. All earlier historians say
they were led by Simon Girty, but McKnight, and
later athorities, think Girty was not present at this
siege.

Authorities, also, differ as to whether the heroic
and famous gunpowder feat occurred at the first or
second siege of Fort Henry, with the probabilities in
favor of the second. Authorities, also, differ as to
whether Bettie Zane or Mollie Scott was the true
heroine.

The brave, but unfortunate, Captain Foreman, and
his party, were destroyed at Grave Creek Narrows.

Augusta, Bottetourt and Greenbriar volunteers,
under Colonel Skillern, march to Point Pleasant, to
join forces under General Hand, from Fort Pitt, but
Hand’s forces did not arrive.

Lieutenant Moore, and three men, killed by a
small party of Indians, near the Fort, at Point Pleas-
ant—Fort Randolph.

1778. Virginia declared Colonel Henderson’s land
purchases and Transylvania operations in Kentucky
null and void.

Fort Randolph (Point Pleasant) was besieged by
a large force of Indians. Having failed to take the
Fort, they started up Kanawha towards the interior
settlements. Captain McKee, then in command,
called for volunteer “runners,” to go to the Green-
briar settlements and warn the settlers of the ap-
proach of the Indians. Tammond and Pryor at
once volunteered, and, being rigged out in Indian
disguise, by the “Grenadier squaw,” then at the
Fort, acting as interpreter; they reached the settle-
Trans Allegheny Pioneers. 269

ments safely, and their timely notice, no doubt, saved
a terrible massacre.

Donnally’s Fort was attacked, in May, by the In-
dian party above mentioned; but, having been fore-
warned by Hammond and Pryor, and reinforced by
volunteers from Camp Union, under Stewart and
Lewis, they successfully resisted the attack; the In-
dians retired with considerable loss.

Thomas Ingles settled in Abb’s Valley.

1780. Dr. Thomas Walker and Colonel Daniel
Smythe, Commissioners of Virginia, rau the boundary
line between Virginia and North Carolina, now Ken-
tucky and Tennessee.

Thomas Ingles resettled Burke’s Garden.

An Indian raid into Greenbriar resulted in the
killing of John Pryor, one of the brave messengers,
and Hugh McIver, and the capture of their wives;
also, Henry Baker and two Bridger brothers, and an
old man, named Monday, and his wife, were killed,
and the wives and children of Thomas Drennon and
Mr. Smith made prisoners.

A little later, William Griffith, his wife and daugh-
ter, were murdered, and a son, a lad, taken prisoner.
This was the last Indian raid made, or murder com-
mitted, in the Greenbriar country.

The trail of this last raiding party, only two in
number, was discovered and followed by John Young,
Benjamin Morris, William Arbuckle and Robert
Aaron, as they passed down Kanawha, crossed Elk
and went up Little Sandy; their camp was discov-
ered on a fork of a fork of Sandy; they were fired
on, one killed and one escaped; the lad, young
Griffith, was recovered. The one killed proved to be
270 Trans-Allegheny Pioneers.

a white man, disguised as an Indian. The fork on
which he was killed was, from this circumstance,
called White Man’s Fork of Aaron’s Fork (from Bob
Aaron) of Little Sandy.

A. Mr. Carr and two children murdered near the
mouth of Bluestone, and a woman at Culversom’s _
Bottom.

1782. Thomas Ingles’ family captured, and part
murdered, in Burke’s Garden.

Lewisburg established as a town, with Samuel
Lewis, James Reid, Samuel Brown, Andrew Don-
nally, John Stewart, Arthur Matthews, William
Ward and Thomas Edgar, trustees.

Thomas Teays, captured below the mouth of Coal
River, taken to Ohio and condemned to be burned,
with Colonel Crawfard. He was recognized and
saved by an Indian, with whom he had hospitably,
divided his salt, when surveying in Teay’s Valley,
the year before.

Second desperate attack on Fort Henry, this time
certainly led by Girty, if not before. The heroic
powder feat, probably occurred at this time. bi

Rice’s Fort, on Buffalo Creek, was bravely and
successfully defended by six men, against one hun-
dred Indians, losing but one man of the six.

1783. Captain James Neal surveyed, for Alexander
Parker, who had bought the Tomahawk title of
Robert Thornton, the land at the mouth of Little
Kanawha, upon which Parkersburg now stands.

1784. Virginia and Pennsylvania accept and adopt
the report of Engineers Mason and Dixon, establish-
ing the inter-State line, since known as “Mason and
Dixon’s line, and which had been in dispute since
1752.
Trans-Allegheny Pioneers. 271

James Moore, Jr., captured in Abb’s Valley.

1785. Captain James Neal, and others, make a
settlement on Little Kanawha, about a mile from the
mouth, called Neal Station, or Monroe.

Captain John Dickinson located five hundred and
two acres of land at and about Campbell’s Creek, in-
cluding the “ Big Buffalo Lick,” or Salt Spring.

Judge Joseph Wood, and others, mostly Scotch
families, settled at and built Belleville, on the Ohio,
a few miles below the mouth of Little Kanawha.

West Liberty, Ohio County, first town organized
in the Mississippi Valley, November 29th.

1786. The first wagon road, called “Koontz’s new
road,” was opened from Lewisburg to the Kanawha
River. Its route was by Muddy Creek, Keeney’s
Knobbs, Rich Creek, Gauley, Twenty-Mile, Bell
Creek and Campbell’s Creek, with side trails down
Kelly’s Creek and Hughes’ Creek to the “Boat
Yards.” ,

James Moore, Sr., of Abb’s Valley, and two of his
children killed, and the balance of the family made
prisoners.

1787. Maysville, lately Limestone, on land of
John May and Simon Kenton, was organized as a
town, December 11th.

The State of Virginia ordered the construction of
a wagon road from Kanawha Falls to Lexington, Ky.

1788. George Clendenin built the first house and
Fort where Charleston now stands. (See chapter on
Charleston.)

James Rumsey, the truly original inventor of the
steamboat, exhibited his working model to General
Washington, and others, on the waters of the Po-
tomac, near Berkeley Springs.
272 Trans-Allegheny Pioneers.

Lewis Tackett was captured by Indians, and, on
the way down the Kanawha River, was tied to a pine
tree at Knob Shoals, while his captors went off hunt-
ing; a rain storm coming on, loosened his buckskin
thongs, and allowed him to make a remarkable escape.
The “Tackett pine” stood until within the last few
years, a prominent landmark.

Tackett, after this, built a Fort at the mouth of
Coal River, lower side.

Later, this Fort was captured, and several persons
murdered. There are two versons of the story of
the capture of Fort Tackett. I adopt that given by
Mr. Atkinson, in his history of Kanawha, derived
from Mr, George Harmon. It is the less sensational,
but probably the most reliable. John and Lewis
Tackett, and their mother, were captured near the
Fort, while gathering turnips. Chris. Tackett and
John McElhany were the only men in the Fort when
captured. Chris. Tackett was -killed in the action,
McElhany and wife, Betsy Tackett, Sam Tackett,
and a small boy, were taken prisoners; McElhany
was tomahawked near the Fort. John Tackett suc-
ceeded in making his escape, but Lewis Tackett and
his mother were taken to the Indian towns on the
Scioto, where they remained, as prisoners, two years,
when they were ransomed and returned. In the
Young family, of this valley, is preserved an inter-
esting tradition in relation to the capture of Tackett’s
Fort. When the attack commenced, John Young,
with a young wife and a one-day-old babe, was in the
Fort, but upon the final surrender, and under the
friendly cover of the approaching shades of night,
Young picked up his wife and babe, and the pallet
Trans-Allegheny Pioneers. 273

on which they lay, made his way, unobserved, to a
canoe at the bank, laid them in, and, through a
drenching rain, poled his canoe, with its precious
freight, up the river, during the night, to Clendenin’s
Fort, and they were saved. Neither father, mother
nor babe suffered any harm from the effort, fright or
exposure. That babe, Jacob Young, died but re-
cently, aged about ninety years, leaving a large fam-
ily of worthy descendants in this valley.

Ben. Eulin was out in the hills below Point
Pleasant, hunting; he was pursued by Indians, and,
to escape them, jumped over a cliff, just below and
in sight of the Point, which proved to be fifty-three
feet high. He fell in a clump of pawpaw bushes and
grape vines, which broke his fall and saved breaking
his neck; he then jumped over another cliff, twelve
feet high, and finally escaped, but little worse for
the wear and tear.

About this time, the family of Captain John Van
Bibber was attacked, near the Point; his daughter,
Miss Rhoda, was killed and scalped, and Joseph, a
younger brother, taken prisoner to Detroit; he
escaped and returned home, in 1794, soon after
Wayne’s victory. Captain Van Bibber, aided by his
faithful negro servant, Dave, killed two or three In-
dians during the attack above mentioned.

1788-89. Daniel Boone and Paddy Huddlestone
caught the first beavers in Kanawha Valley, at Long
Shoal.

1789. Mad Ann Bailey made her famous solitary
ride, through the wilderness, to Camp Union, for
ammunition for the Clendenin Fort.

The first settlement on Big Sandy River was by

18
274 Trans-Allegheny Pioneers.

Charles Van Couver, about the forks, on the Vir-
ginia side, but not far from the present site of
Louisa. It was on the survey made by George Wash-
ington for John Fry, in 1770, the first ever made on
the river.

Kanawha, or “ Kenhawa,’ County was formed.
(For organization, etc., see chapter on Charleston.)

William Wyatt, who lived at the mouth of Paint
Creek, dreamed that he was bitten by a snake, and
interpreted it to mean that he would be shot by an
Indian. To quiet his fears, his young wite went with
him to the field, where he was working, and kept
watch over him; but, sure enough, he was shot and
killed by an Indian.

A party left the Clendenin settlement by boat,
bound for the new settlements of Maysville and Lex-
ington, Kentucky. They consisted of John May,
after whom Maysville was named; Jacob Skyles, a
large land operator, and the father-in-law of James
Rumsey, the original inventor of the steamboat;
Charles Johnson, from Bottetourt County, the agent
and clerk of Skyles; and John Flynn, Jr., once an
Indian captive, and son of the murdered John Flynn,
of Cabin Creek. At Point Pleasant, they picked up
the Misses Fleming, two sisters, recently from Pitts-
burgh. The expedition had a most thrilling and
tragical ending. Descending the Ohio River, they
were attacked by Indians; John May and one of the
Misses Fleming were killed, Skyles badly wounded,
‘and Johnson, Skyles, Flynn and the remaining Miss
Fleming taken prisoners. Skyles and Johnson, after
enduring great privations and tortures, succeeded in
making their escape, by separate routes, and returned

’
Trans-Allegheny Pioneers, 275

to the settlements; John Flynn was burned at the
stake, and Miss Fleming was rescued, after being
_ sentenced to be burned, tied to the stake and wood
piled up around her. Charles Johnson, after his
escape, published in book form a history of the per-
sonal experiences of each of the members of this
unfortuate expedition; and it is one of the most
thrilling narratives of early border dangers, suffer-
ings and hairbredth escapes that has ever been pub-
lished.

Matthias (Tice) Van Bibber and his little brother,
Jacob, were fired on by Indians, near Point Pleasant.
Tice was struck in the forehead and slightly wounded,
but succeeded in escaping. Jacob, the lad, was
caught and made prisoner; he made his escape and
got home, some two years later.

William Carroll and family, of Carroll’s Branch,
Kanawha, narrowly escaped being murdered; they
escaped, but the Indians burned their house.

1790. Leonard Cooper and William Porter made
the first settlements on Elk River, about Cooper’s
Creek and Porter’s Island.

*Squire Staten wasekilled, on his way home from
court in Charleston, at the mouth of a branch which
still bears the name of “Staten’s Run.”

James Hale was killed in the branch opposite
the Clendenin Fort, which still bears the name of
“Hale’s Branch.”

Fleming Cobb poled a canoe, with ammunition
for the Clendenin Fort, sixty miles, up stream, from
Point Pleasant, in fourteen hours.

The Indians killed some cows on a creek in the
upper end of Kanawha County, and hung the bells on
276 Trans-Allegheny Pioneers.

swinging limbs, so they would ring as the wind
blew. When the citizens went out to bring their
cows home they were shot down. The creek was
named, from this circumstance, “ Bell Creek.”

1791. Jerry and Ben Carpenter, and some others,
from Bath County, settled on the Upper Elk, and,
soon after, O’Brien. They had not been there long
when Ben Carpenter and wife were killed, and their
house burned; the others, being warned by the burn-
ing of Ben Carpenter’s house, fled, secreted them-
selves, and escaped.

Thomas Lewis established the first ferries, at Point
Pleasant, across both rivers, December 9th.

In May, a party of eighteen whites were attacked
by about thirty Indians, about half a “wnile up the
Ohio from the Point Pleasant Fort. Michael See and
Robert Sinclair were killed; Hampton and Thomas
Northup, and a black boy belonging to See, were
made prisoners. The boy-was the son of Dick
Pointer, who fought so bravely to defend Donnally’s
Fort, in 1782. He became an Indian (?) Chief, and
fought with the friendly Indians on the side of the
Americans, against the English, in the war of 1812.

Mr. Atkinson, in his.“ History of Kanawha,” gives
an interesting account of the sad fate of a Mr.
Strange. He came over on to the upper waters of Elk
with a surveying party. He was not an experienced
woodsman, and, becoming separated from the party,
soon got lost. His companions fired guns to indicate
where they were, but it is supposed he thought the
Indians were after him, and he fled for life. He was
never seen alive again; but, some years after, his
skeleton, portions of his shot-pouch, and the remains
Trans-Allegheny Pioneers. 277

of his rusted rifle were found, forty miles distant
from where he was lost, at the foot of a beech tree,
at the mouth of a creek emptying into Elk, which,
from that time, has been called “Strange Creek.” Be-
fore he finally succumbed to hunger and exhaustion,
he cut, with his penknife, in the bark of the tree, the
following lines:

“Strange is my name, and I’m on strange ground,
And strange it is that I can’t be found.”

Two daughters of Henry Morris, who lived on
Peters’ Creek of Gauley, were murdered by Indians.
Morris made the Indians suffer dearly for it after-
wards.

George Clendenin and Daniel Boone were elected
to the Legislature of Virginia.

By a ruse with cow bells, the Indians captured the
Misses Tyler, near the Fort at Point Pleasant.

1792. Kentucky County was made a State and
admitted into the Union. This was the first child of
Virginia, the “Mother of States,” and the first ad-
dition to the original thirteen.

John Wheeler, with wife and four children, lived
opposite the mouth of Cabin Creek. They were
attacked by Indians, all killed but one boy, Nat, and
their house and the bodies burned.

Christiansburg, Montgomery County, Virginia, was
established (October 10th), and the following named
gentlemen appointed trustees: Christian Snydow,
Byrd Smith, James Barnett, Hugh Crockett, Samuel
Eason, Joseph Cloyd, John Preston, James Charlton
and James Craig.

1793. The last Indian raid on the Kentucky border,
says Collins, was by about twenty Indians. Simon
278 Trans-Allegheny Pioneers.

Kenton was the right man in the right place. He
and his party waylaid them at the mouth of Holt’s
Creek, a few miles below Limestone, now Mays-
ville, killed six, stampeded the rest, and recovered a
lot of stolen horses.

Collins says the first line of packet boats estab-
lished on the Ohio were keel and flat-bottomed,
making one round trip between Cincinnati and Pitts-
burg per month. Passengers were allowed to work
their passage, if short of cash. There was one boat
fortnightly, soon increased to one weekly; they each
carried six one-pound guns. The cabins were bullet-
proof, and had port holes to fire from. There was a
separate cabin for ladies. 5

1794. Shaderick Harriman, then living at the
mouth of Lower Vanable Branch, two miles above
Charleston, on the south side, was the fast person -
killed by Indians in the Kanawha Valley.

General Wayne’s crushing defeat of the Indians,
at “Fallen Timbers,” August 20th, gave after peace
and security to this region.

December 19th, the Legislature of Virginia estab-
tablished the town of “Charlestown.” (See chapter
on Charleston.)

The Legislature enacted “that forty acres of land,
the property of Thomas Lewis, at the mouth of Ken-
hawa, and in the said county of Kenhawa, as they
are already laid off into lots and streets, shall be
established a town by the name of Point Pleasant,
and Leonard Cooper, John Van Bibber, Isaac Tyler,
William Owens, William Allyn, Allyn Pryor, John
Reynolds, George Clendenin and William Morris,
gentlemen, appointed trustees thereof, December 19,
1794.”
Trans-Allegheny Pioneers. 279

1795. Treaty of peace with the Indian tribes, at
Greenville, Ohio, August 3d.

1796.. Volney, the distinguished French author
and infidel, was in the valley.

Thomas Hannon, the first settler on the Ohio River,
from Kanawha to Big Sandy, settled at Green Bot-
tom, above Guyandotte.

1797.. The late General Lewis Ruffner was born,
October Ist, in the Clendenin blockhouse, probably
the first white child born within the present limits of
Charleston,

Elisha Brooks erected a small kettle furnace and
commenced the manufacture of salt, above Campbell’s
Creek.

1798. Peter Bowyer, father of the late Colonel
John Bowyer, of Putnam County, made the first set-
tlement in the New River gorge, and established a
ferry at Sewell.

Daniel Boone made his last survey in Kanawha
(September 8th), and probably the last he ever made.

1799. He left Kanawha for the Spanish Missouri
Territory.

1802. Ohi» was made a State and admitted into
the Union.

1805-6-7. Eight thousand bear skins shipped from
the mouths of Guyandotte and Big Sandy, according
to J. P. Hildreth.
~ 4808. David and Tobias Ruffner bored the first
salt well and erected a larger furnace for the manu-
facture of salt.

1809. William Whitteker bored the first salt well
and built the first salt furnace on the south side of
Kanawha.
280 Trans-Allegheny Pioneers,

1810-12. Audubon, the naturalist, was here.

Hon. Thomas Ewing, the elder, boiled salt and
studied law and Latin here.

1815. Captain James Wilson, boring for salt water,
struck the first natural gas well of America.

Last buffalo killed in the Kanawha Valley.

1817. David and Tobias Ruffner first discovered
and used coal here.

1819. The steamboat Robert Thompson, the first
ever in the river, came as far as Red-House, but could
not get farther up.

1820. The failure of the Thompson to get up in-
duced the State of Virginia to direct the James River
and Kanawha Company to improve the navigation
of Kanawha River so as to give three feet of water
from the mouth to Kanawha Falls, all the year, and
to construct a turnpike road across the mountains to
the Kanawha Falls.

Last elk killed in the Kanawha Valley.

1823. The Eliza was the first steamer to ascend
the river as high as Charlestou.

1831. Billy Morris invented the “slips,” or “jars,”
a simple.tool which made deep well boring possible.
It is now used wherever deep well boring is done,
and its great utility and value entitle him to be
ranked, among inventors, as a great public bene-
factor.

1838. Ingles’ Bridge built; the jirst bridge across
New River or Kanawha.

1841. William Tompkins “struck” natural gas
near the Burning Spring, and used it for boiling salt.
He was the first person in America to utilize natural
gas for manufacturing.
Trans-Allegheny Pioneers. 281

1843. Dickinson & Shrewsberry got natural gas
on the Burning Spring tract originally taken up by
Generals Washington and Lewis. Messrs. D. & 8S.
also used the gas in the manufacture of salt, as did
‘several others in the neighborhood soon after.

1845. McAdam turnpike constructed from Bu-
chanan, on James River, to the Tennessee line.

1846. Sutton Matthews discovered, on Falling
Rock Creek of Elk, the first cannel coal known in
the Kanawha Valley; perhaps the first in America.

1855. The Virginia & Tennessee, now Norfolk &
Western Railroad, was opened—the first railroad to
cross the New River-Kanawha.

1855-56. The first commercial shipments of coal
from Kanawha commenced.

The first coal oil works (Cannelton) erected in this
valley.

1861. The battle of Scary, one of the first during
the late Civil War, was fought, July 17th.

The highest water in Kanawha since the settlement
of the valley.

The Southern forces, under General Henry A. Wise,
retired from the valley, and it was occupied by the
Federals, under General J. D. Cox, July 24th.

Battle of Cross Lanes and Carnifax’s Ferry, on
the Gauley. General Lytle wounded, but not killed,
as generally stated—September.

General Floyd wintered his army at Dublin. (See
chapter on Dublin.)

1862. The Confederates, under General Loring,
re-entered the Kanawha Valley; the Federals, under
General Lightburn, retiring—September.

General Loring retired from the valley, and Gen-
eral Cox again came in—October.
282 Trans-Allegheny Pioneers.

1863. Virginia divided, and West Virginia estab-
lished as a separate State—June 20th.

1864. Battle of Cloyd’s Mountain, Pulaski County,
May 9th; General A. G. Jenkins, killed; Colonel T.
L. Broun, wounded.

1873. Chesapeake & Ohio Railroad opened.

United States Government commenced improving
Kanawha River.

The Quinnemont Company established the first
iron furnace and the first coke works on New River.

1874. Centennial celebration of the battle of Point
Pleasant, at the Point.

1878. William Wyant established the first coke
works on Kanawha River.

1883. The New River branch of the Norfolk &
Western Railroad opened to Pocahontas.

1883-84. The late Colonel P. W. Norris, who, it
is claimed, was the original suggestor of the Yellow-
stone National Park, and through whose efforts,
largely, the Government was induced to reserve and
set apart that Wonderland as a National pleasure
park, and who was, for several years, the Govern-
ment Superintendent of the park, made several
visits to this (Kanawha) valley, under the auspices
of the Smithsonian Institution, to examine and ex-
plore the numerous and extensive earthworks, stone
cairns and other interesting remains of the pre-
historic mound-builder race, which, at some early
period, seems to have been very populous in this
valley.. Colonel Norris opened and explored many
of the mounds, cairns, graves, fortifications, etc., and
collected and forwardéd from here to the Smithsonian
Institntion several thousand relics of this ancient,
interesting and mysterious people.
Trans-Allegheny Pioneers. 283

The Bettie Black Band Iron Furnace, the tirst in
the immediate Kanawha Valley, and the Davis’ Creek
Railroad, were constructed.

1884. The most disastrous mine explosion at Po-
cahontas (in March) that has ever occurred in
America, causing the loss of about two hundred
lives.

The Ohio Central, now Kanawha & Ohio Railroad,
opened to Charleston.

1885. The railroad bridge across the Ohio River,
at Point Pleasant, completed.

The State capital of West Virginia permanently
established at Charleston, and the new capitol build-
ing occupied.

1886. Peace, health, plenty, and a fair degrec of
prosperity prevail in the New River-Kanawha Val-
ley, and throughout the borders of West Virginia
generally.
 

 

 
CHAPTER XXXVII.

CHARLESTON, WEST VIRGINIA.

ie is not my purpose to attempt a full history of

Charleston; that would far exceed the intended
limits of this little volume; but as there is very little
of its early history recorded—our older citizens know-
ing it chiefly by tradition, and our later population
scarcely at all—it may be well to give here a brief
outline sketch of its early settlement and after-
progress; though such a sketch can be expected to
have but a local interest.

Previous to 1755, so far as I know, no white per-
son had ever trodden upon the site where Charleston
now stands.

In July of that year, as elsewhere stated, Mrs.
Mary Ingles and Mrs. Bettie Draper passed over it,
as captives, on their way to the Indian towns north
of the Ohio.

The next white person here was Matthew Arbuckle,
an enterprising frontier hunter and trapper from the
Greenbriar country, who passed down the valley in
1764, to a French trading post at the mouth of the
Kanawha, to barter his peltries, and returned.

The next we hear of were Simon Kenton and his
companions, Yeager and Strader, in 1771, when they
passed over it and built a camp at or near the mouth
of Two-mile Creek of Elk, and occupied it, and
286 Trans-Allegheny Pioneers.

hunted and trapped until the Spring of 1773, when
they were attacked by Indians, Yeager killed, and
Kenton and Strader both wounded, but succeeded
in making their escape to the mouth of Kanawha,
where they were cared for by the traders.

In 1778, Colonel Thomas Bullitt, who had dis-
tinguished himself for bravery and efficient service in
the Braddock war, and in the expedition against
Fort Du Quesne, under General Forbes, in 1758,
came here to locate his military lands. He was at-
tracted by this fine bottom, and “took up” 1,030:
acres lying along the Kanawha, from Elk River up
to Wilson’s Branch. Later, Colonel Bullitt sold this
tract to his brother, Cuthbert Bullitt, a distinguished
Judge, and Provident of the Court of Appeals of
Virginia.

His son, Cuthbert Bullitt, Jr., was a Judge in
Maryland; and another son, Alexander Scott Bullitt,
was member of the Legislature, President of the
Senate, President of the State Convention, and Lieu-
tentant Governor of Kentucky.

After the battle of Point Pleasant, in 1774, this
valley began to fill up rapidly; but as this tract was
held by non-residents, no settlement was made on it,
and nothing done with it until some thirteen or four-
teen years later.

In December, 1787, a Mr. Clendenin, who had seen
the land in 1774, when going to, and returning from,
the battle of the Point, and again in 1785-86, when
he was one of the State Commissioners for laying
out and constructing the first wagon road from Lewis-
burg to the Kanawha, met Judge Bullitt in Rich-
mond, purchased the tract, and at onee began his.
preparations to settle on it.
Trans-Allegheny Pioneers. 287

There seems to be no record of the exact date of
his commencing his settlement; but it is known that
he and his party reached the locality on the last of
- April, and as they were not persons to waste time, I
think it safe to assume that the settlement of Charles-
ton dates from the Ist day of May, 1788. Tackett’s
Fort, at the mouth of Coal River, was built a little
later, during the same year. Clendenin built the
first house on this bottom, near the river, at
_ the northeast corner of what are now Kanawha and
Brooks streets. It was a two-story, double, hewed,
bullet-proof, log house, with two rooms below and
_ two above.

Immediately in front of this was also built a stock-
ade fort. Both were used, as occasion required, for
protection. ‘

Several other settlers came out with Clendenin.
These were: His brothers, William, Robert and
Alexander, Josiah MHarrison, Francis Watkins,
Shaderick Harriman, Charles McClung, John Ed-
wards, Lewis Tackett, and, perhaps, others; and it
was probably they, or some of them, who imme-
diately, or very soon after, built the first six or seven
houses.

This was then Greenbriar County, and Clendenin
got the then surveyor of the county, Mr. Alexander
Welch, who lived at Lewisburg, to come down and
lay off a town for him. <A block of forty acres was
divided and laid off into as many one-acre lots.
There were two streets, called “Front” and “ Main,”
now Kanawha and Virginiastreets. The cross streets
were numbered, not named.

This town extended from Elk River up to now Capi-

«
288 Trans-Allegheny Pioneers.

talstreet. A plat was made of it by the surveyor; but,
from some neglect, was never recorded. According
to tradition, the first half dozen houses built here,
after Clendenin’s, were: One at the upper corner of
now Truslow and Kanawha streets, where Mr. C. J.
Bodkin now resides; one at the northeast corner of
Kanawha and Court streets, where the Barlow build-
ing now stands; one between Alderson and Summers
streets, where Dr. Rogers’ drug-store now stands;
one at the northeast corner of Kanawha and Sum-
mers streets, where the Frankenberger block now
stands; one at the northwest corner of Capital and
Kanawha streets, where the Kanawha Valley Bank
now stands, and one at the northeast corner of Kan-
awha and Hale streets, where J. P. Hale now resides.
In 1789, when Kanawha County was formed, there
were but seven houses. In 1798, these had increased
to twelve, and in 1803 to 1810, to about twenty.

No name was given to the town for several years
after it was laid out. It was called, indiscriminately,
“Clendenin’s Settlement,” or “The Town at the
Mouth of Elk.”

After the formation of the county, Mr. Reuben
Slaughter, the County Surveyor, made another plat
of the town, following substantially, if not exactly,
the plat of Surveyor Welch, up to Capital street; but
extended it up to Dunbar street. This plat is on
record in the Clerk’s office of this county.

Some years ago, the late Mr. John Dryden, then
Clerk of this county, through some friend in Lewis-
burg, found among the old private papers of Mr.
Welch, in possession of some of his descendants, the
original plat of the town. Though never recorded,
Trans-Allegheny Pioneers. 289

it is, fortunately, preserved, and is now before me.
It is an interesting historical relic.

On the 19th of December, 1794, the Legislature of
Virginia formally established the town, and fixed its
name as “ Charlestown.”

It is a curious fact that, although the Legislature
had officially established the county, in -1789, as
“ Kenhawa,” and now the town, in 1794, as “ Charles-
town,” both names, by common consent, became
changed—one to Kanawha and the other to Charles-
ton. How, why or when, no body knows.

Some years ago there was much trouble and an-
noyance about our mail matter, growing out of the
confusion of the post-office names of our Charleston
and Charlestown, Jefferson County. With a view to |
remedy this, a public meeting was called here to dis-
cuss the propriety of changing the name of our town
from Charleston to “ Kanawha City.” It was warmly
discussed, but defeated, mainly on the sentimental
ground that it would be sacrilege to abolish the
name of the dear old pioneér who had shed his blood
and risked his life here, “in an early day,” among
the Indians; had founded the town, given it his own
name, and built a Fort to protect and defend his
neighbors as well as himself, etc.

Sentiment prevailed, and the name remained un-
changed; but the writer took some pains to look up
the early history of the settling and naming of the
town. It was soon discovered that the founder’s
name was. George, not Charles. This somewhat
staggered the sentimentalists, but they recovered,
saying that George was a very modest gentleman,
and, instead of taking it himself, he had conceded

19
290 Trans-Allegheny Pioneers.

the honor of the name to his brother, whose name
was Charles; and they clinched this by quoting
Howe, who, in his History of Virginia, so states; and
other historians all follow Howe. But a further in-
vestigation of the family records showed that George
had no brother Charles; then it was conjectured that
the name was probably given in honor of his son
Charles, but a still further investigation of the family
genealogies proved that he had no son.

After much search of records, and tracing of tra-
ditions among the old timers, I have but recently
arrived at the facts of this case through Mr. C. C.
Miller, of Mason County, a descendant of the Clen-
denins. He says the town was named by George
Clendenin, the founder, in honor of his father, whose
name was Charles. He was an elderly gentleman,
who came bere with his sons, died in the Clendenin
block house, and was buried near the upper end ot
the garden, and near the front fence. The fences
have been somewhat changed here within recent
years; but from Mr. Miller’s description of the place,
and my knowledge of the lines, I conclude that the
grave of Charles Clendenin, whose name the town
bears, lies between the present sidewalk on Kan-
awha street and the roadway, about thirty feet above,
midway between Brooks and Morris streets, and
ata right angle from the river, about opposite the
gum of the old gas well. It would be a graceful act
for the city to mark the spot with a durable monu-
ment and suitable inscription.

Shortly after the Clendenin Fort was built, a
smaller block house was built about a mile above,
and just in front of the present residence of Mr.
Trans-Allegheny Pioneers. 291

Silas Ruffner. This small block house was probably
built by Clendenin as a protection to his tenants and
farm hands, as it was before he had sold all the bot-
tom above the town, as he afterwards did, in 1796, to
Mr. Joseph Ruffner.

In 1793, at a time when the Indians were quite
numerous hereabout, and hostile, a Mr. James Van
Bibber, passing early one morning from the lower
Fort to the little block house above, saw an Indian
in war paint suddenly rise up from behind a log in
front of him. Each raised his gun and fired as
quickly as possible, the shots being so nearly simul-
taneous as to make but one report. The Indian fell,
and his ball had grazed the body of his opponent.
Van Bibber, not knowing how many more there
might be, made all possible speed toward the upper.
Fort, and met some of the inmates coming to the
scene of danger, being warned by what they sup-
posed a single shot, which was an agreed danger
signal. Van Bibber exclaimed that he had just
“fought a duel,” and related the circumstances. Upon
repairing to the scene of the conflict, they found the
blood of the victim, but the enemy had,disappeared.
Some days after, the weather being quite warm, the
vultures were observed hovering about the base of
the hill back of the bottom, and, upon examining
into the cause, the remains of the dead Indian were
found in a crevice of the rock in the ravine which
leads from the present Piedmont road to Spring Hill
Cemetery, where they had been conveyed and secreted
by his companions.

I find this incident contributed by vur worthy cit-
izen, Dr. E. A. Summers to the “ American Pioneer,”
a periodical published in Cincinnati, in 1848.
292 Trans-Allegheny Pioneers.

In 1790, an interesting, but tragical, incident oc-
curred at the Clendenin Fort. As related by the old
traditions, it is as follows: The neighboring families
were all gathered in the Fort for safety, as the In-
dians were known to be prowling about the neigh-
borhood. One of the inmates, a beautiful young
lady, was very ill with a fever. It so happened—and
it always so happens—that this fair young lady had
a gallant young lover, also in the Fort, and whose
name was James Hale. As there were no ice houses,
nor ice machines, in those days, the gallant young
lover determined, at the risk of his life, to go toa
fine spring across the river, for a bucket of fresh
water to cool the parched tongue and fevered brow
of his fair lady-love; so he took his life in one hand
and a bucket in the other, and crossed over, but just
as he was in the act of dipping up the cool, sparkling
water, he was pierced by several shots from the In-
dians, and fell dead in the spring; upon hearing of
which, his fair sweetheart was ‘so shocked that she
swooned, and sank, and died. How could she have
done less in recognition of the brave and generous
act of her daring lover, who had risked his own life
in endeavoring to save hers?

Unfortunately—or, perhaps fortunately—there is
another version of this highly romantic story. As
there may be matter-of-fact, commonplace readers as
well as sentimental ones, I shall give both versions,
that persons may choose according to their tastes
and mental idiosyncracies.

The reverse of the picture above given is as fol-
lows: Mr. Clendenin had in his household employ-
ment a buxom country lass who cooked the frugal

gu
Tians-Allegheny Pioneers. 293

fare, milked the cows and washed the dishes. She
was, probably, never sick in her life, and if she ever
loved anybody, she probably did not know it, or “ let
concealment, like a worm in the bud,” ete. Mr.
Clendenin also had as farm hands, one James Hale,
and another, whose name may have been—Smith.
These were strapping young fellows, who plowed the
corn, fed the stock, and did other farm work, and
would, sometimes, “while resting,” go over to the
spring for some fresh water.

On one oceasion, when they were both over, they
were fired on by Indians; Hale was killed and Smith
made his escape by jumping into and swimming
across the river, diving, from time to time, to avoid
the bullets fired after him.

Whichever version of this story is accepted, the
central historical fact remains—that James Hale,
while at the spring opposite the Fort, for water, was
shot and killed by the Indians, and the branch, hith-
erto nameless, was called after him, and still bears
the name of “ Hale’s Branch.”

It is generally claimed for Mr. Norris Whittaker,
one of our oldest citizens, who was born in 1807, on
the lot where I now write, was the first white child
born within the present limits of the city of Charles-
ton; this, however, is a mistake, as I remember fre-
quently to have heard the late General Lewis Ruffner
relate that he was born in the Clendenin Fort, on the
1st of October, 1797, ten years before Mr. Whittaker,
but Mr. Whittaker is now, doubtless, the oldest sur-
viving person born within the limits of Charleston.

It may be as well here to correct an error of fact
in regard to the old Fort, fallen into by Mr. Atkin-
294 Trans-Allegheny Pioneers.

son, in his valuable history of Kanawha County.
He says: “The Clendenin Fort was torn down by Mr.
C. CO. Lewis, in 1874, to make room for the elegant
mansion in which he now resides.”

The facts are as follows: The old stockade fort
proper, being nearly rotted down, was torn away and
removed about 1815, but the Clendenin block house,
or resident fort, continued to be used as a family
residence.

After the death or removal of George Clendenin the
property passed into the possession of Colonel David
Ruffner; next into that of Captain James Wilson;
after his death into that of Mr. Frederick Brooks,
who long resided there, and after him of Mr. John A.
Truslow, from whom the writer purchased it in 1872.
Wishing to make room for more modern buildings,
and being unwilling to sacrifice so interesting a his-
torical land-mark, I went to great expense and
trouble to move the building bodily, about five
hundred feet, to a vacant lot on the northeast corner
of Brooks and Virginia streets, where it was located,
thoroughly repaired, painted, and made sightly and
comfortable. Having long been a weather-boarded
house, the logs are not visible, and it has every
appearance of a frame house. It is at present owned
and occupied by Major Delafield DuBois.

It was, as stated, the first house built within the
limits of Charleston, is now nearly one hundred years
old, is in excellent repair and good for another
century. -

I am glad to say that it was not pulled down and
destroyed, and proud to say that I was instrumental
in preserving it. The lot from which it was removed
Trans-Allegheny Pioneers. 295

was sold to Mr. C. C. Lewis, who built upon it his
present elegant residence.

In about 1789-90, when Indians were troublesome
and threatening, the famous female spy, scout, mes-
senger, ete.,““Mad-Ann Bailey,” made her daring
ride, alone, through the wilderness, from here to
Fort Union (Lewisburg), and brought back a supply
of powder and lead for the Fort. Ann was English
by birth and never got rid of her cockney dialect.
She was a first rate rifle shot, and, in telling some of
her friends, at one time, of one of her recent feats
she said she had just “killed a howl hoff a helm tree
across Helk River.” _

At another time, about 1790-91, the Clendenin
Fort was short of ammunition, and Fleming Cobb,
an expert woodsman and waterman, was detailed to
go to Point Pleasant for a supply. He started by
canoe with his ready rifle and enough cooked food
for the trip. He floated down by night to avoid
being seen by Indians along shore. By daylight,
next morning, he had made fifty miles of the sixty
miles distance. He drew his canoe into the mouth
of Ten Mile Creek, and secreted it and himself under
overhanging boughs, and took a refreshing sleep in
the bottom of the canoe.

During the day, while he was waiting the darkness
of another night, to complete his journey, he saw,
passing up on the opposite side of the river, about
twenty Indians; they did not discover him, but the
sight at once suggested to him the danger he should
have to encounter on his up trip.

When night came, he went on safely to the Fort
at the Point. Next day he got his powder, lead and
296 Trans-Allegheny Pioneers.

flints, and, at dark, set out on his perilous return.
After a few hours travel, poling his canoe up stream,
“he was discovered and pursued by a party of three
Indians, but, as they were on the opposite side of the
river, and as he kept his canoe close to his shore, he
managed, during the night, to escape harm. ©

Next morning, being about the mouth of Coal
River, one of the Indiang undertook to swim the Ka-
nawha, so that if he (Cobb) escaped the two on one
side, he would inevitably fall within reach of the one
on the opposite side. Cobb at once saw the danger
that threatened him, and started his canoe full speed
for the crossing Indian, being determined to kill him
if possible. When within good range he fired and
wounded his man. He did not wait to see results,
as the other two were firing upon him, but started
his canoe up stream with all energy he could com-
mand; and while the two Indians were rescuing the
wounded one from the water and taking care of him,
he (Cobb) had gotten out of sight; and, about ten
o’clock, reached the Clendenin Fort safely, having
made sixty miles by canoe, up stream, without food,
sleep, or rest, most of the way by night, and most of
the way pursued by three armed Indians, one of
whom he succeeded in killing or wounding, and
thereby escaping them all.

What wonderful powers of physical endurance
these early frontiersmen had! Without it they could
not, with all their nerve and pluck, have executed
such daring, dangerous and desperate undertakings.

The bottom on which Charleston stands was, orig-
inally, largely covered by beech timber. Bears and
turkeys are very fond of beech mast, and used to con-
Trans-Allegheny Pioneers. 297

gregate here in great numbers in the Fall and fatten
on it. The early settlers used to kill and “ put up”
bear meat for their winter’s bacon. Tradition Says
that Ben. Morris, a noted hunter, killed thirteen bears
near here in one afternoon. It is not stated whether
it was an extra good day for bears.

Mr. Jobn L. Cole, whose memory is well stored
with the early traditions of the valley, tells me of an
interesting one in the Price family, to the effect that
férchibald Price, “in an early day,” was making
sugar at a sugar camp across the river, probably about
where the C. & O. Depot now stands, when he discov-
ered that there were Indians in very dangerous prox-
imity, and that his canoe was on the wrong side of
the river; but, “Necessity is the mother of inven-
tion.” He gathered up his sugar kettle, inverted it
over his head, thus making a diving bell of it, and
walked into and waded through the river on the bot-
tom, saving his life and saving his—kettle.

It is well known to hunters and woodsmen that
buffalo, deer, bears, etc., have regular trails of travel
through the forests, and especially regular crossing
places along the streams. It is said that there was a
regular bear crossing just in front of the present
court house; and a deer crossing opposite the Fort
and mouth of Hale’s Branch.

The year.that Kanawha County was established
(1789) was an eventful one. In this year the first
United States Congress met, the United States Con-
stitution became operative, and George Washington
took his seat as first President of the United States.

When the county was organized, it extended from
the mouth of Pond Creek, tive miles below the mouth
298 Trans-Allegheny Pioneers.

of Little Kanawha, to the mouth of Big Sandy River,
up Big Sandy to Cumberland Mountains, and across
by Sewell’s, etc., containing about ten thousand
square miles.

Charleston, although it then had but seven houses,
was the capital and couuty seat of this vast territory.
Until the county buildings were erected the courts
were held in the Clendenin blockhouse. The first
public building erected was a jail, in 1792; it was
built of logs, stood on and partly in the bank near
the Fort, was twelve by twelve feet square, and seven
feet high. The next jail built was on part of the
present court house lot, on the corner of Kanawha
and Court streets. The first court house built was of
logs, in 1796, on the lot where the present court
house stands. It was forty by thirty feet, one story,
with two jury rooms fourteen by fourteen feet.

The first clerk’s office was about fourteen by four-
teen feet, built in 1802, of stone, on the present Hale
Houselot. It was the first stone building in the
valley. The present court house was built in 1817.
The present county clerk’s office and the stone jail in
1829, and the circuit court office in 1873.

The lot upon which the county public buildings
stand was acquired from George Alderson, in settle-
ment of an unpaid balance of about one hundred
dollars due from Alderson to the county.

In front of the court house lot there was an open,
covered, public market house. This stood until about
1845. There were no special meat markets then as
now.

In the early years of Kanawha County there was
but one voting precinct, and that was at the Clen-
Trans-Allegheny Pioneers. 299

deniu Fort. The polls were then kept open three
days. At the first election held, there were but thir-
teen votes polled. Of course, the candidates were
elected by “ overwhelming majorities.”

In 1790, George Clendenin and Andrew Donnally,
Sr., were the first members elected to represent the
county in the Legislature. In 1791, George Clen-
denin and Daniel Boone were elected.

While on the subject, I will give here, as a valuable
table for reference, a complete list of all the delegates
from Kanawha, from the organization of the county
in 1789 until the division of the State in 1863. This
list is the more valuable from the fact that the poll-
books in our clerk’s office, which contained these
early records, were destroyed during the late war.
The list, from 1789 to 1847, inclusive, I cut from the
«Kanawha Republican,” in 1847, and it is probably
the only complete list extant : .

1790. George Clendenin, Andrew Donnally.
1791. George Clendenin, Daniel Boone.

1792. Henry Banks, Wm. Morriss. ,
1792. George Clendenin, Wm. Morriss. ‘i
1794. Wm. Morriss, George Clendenin.

1795. Thos. Lewis, George Clendenin.

1796. William Clendenin, William Morriss.
1797. Edward Graham, William Morriss.

1798. William Morriss, Thomas Lewis.

1799. Thomas Lewis, David Ruffner.

1800. William Morriss, Thomas Lewis.

1801. William Clendenin, David Ruffner.

1802. R. McKee, D. Ruffner.

1803. William Clendenin, Andrew Donnally.
1804. D. Ruffner, Carroll Morriss.

1805. Nehemiah Wood, William Morriss.

1806. John Reynolds, William Morriss.

1807. John Reynolds, William Morriss.
300

1808.
1809.
1810.
1811.
1812.
1813.
1814,
1815.
1816.
1817.
1818.
1819.
1820.
1821.
1822.
1823.
1824.
1825.
1826.
1827.
1828.
1829.
1830.
1831.
1832.
1833.
1834.
1835.
1836.
1837.
1838.
1839.
1840.
1841.
1842.
1843,
1844.
1845.
1846.
1847.
1848.

Trans-Allegheny Pioneers.

John Reynolds, Edmund Morriss.
John Reynolds, David Cartmill.
John Reynolds, Claudius Buster.
John Hansford, David Ruffner.
David Cartmill, John Hansford.
John Wilson, John Hansford.
John Wilson, John Hansford.
John Wilson, John Hansford.
John Wilson, Thomas S. Buster.
John Hansford, Lewis Summers.
John Hansford, P. R. Thompson.
Joseph Lovell, Claudius Buster.
Joseph Lovell, N. W. Thompson.
Joseph Lovell, Lewis Ruffner.
Matthew Dunbar, James Wilson.
James Wilson, Van B. Reynolds.
Joseph Lovell, John Welch.
Lewis Ruffner, Van B. Reynolds.
James H. Fry, Lewis Ruffner.
James C. McFarland, Daniel Smith.
Daniel Smith, Matthew Dunbar.
Daniel Smith, Matthew Dunbar.
George W. Summers.

George W. Summers.

James H. Fry.

James H. Fry.

George W. Summers.

George W. Summers.

A. Donnally.

Daniel Smith.

Daniel Smith.

Van B. Reynolds.

Andrew Donnally.

Daniel Smith.

Andrew Parks.

John Lewis.

Daniel Smith.

Spicer Patrick.

Spicer Patrick.

Andrew Parks.

James M. Laidley.
Trans-Allegheny Pioneers. 301

1849. Dr. Spicer Patrick.
1850. General Daniel Smith.
1851. Major Andrew Parks.

Two delegates were now again allowed and the sessions
made biennial.

1853. A. P. Fry, Dr. 8. Patrick.

1855. Colonel B. H. Smith, Colonel Charles Ruffner.

1857. Colonel Charles Ruffner, Major N. Fitzhugh.

1859. Isaac N. Smith, Isaiah A. Welch.

1861. I. A. Welch represented the State in Richmond and
General Lewis Ruffner and Greenbery Slack in
Wheeling.

1863. I. A. Welch re-elected by the Confederates to repre-
sent the State at Richmond.

1863. June 20th, the State was divided and West Virginia
organized as a separate State.

At the first court for Kanawha County, held at the
Clendenin Fort, in Charleston, Virginia, October 6,

1789, the following “Gentlemen Justices” were
severally sworn and qualified as members of the
court :

Thomas Lewis, Robert Clendenin, Francis Wat-
kins, Charles McClung, Benjamin Strother, William
Clendenin, David Robinson, George Alderson, Leon-
ard Morris and James Van Bibber.

Thomas Lewis, being the oldest member of the
court, was, by the law of the State, entitled to the
sheriffalty of the county. He was duly commis-
sioned, and he appointed John Lewis his deputy.

William H. Cavendish was appointed clerk and
Francis Watkins his deputy. The first “will” he
recorded was the last will and testament of William
Morris, the first permanent settler at Kelly’s Creek.

Reuben Slaughter was appointed County Surveyor.
The first survey he entered was one for 1,000 acres,
302 Trans-Allegheny Pioneers.

lying about the mouth of Coal River, made for
Phineas Taylor, grandfather of the great showman,
Phineas Taylor Barnum.

David Robinson and John Van Bibber were
appointed Commissioners of the Revenue, and Wil-
liam Drowdy and William Boggs, Coroners.

In those days counties had military organizations.
For Kanawha, George Clendenin was County Lieu-
tenant; Thomas Lewis, Colonel; Daniel Boone, Lieu-
tenant-Colonel; William Clendenin, Major; Leonard.
Cooper and John Morris, Captains; James Van
Bibber and John Young, Lieutenants, and William
Owens and Alexander Clendenin, Ensigns.

It was six years after the beginning of the Clen-
denin settlement, and five years after it had become
the county seat of Kanawha, before it was formally
incorporated asatown. The Legislature then (De-
cember 19, 1794,) enacted that “Forty acres of land,
the property of George Clendenin, at the mouth of
Elk River, in the County of ‘Kenhawa,’ as the same
are already laid off into lots and streets, shall be
established as a town, by the name of ‘ Charles-
town; and Reuben,Slaughter, Andrew Donnally, Sr.,
William Clendenin, John Morris, Sr., Leonard Morris,
George Alderson, Abraham Baker, John Young
and William Morris, gentlemen, are appointed trus-
tees.” Surely no set of men ever had such a “cor-
ner” on public offices as these few gentlemen who
first settled about Charleston.

Up to about 1805, there was no grist mill at or
very near Charleston. Tinggraters, not yet quite ob-
solete in the rural districts, were then largely used.
Thomas Alsbury had, “infan"early day,” built a little
Trans-Allegheny Pioneers. 308.

water-power tub mill at the falls of Coal River, about
twelve miles distant, and to this the few settlers had
to send their grists of wheat and corn to be ground,
and wait their respective turns, according to millers’
rule. No flour or meal was kept on sale here at that
day. The first mill built near the town was a little
floating tub mill in Elk Shoal, below the mouth of
Elk River, in 1805. The Ruffners had built a little
corn-cracker at the mouth of Campbell’s Creek, five
miles above town, two years before’(in 1808) and,
later, William Blaine one at Blaine’s Island.

The first sawed lumber used here was all whip-
sawed, by hand. The first saw mills established were
about 1815 to 1820, on Two-Mile Creek of Elk.
There were three of them, and two of them had
corn-cracker attachments.

The first steam flour mill and steam saw mill
erected in the town, were by David and Daniel
Rutiner, in 1832.

Mr. Joseph Bibby, then just arrived from England,
and who had learned milling there, engaged with
the Messrs. Ruffner to operate the flour mill, and, in
1837, he became the purchaser of it. This mill is.
still in successful operation; Mr. Bibby is still living,
and a well preserved man, and has now been con-
nected with this mill, as operator and owner, for
fifty-four years. :

The first sermon ever preached in Charleston, ac-.
cording to Mr. Atkinson, was by Rev. William Steele,
January 1, 1804, at the house of Mr. Williams, who
lived at the upper corner of Hale and Kanawha.
streets. He came from the Little Kanawha Methodist.
Circuit, and, for some time after, preached here once:
304 Trans-Allegheny Pioneers.

a month. Rev. Asa Shinn, a Methodist, was the
first minister to be regularly appointed to this circuit,
a few months later.

Rev. Henry Bascom, the afterwards distinguished
and eloquent Bishop Bascom, preached here for a
while, in 1813.

The first Methodist brick church was erected on
Virginia street, between Summers and Alderson
streets, in 1833.

Rey. Dr. Henry Ruffner was the first Presbyterian
preacher here, about 1816, and was the father of
Presbyterianism in the valley. He organized the
first Presbyterian congregation in Mercer Academy,
in March, 1819. After him, Rev. Francis Crutch-
field was the tirst ordained minister to locate here,
later in 1819; and he was followed, in 1820, by Rev.
Calvin Chadwick. The first Presbyterian church
building was erected on Virginia street, between
Hale and Capital, in 1828. The Kanawha Presbyte-
rian Church, on Virginia, between McFarland and
Dunbar streets, was completed in 1885.

The first Episcopal minister was Rev. Joseph Wil-
lard, in 1816, followed by Rev. Charles Page, in 1821.
This church, corner of Virginia and McFarland
streets, was built in 1834.

The first Catholic congregation and St. Mary’s
Academy were organized in 1866, by Rev. Father
Joseph W. Stenger. Their church building was
completed in 1869, and the convent in 1872.

The first Baptist congregation was organized by
Rev. P. H. Murry, in 1869, and a church was built on
the corner of Donnally and Laidly streets.

The first Jewish congregation was organized in
Trans-Allegheny Pioneers. 305

1873. Rabbi Sched was their first teacher, tollowed
by Rabbi Strauss. Their synagogue was built on
State street, near Court, in 1876.

The colored Methodists erected a church at the
corner of Quarrier and Dickinson streets, in 1867.
Rev. Charles Fisher was the first colored minister.

The colored Baptists erected a church on Wash-
ington street, near Dickinson, in 1873, Rev. Frank
James being their first colored minister.

The first colored free school was established in
1867, Miss Lucy James being their first teacher.

The first attorney admitted to practice in our
courts was Mr. Edward Graham, August 1, 1796.
He was appointed Commonwealth’s Attorney, at a
salary of forty dollars a year. Captain Cartmill and
Scotch Jamie Wilson were among the earliest law-
yers. A little later came Charles Baldwin, Judge
Matthew Dunbar, Colonel B. H. Smith, Colonel
Joseph Lovel, Major Andrew Parks, etc.

As evidence that the early courts had due regard
for the moralities and proprieties, the records show
that they fined one Ben Lemasters fifteen shillings,
at a court in 1792, for “saying cuss words” in the
presence of a member of the court. He could, prob-
ably, have sworn in the presence of common mortals
for half price. In 1796, the grand jury indicted
Joseph Burwell for hunting on Sunday, and Willen
Jones for “taking the name of the Lord in vain.’

Tobacco was an important crop, and was largely
raised by the early settlers. It was used as a “legal
tender,” in place of money.

At the May term of court for 1792 it was “Ordered
that 4,800 weight of tobacco be levied upon the

20
306 Trans-Allegheny Pioneers.

tithables of this county for the extra services of the
clerk for four years last past;” also, “that 3,300
weight of tobacco be levied on the tithables of this
county for extra services performed by Thomas Lewis,
as Sheriff, from the 5th of October, 1789, until the 2d
day of July, 1792;” also, “that William Clendenin
be allowed 1,300 pounds of tobacco for his services
as Sheriff from the 2d day of July, 1792, until the
6th day of August, 1793;” also, “that George Clen-
denin be allowed 1,920 pounds of tobacco for books
furnished for the use of this county;” also, “that a
deposit of 10,000 pounds of tobacco be applied to the
use of the county; and, further, it is ordered that
the Sheriff proceed to collect the above quantity of
tobacco, and settle with the county at the February
court, next.”

November term, 1798 : “Judgment for 1,525 pounds
of tobacco in favor of John Stewart, clerk of Green-
briar, against John Edwards, of Kanawha.”

The first resident physician here was Dr. Koff, who
came in 1811 or 1812, and was followed by Dr. N.
W.Thompson. The late venerable Dr. Spicer Patrick
came in 1816, and after a long, active, useful and
honorable career, recently went to his rest at but
little short of one hundred years of age.

The first taverns, or inns, as they were then called,
so far as I can learn, were the Buster Tavern, at the
northeast corner of Court and Kanawha streets, and
the Griffin Tavern, at the northeast corner of Sum-
mers and Kanawha streets.

The prices of accommodations at such places of
public entertainment were prescribed by the courts.

The following is a list of prices established at a court
in 1820:
Trans-A llegheny Pioneers. 307

Breakfast, dinner, or supper, each............. 25e.
Lodging, per night................ shai he -- 12he.
Horse at hay, per night..............0....0005, 25e.
Horse at pasture, per night.................... 123¢c.
Jamaica Spirits, Cogniac Brandy, and Madeira
Wine, per gallon.................0.00e eee 600e.
Cherry Bounce and Country Gin, per gal....... 300c.
Whisky and Peach Brandy, per gal............ 200c.
Beer and Cider, per gal.............00..e.0e eee 50c.

Clearly, they were not Prohibitionists.

Colonel Joel Ruffner (in “Atkinson’s Kanawha”)
says that John Greenlee, who came here from Rock-
bridge, “in a very early day,” was the first black-
smith.

Probably the next was the negro, Jack Neal, who
had such an eventful history. He was captured near
Georgetown, though a free man, and was attempted
to be carried South, into slavery. He got loose,
killed his captor, escaped, was recaptured near Galli-
polis, brought here for trial, confessed, was convicted
and pardoned. \

He was the first criminal ever in our little twelve
by twelve jail, and the first tried before the courts.
He opened his blacksmith shop soon after his pardon,
in 1804 or 1805.

Among school teachers Herbert P. Gaines is said
to have been the first, with Levi Welch a good sec-
ond. Jacob Rand, James A. Lewis, Lewis Ruffner
and Ezra Walker were all very early.

Mercer Academy was built in 1818. The lot on
which it and the First Presbyterian Church are built
was donated by Colonel David Ruffner.

The first drug store was established by Dr. Henry
Rogers, father of Dr. J. H. Rogers, about 1825. The
308 Trans-Allegheny Fioneers.

first cabinet and furniture maker was James G. Tay-
lor, about 1833. The first regular undertaker and
furniture dealer was 8. A. Skees, in 1867, succeeded
by R. R. Skees.

The first tan-yard was started by William Blaine,
below Elk, “in an early day.”

Fleming Cobb, of canoe memory, brought out from
old Virginia the first fruit trees. Ann Bailey brought
out the first pair of geese, and also brought, on
horseback, from Lewisburg, the first copper worm
still.

The first clock and watch maker was the elder
Thomas Matthews, who came from Eastern Virginia
in 1808. He was a most ingenious and skillful work-
man. He made many of the old eight feet high eight-
day clocks for those who were able to buy them.
Some of them are still extant.

Mr. Matthews was an eccentric, as well as ingenious
man. He used to say that the primitive settlers here
were as healthy, peaceable, moral and happy a people
as he ever saw, until the doctors, lawyers and preach-
ers came in; then, he said, they began to get sick, to
quarrel and law each other, and to develop all sorts
of meanness.

I don’t know whether he claimed to have estab-
lished the relation of cause and effect between these
phenomena, or whether he regarded them as merely
curious coincidences.

The first post-office established here was April 1,
1801, and called “ Kanawha C. H.” The first post-
master was Edward Graham; the second was Francis
A. Dubois, January 1, 1803, followed by William
Whitteker, October 1, 1808. The post-office was in
Trans-Allegheny Pioneers. 309

the old log house that stood on the north-east corner
of Kanawha and Hale streets. The official name of
the post-office remained Kanawha C. H. until Sep-
tember 80, 1879, when it was changed by the Post-
Office Department to Charleston.

Up to as late as 1810, and probably later, there was
only a fortnightly mail here, brought from Lewisburg
on horseback.

The first newspapers established here were the
“Kanawha Patriot,” by Herbert P. Gaines, in 1819,
followed by the “Western Courier,” by Mason Camp-
bell, in 1820, and by the“ Western Register,” by Messrs.
J. M. & A. T. Laidley, in 1829. Mr. Mason Camp-
bell is but recently deceased, and Messrs. J. M. &
A. T. Laidley both still survive.

The first bank established here was a branch of the
Bank of Virginia, in 1832—J.C. McFarland, presi-
dent; Samuel Hannah, cashier; John M. Doddridge,
teller. The first local brass-band was organized and
instructed by Prof. Carl Fine, a German music
teacher, in 1858.

The first ferry was a sort of double-barreled affair,
crossing both Kanawha and Elk Rivers from the
point at the junction. The Legislature granted the
franchise to George Clendenin, December 19, 1794.
Later, there was an opposition ferry, crossing Kana-
wha from the mouth of Ferry Branch, landing on the
upper or lower side of Elk, as desired. It was started,
in 1809, by John and Langston Ward, but not offi-
cially established until 1812. The Wards lived on
the south side of Kanawha, at the mouth of Ferry
Branch, which took its name from their ferry.

The Alexander Quarrier Ferry and the James
310 Trans-Allegheny Pioneers.

Wilson Ferry, afterward the Goshorn and Hale
Ferries, now owned by Ruffner Bros., or the “ Char-
leston Ferry Company,” were established in 1820.

The wire suspension bridge, over Elk River, was
built by a stock company in 1852.

The Keystone Bridge was built, chiefly by Mr. J.
Brisbin Walker in the interest of his “West End”
extension, in 1873; was destroyed by an ice gorge in
1879, and rebuilt by the city in 1886, when the sus-
pension bridge was purchased and both made free
bridges.

The Elk Log Boom was constructed about 1869
by Messrs. Huling and Brokerhoff.

The first Circuit Court held here was on the 24th
of April, 1809, Judge John Coulter presiding, about
whom the following anecdote is told: Having, at
this first sitting, fined some transgressor for some in-
fraction of law, the victim, probably not a prohibi-
tionist, got up in court and addressing the court said:
“See here, Mr. Judge, aint you a settin’ of your
Coulter a leetle too deep for new ground ?”

Judge James Allen followed Judge Coulter in
September, 1811, and Judge Lewis Summers suc-
ceeded Judge Allen on the bench, in 1819, and held
the position until 1843, about a quarter of a century.

The first steamboat ever at Charleston was the
“ Hliza,” in 1823. She was built at Wheeling for
Andrew Donnally and Isaac Noyes. She went to
Cincinnati, but never returned. She was a failure.

The next was the “Fairy Queen,” built at Cincin-
nati in 1824, by Andrew Donnally and A. M. Hender-
son. She ran for some time as a Charleston and
Cincinnati packet.
Trans-Allegheny Pioneers. 311

The next was the “Paul Pry,” in 1826, built and
owned by Joel Shrewsbury, Jr., and Captain John
Rogers. She ran in the trade for two years, when she
“blew up” at Guyandotte.

In 1830, Armstrong, Grant & Co. bought the “O. H.
Perry” and put herin the Kanawha trade. Her name
was afterwards changed to the “Daniel Webster.”

In 1830, the “Enterprise,” built at Pittsburgh, and
commanded by Captain James Payne, was the first
towboat ever in Kanawha. Her machinery was
afterwards put on the “ Hope,’ built by Messrs.
Payne and Hall.

Captain Payne next built the “Salem,” at Red House.
She is said to have carried the first steam whistle
ever in the Kanawha, and was the first steamer ever
to reach the Kanawha Falls.

In 1832, Captain Andrew Ruffner built the steamer
“Tiskelwah,” at the mouth of Elk, and ran her for a
while in the Charleston and Cincinnati trade. She
was the first steamer ever built at Charleston.

About this time Captain Payne built the “Jim,” at
Red House, putting on her the “ Hope’s” machinery.

In 1837, the Summers Bros. built the “ Texas” and
ran her for a time.

In 1838, Dr. Putney, William Atkinson and Samuel
Summers built the “Oceola,’ at Buffalo, on the
Kanawha River.

In 1839, James M. Laidley built the steamer “ Elk.”

In 1843, Captain Payne built the “Ark” and put on
her the machinery of the “ Julia Gratiot.”

In 1846, Captain B. J. Caffrey built and ran the
“Triumph.”

In the same year, Warth & English built the “ Blue
312 Trans-Allegheny Pioneers.

Ridge” and sold her to Captain Payne. She exploded
her boilers in 1848, killing half a dozen or more
persons.

After this, Kanawha packets and towboats became
too numerous even to be mentioned.

The first little up-river packet, Charleston and_
above, was the ‘‘ Here’s Your Mule,” in 1864. The
next two built here expressly for the upper trade
were the “Wild Goose” and “ Lame Duck” in
1878.

In the early days of steamboating here, about
1833, there was a very exciting and long famous
steamboat—canoe race. Mr. Sutton Matthews got up
the race and backed the canoe for $500, against the
steamer Daniel Webster, Captain N. B. Coleman,
commander. The canoe keel was polished and var-
nished to lessen friction, and she was mauned by six
vigorous, young, athletic rowers, of whom Mr. J. H.
Goshorn was one, and the shores were lined with
people to witness the race. The canoe soon came to
grief, was upset by the steamer’s waves, and the
rowers got an unexpected and involuntary bath.
Although the original bet between the steamer and
the canoe was but $500, it is said that $5,000 to
$8,000 changed hands on the result. Several gentle-
men won or lost several hundred dollars each, and
the smaller bets were innumerable. Opinions were
about equally divided, and nearly everybody backed
his judgment with a bet, from staid, sober-sided citi-
zens to the deck hands on the steamboats and the
salt packers about the furnaces. Clerks and laborers
drew their wages, up to date, and bet every dollar
they could raise. A sensational account of the race
Trans-Allegheny Pioneers. 313

was published in the papers, at the time, throughout
the West.

The two gentlemen above named (Captain Coleman
and Mr. J. H. Goshorn) are the only two survivors I
know of, who participated in the exciting race.

In 1822 occurred one of the highest rises known in
the Kanawha River. The water was around the
Court House.

In 1832, and again in 1849, Charleston had severe
visitations of the cholera.

In May, 1844, a very narrow, but very violent
hurricane passed over the lower end of the town.
Mr. Joseph Caldwell lived in a two-story brick house,
just above the present Farley House. After uproot-
ing trees on both banks of the river, the hurricane,
or cyclone, struck this house, taking off the upper story
evenly, and took a bed, with two children sleeping
in it, and landed them “right side up with care” in
the garden, in the rear of the house, unhurt and un-
harmed. The course of the cyclone was southwest
to northeast. It passed up Elk, up Two-Mile, over
to Blue Creek, and on. Its path was easily traceable
from Central Kentucky to Central Pennsylvania, and
how much farther I don’t know.

In 1861, Charleston was mostly inundated by the
greatest “flood” that has occurred in the Kanawha
since the valley was settled. Its extreme height
above the present Government standard low water
gauge was 46 feet 103 inches.

The next highest water was in September, 1878,
when the gauge marked 41 feet, 7 inches.

The first frame house was on Kanawha street,
immediately below the Court House lot. The next,
314 Trans-Allegheny Pioneers.

on the south side of Kanawha, above Alderson street;
and, about the same time, the old Central House, or
Hoge building, on the northwest corner of Kanawha
and Alderson streets. The date of these was 1812 to
1815. The first brick house was the Gabriel Garrou
hatter’s shop, on the bank, between Truslow and
Alderson streets.

The first regular merchants were Henning &
McFarland, in 1813; followed closely by Bureau,
Scales & Summers, on the northwest corner of
Summers and Kanawha streets.

In 1871, the street nomenclature of the city, which
was in a very confused and unsatisfactory condition,
was entirely reconstructed and officially recorded.

In the same year the Spring Hill Cemetery was
established and laid out. It was named from the
Chalybeate Spring, on the hillside, near the Ceme-
tery road.

The same year the Piedmont road was constructed.

In May, 1871, Charleston was first lighted with
gas.

In 1871, the first steam ferry was established here.

In January, 1872, the Hale House, the finest hotel
in West Virginia, was opened. It was destroyed by
fire in 1885. To meet the growing wants of the
rapidly growing city, a.still larger and finer hotel
building is now being erected on the site of the old
one, by Messrs. Ruffner Bros. The accompanying
view of it is from the architect’s drawings.

‘In January, 1872, the West Virginia Legislature
met here.

In 1878, the Chesapeake & Ohio Railroad was
opened to travel. -
 

HALE HOUSE
Trans-Allegheny Pioneers. 315

In 1873, Summers street was paved with a combin-
ation pavement of hard-burned brick, with sand and
board floor foundation, which has proved so satisfac-
tory that no other street paving has since been used
in the city.

In 1878, the United States Government began the
improvement of the navigation of the Kanawha
River, and established the Engineer's office in this
city.

In 1875, Judge Lynch held his first court here.
On the night of the 24th of December, some two or
three hundred men marched orderly into town, took
from the jail three murderers, Estep, Dawson and
Hines, marched them up to the Campbell’s Creek
bridge, swung them up by their necks and quietly
dispersed to their several homes.

In 1875, the “State Capitol on Wheels” was re-
moved from Charleston to Wheeling.

In 1885, it was again returned to Charleston, its
now “permanent location.”

In 1884, the Government Post-Office ba was
completed and occupied.

In the same year, the O. C. R. R., now K. & O.,
was completed to Charleston.

In 1880, the Kanawha Military Academy was
established by Major Thomas Snyder.

In the same year, the Eureka Detective Agency
was established by Captain A. W. Burnett.

About 1883, the Ward patent water-tube boiler
was perfected, and a manufactory established here
by Mr. Charles Ward, the patentee.

Table of approximate population of Charleston at
different periods since its first settlement:
316 Trans-Allegheny Pioneers.

1788 to 1790, seven houses......... say.. 35 persons
1798 to 1800, twelve houses......... say.. 60“
1805 to 1810, twenty houses........ say.. 100 ‘
TS20io2 cise daa wnneinain mann eee as say.. 500 “
10 eee ee ee ee eee say.. 750 “
18402. pennwes sw anaamaiders ewes #5 say.. 1,200 “
1850). +004 a7 eeadereeae nik teteeeies Fe say.. 1,500 ‘“
1860), ciaaaaanenaoewsnares Seseeasake say.. 1,800 .“
TORO es.« doa annetdeiduunaatee ka eRe Rete ® say.. 4,000 “
1880...... ails Huan anitaiaiar ee an oe say.. 4,500 “
USSG ose tnasaaarapencodanagunry Mena say.. 6,500 “

About twenty per cent. of the population is col-
ored.

In 1852, a young lady from one of the Northern
cities, who had been reared amid all the conveniences
and luxuries of city life, came to Charleston to visit
one of her “country cousins.’ Upon her return
home, she reported that the Charlestonians were a
charmingly simple-minded and worthy sort of people,
but with, oh, such primitive ways! “Would you be-
eve,” said she, “that they still preach hell fire down
there, and haul their water in barrels?”

A Water Works Company is now “laying pipe”
and erecting machinery, under the direction of
Colonel E. L. Davenport, and we are promised, by
July next (1886), an abundant supply of the whole-
some beverage that ‘‘refreshes, but not inebriates.”

Last year (1885), the first ice machinery was erected
here, by Lieutenant M. Staunton, so that, henceforth,
our citizens will be enabled to keep cool, independ-
ently of Jack Frost, who, in this latitude, is capri-
cious and unreliable.

In 1884, the City Hall, including the Mayor’s office,
etc., was erected.
Trans-Allegheny Pioneers. 317

 

 

 

THE NEW GOVERNMENT BUILDING.

The first Mayor of the city, under the organized
city government, in 1861, was Mr. Jacob Goshorn.

The first building here for theatrical purposes was
-a temporary wooden structure, with seating capacity
for eight hundred persons, erected by the Hale House
proprietor in 1872.

In 1873, the first substantial Opera House was
built by Dr. J. T. Cotton, Colonel T. B. Swann and
Mr. Joseph Shields, and called the Cotton Opera
House; when the temporary structure above men-
tioned was converted into the first regular livery
stable of the city, by W. L. Moffitt, S. M. Smith,
. and others.

The first dry docks were established at the mouth
of Elk, in 1873, by J. J. Thaxton & Co.
318 Trans-Allegheny Pioneers.

The first machine barrel factory (with capacity for
one thousand barrels per day) was started by Morgan
& Hale, in 1872.

The first foundry and machine shop was erected
by O. A. & W. T. Thayer, on the south side, in 1871.
The first woolen nill had a small beginning by
Messrs. Rand & Minsker about 1866, increased in
1868 by Messrs. Parsons, Appleton & Co., and largely
extended in 1875 by Mr. Frank Woodman.

The first wharf-boat was established by H. W.
Goodwin, in 1865.

The temporary capitol building was erected in
1871; the permanent capitol was partly occupied in
1885, but only completed in 1886.

The first public school building was put up in 1870.

The first steam-power brick machinery was intro-
duced in 1870.

In 1815, Captam James Wilson, who then owned
and oceupied the Clendenin blockhouse, bored a well
near it, for salt water; he struck, at a few hundred
feet, a large yield of natural gas. This is believed to
have been the first natural gas well in America.

In 1859, the Clendenin blockhouse property, which
had then but recently been occupied by Mr. F.
Brooks, and known as the Brooks farm, lying be-
tween the present Brooks and Morris streets, and
back to the hills, was cut up into building lots and
sold out.

In 1862, a company, called the “Charleston Ex-
tension Company,” bought the Cox farm, or, as then
more recently called, the Clarkson farm, and cut it
up and sold it out for building purposes.

Within a few years after, all the property lying
Trans-Allegheny Pioneers. 319

back of the original town, and from Elk up to Brad-
ford street, hitherto farms and orchards, were subdi-
vided into building lots and put upon the market,
and much of it is now built over.

In 1871, Mr. J. Brisbin Walker bought land on
the lower side of Elk, had it laid out in a town plat,
calling it “ West Charleston,” and sold lots.

In 1884, the “Glen Elk Company” purchased the
land extending from the suspension bridge up Elk,
on the lower side, laid it out in building lots for still
another “annex” to the town, called it Glen Elk,
and are rapidly selling lots. So that, altogether,
enough space is now appropriated for building pur-
poses to make quite a large city when it shall all be
occupied; and it has been growing more rapidly
recently than at any former period of its history.

Upon the inauguration of the Civil War in
1861, the following military companies were raised
in Charleston and vicinity, in the interest of the
Southern cause: The Kanawha Riflemen, by Captain,
afterwards Colonel, George 8. Patton; the Elk River
Tigers, by Captain, afterwards Colonel, T. B. Swann;
the Charleston Sharp-shooters, by Captain John 8.
Swann; the Hale Artillery, by Dr. J. P. Hale; and a
Cavalry Company, mostly from the upper end of the
valley, by Dr. Ervin Lewis. These companies formed
parts of the Twenty-second and Thirty-sixth Virginia
Regiments.

Later, several Federal companies were gotten up
in the country round about Charleston, by Captain
Wood Blake, Major L. Martin, Major H. Slack, Dr.
R. H. Lee, Captain Green Slack, Jr., Major Gramm,
ete. These companies were united with the Fourth,
Seventh, Eighth, and Thirteenth Regiments.
320 Trans-Allegneny Pioneers.

In July, 1861, General Wise, then in command of
the Southern forces here, evacuated the valley, and
it was occupied by the Federals, under General J. D.
Cox.

In September, 1862, the Southern army, under
General Loring, re-entered the valley, and General
Lightburn, then in command, retired. There was a
slight skirmish in and about Charleston, and a few
killed on each side, eight or ten in all. The Federals,
before retreating, burned several of our prominent
buildings, among them the Bank of Virginia, the
Kanawha House, the Southern Methodist Church,
the Brooks Store and Warehouse, ete.

In October following, General Loring, and a few
days later, General Echols, again retired, and the
town was re-occupied by the Federals, under General
Cox; and remained in Federal possession, under sev-
eral successive commanders, until the termination of
the war. I shall not attempt a history of the mili-
tary campaigns of the valley during the late war.
This is being done, or about to be dones by more
competent hands.

The first dray and hearse were introduced here by
Noah Colley, an enterprising colored man, early in
the thirties, and for along time he had a practical
monopoly of the town transportation, for the living
and of the dead. Previous to that time the transpor-
tation to and from the river and steamboats and else-
where was chiefly by sleds and carts, drawn by oxen,
and the country transportation was by pack-horses,
on pack-saddles.

The first pottery-ware establishment for manufac-
turing milk crocks, whisky jugs, etc., was by Stephen
Shepherd, about 1818.
Trans-Allegheny Pioneers. 321

The first to carry on the hatter’s trade was Gabriel
Garrou, about 1816.

The first tailor was James Truslow, about 1815.

The first regularly established shoemaker was,
probably, George Mitchell, about 1815.

The wagon and cart makers were not established
in town, but up among the salt furnaces.

Up to 1840, and after, there were few or no mos-
quitoes here, and, consequently, mosquito bars were
unknown.

The first wholesale grocery established here was by
Messrs. Ruby & Hale, in 1872, followed by Messrs.
Ruffner Brothers, in 1876, and Messrs. P. H. Noyes
& Co., in 1883.

The first wholesale dry goods house was by Messrs.
Jelenko Brothers, in 1874, followed by Messrs.
Arnold & Abney, in 1882.

The first wholesale hardware dealers were Messrs.
W.F.& J. H. Goshorn, in 1875, followed by Messrs.
N. Berlew & Co., in 1883.

The first liquor wholesalers were Messrs. S. Strauss
& Co., in 1876, followed by Charles Capito, in 1885.

The first wholesale shoe house was by Messrs.
Jelenko & Loeb, in 1877, followed by Mr. John
Anderson, in 1878.

Near the intersection of Kanawha and Goshorn
streets there seems to have been an ancient burying
ground of some primitive race. The caving of the
bank and occasional excavations expose the remains
and relics of this departed people. I have a hand-
some celt dug up there about six feet below the
surface. ’

Charleston was visited, in 1796, by Volney, the dis-

21
322 Trans-Allegheny Pioneers.

tinguished French historian, philosopher and free
thinker; and, in 1812, by the great naturalist,
Audubon.

Albert Gallatin and DeWitt Clinton were extensive
land locators here “in an early day.”

In the early salt, flat-boating times, here, the boat-
men gave the Kanawha the nick-name of “Old
Greasy,” on account of the petroleum that then
flowed in greater or less quantities from the salt-
wells, and covered the surface of the water with its
beautiful iridescent hues.

Charleston and Cincinnati were both settled in the
same year (1788), the former in May and the latter
in December, so that Charleston is the older by
several months, and is nearly one hundred years old.
(Ninety-eight.)

To go back to the semi-centennial of Charleston,
or half a century ago, and half a century after the
first settlement—say to 1836 to ’38—and give the
names and occupations of the then citizens, who were
worrying themselves over the same social, political,
financial and bread and butter problems that are ex-
ercising us now, may interest some readers, and serve
to pleasurably revive the recollections of those whose
memories go back that far. I therefore give the fol-
lowing approximate list for such as may feel an in-
terest in it:

on Charley-” Brown, ferryman and farmer.
(Scotch) James Wilson, lawyer.

Joseph Caldwell, merchant.

Charles Neal, carpenter.

Gabriel Garrou, hatter.

Jobn Hull, blacksmith.
James Mays, boatman.
Trans-Allegheny Pioneers. 323

Judy Grinnan, colored, washerwoman.

Nancy Gibson, colored, washerwoman.
Henry B. Saunders, hotel keeper and stage runner.
John Snyder, preacher.

George Goshorn, hotel and ferry keeper.
Justin White, baker.

William Hutt, constable.

Silas Cobb, carpenter.

Matthew Dunbar, lawyer.

Crockett Ingles, merchant and salt maker.
John Mays, hotel keeper and builder.
Andrew Beach, shoemaker.

John Wilson, carpenter.

George W. Summers, lawyer.

John and Charles Allen, grocers and bakers.
Aaron Whittaker, hotel keeper and merchant.
Franklin Reynolds, salt inspector.

Samuel Hannah, bank cashier.

Captain James Wilson, hotel and ferry keeper.
Lewis D. Wilson, hotel and ferry keeper.

Mrs. Aletha Brigham, young ladies’ school teacher.
Benj. H. Smith, lawyer.

William Whittaker, Sr., river toll collector.
Thomas Whittaker, merchant and saw miller.
_Norris Whittaker, brick maker and builder.
Dr. Caruthers, physcian and author.

John Hall, blacksmith.

William Honeyman, silversmith and watchmaker.
Garrett Kelley, tailor.

Gilbert Adams, merchant.

James C. McFarland, bank president.

Dr. Spicer Patrick, physician.

Mason Campbell, editor and merchant.

John Truejobn, carpenter and builder.

Rev. James M. Brown, preacher.

Henry Fitzhugh, Sr.

Rev. James Oraik, preacher.

Joseph Friend, salt maker and merchant.

Dr. Thompson C. Watkins, physician.

Isaac Noyes, salt maker.

Frederick Brooks, salt maker.
Trans-Allegheny Pioneers.

C. E. Doddridge, lawyer.

William J. Rand, merchant and salt maker.

Henry McFarland, merchant.

James H. Fry, sheriff and salt maker.

Bradford Noyes, farmer.

James Y. Querrier, deputy sheriff.

Ezra Walker, superintendent James River and Kanawha

improvement.

James L. Carr, lawyer.

James Hendricks, lawyer.

Noah Colley, colored, dray and hearse runner.
Dock & Gabe, colored, coal haulers.

Andrew Cunningham, brickmason.

Thomas C. Thomas, carpenter and builder.
Mrs. Snyder, widow.

William W. Kelley, saddle and harness maker.
William A. Kelley, jailer.

Thomas R. Fife, carpenter and builder.
Alexander W. Quarrier, county clerk.

Mrs. Todd, widow.

James A. Lewis, merchant and postmaster.
Franklin Noyes, merchant and salt maker.
William R. Cox, salt maker and farmer.

Mrs. Chilten, widow.

James G. Taylor, cabinet maker.

John M. Doddridge, bank teller.

James M. Laidley, lawyer.

John Welch, merchant.

Joel Shrewsberry, Jr., merchant and salt maker.
Snelling C. Farley, tailor and steamboat captain.
Dr. Henry Rogers, druggist and physcian.
Jacob Rand, teacher.

John A. Truslow, tailor.

James Truslow, tailor.

John F. Faure, merchant and salt maker.
Joseph Lovell, lawyer and salt maker.

Stephen Shepherd, crockeryware maker.

John Starks, carpenter.

Nelson B. Coleman, merchant, salt maker and steamboat

captain.

Joseph Bibby, miller.
Trans-Allegheny Pioneers.

ey
bo
ou

Rev. James R. Baldwin, preacher.

John G. M. Spriggle, butcher.

Dr. Noah Cushman, physician.

William Hatcher, deputy clerk and jailer.
William Gillison, magistrate.

Mrs. 8. Cook, widow.

Just above the town, to the head of the bottom, lived Black-
wood Chilton, Mrs. Harshbarger, Daniel Ruffner, and the several
sons of the latter: Charles, Joel, Augustus, Andrew and James.

The early settlers of a new locality are generally
an enterprising, wide-awake, progressive people. It
is such people who have the pluck and energy to
sever their relations with an old community and go
to anew; to “go West and grow up with the coun-
try ;” or go West and build up a country. From all
the accounts we have of them, the earlier settlers of
Charleston and vicinity were no exception to this
rule. On the contrary, these characteristics were
probably exceptionally emphasized in their cases;
and for racy, sprightly wit and fresh originality, in
addition to their general intellectual developments, I
doubt if they were excelled by the builders of any
other Western town.

There is still afloat here, handed down traditionally,
a fund of humorous and racy anecdote in relation to
the smart sayings, doings, and practical jokings of
these old worthies that would fill a volume, if gath-
ered together; and there are still surviving a few
connecting links between the past and the present,
who still delight to tell over, and their listeners are
delighted to hear, the oft told stories of these linger-
ing remnants of the rear-guard of the long-ago.

“They were such men, take them for all in all,
We shall not look upon their like again.”
CHAPTER XXXVIII.

DUBLIN.

T may interest the citizens of Dublin, the thriving

railroad town of Pulaski County, Virginia, and
their neighbors, to know something of its history,
and by what steps of evolution the place acquired its
name.

“Tn a very early day” a Dublin Irishman, named
Reed, settled about two miles west of Ingles’ Ferry,
on the road laid out by William Ingles, leading west-
ward. Reed kept a place of entertainment, a black-
smith’s shop, etc., for the accommodation of the early
emigrants, then just beginning to “Go West.”
Being a patriotic Irishman, from old Dublin, he
called his place “ New Dublin;” but all new things in
time become old, and this New Dublin in time
became “Old Dublin,’ in name and in fact. Its
founder died or moved West, and the place was
abandoned. I remember the old buildings, still
standing, in a tumble-down condition, fifty years ago,
but now entirely disappeared. About 1833, a number
of families, among them the Ingleses, Cloyds, Kents,
Wygals, Wysors, Trolingers, Hudsons, Morgans, and
others, wanting a place of worship, each contributed
‘to a fund and built a frame church in the forest, by
a fine cold spring, a few miles from Old Dublin,
located to suit the common convenience of the con-
tributors and the neighborhood, and called it “New
Trans-Allegheny Pioneers. 327

Dublin Church.” In time, this also became old, and
they left off the prefix and called it “Dublin
Church.” The frame building becoming dilapidated,
it was in time replaced by a more substantial brick
structure.

About 1855, when the Virginia & Tennessee Rail-
road—now Norfolk & Western—was constructed, it
passed near this church. A station was located here
for the accommodation of this neighborhood; and
as Dublin Church was the only thing in the imme-
diate neighborhood that had a name, and as the rail-
road people seemed unequal to the effort of invent-
ing a new name, they called it “Dublin Depot;” and
being the nearest station to Newburn, the county
seat of Pulaski County, it was, for a long time, in-
discriminately called Dublin Depot, or Newbern
Station. The name of Dublin, having better sticking
qualities, at last prevailed, however, and, having
sloughed off the suffix of Depot, now stands out as
“Dublin,” pure and simple; and though now the
largest town in the county, I doubt if one of its citi-
zens knows the history of its name, or that it dates
back to the Irishman’s log house, one of the first
west of New River.
CHAPTER XXXIX.

ORANGE COUNTY.

es 1734, Virginia organized the county of Orange,

so called from the color of the soil of that portion
lying east of the Blue Ridge. Orange County em-
braced not only the area east of the Blue Ridge, but
all the indetinite territorial claims of the colony
from the Blue Ridge to the Pacific Ocean.

In 1788, the bounds of Orange were curtailed by
the formation of Augusta and Frederick Counties,
covering all Virginia territory west of the Blue
Ridge, and limiting Orange to the small area lying
east of the Ridge.

In 1748, when settlements were begun west of the
Alleghenies, Augusta County (excepting the com-
paratively small area in the lower part of the Valley
of Virginia covered by Frederick County) included
the same great scope of Western country lately
Orange County.

By the treaty of Paris, in 1763, its western bounds
were limited by the Mississippi River; but, even
then, it covered (excepting Frederick, as above,) the
vast territory now embracing all of the present State
of Virginia west of the Blue Ridge, West Virginia,
Kentucky, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan and.
Wisconsin.

In 1748, the entire white population of this vast
area was but a few hundred souls, all within the
Trans-Allegheny Pioneers.

329

Valley of Virginia, between the Blue Ridge and the
Alleghenies; now, the aggregate population is about

17,000,000.

It may be a matter of curious interest to some, and
valuable as a table of reference to others, to give a
list of the progressive subdivisions into smaller coun-
ties, and the dates thereof, of that portion of this
vast county (and of Frederick) still within the limits
of Virginia and West Virginia, and between the Blue

Ridge and the Ohio River:

AUGUSTA COUNTY AND ITS SUBDIVISIONS.
(INCLUDING FREDERICK.)

Augusta and Frederick

formed...............0. 1738
Hampshire............... 1754
Bottetourt................ 1770
Berkelyinc«..5 dace s os a os 1772
Dunmore................ 1772
Fincastle...............0. 1772
Montgomery ......
Washington....... | a
Kentucky.........f °°°°" 1776
Fincastle abolished |
Bounds of West Augusta

GONE. «doses diate es apes 1776
Ohio County formed...... 1776
Monongalia............... 1776
Youghiogheny*........... 1776
Shenandoahf............. 1777
Greenbriar............... 1777
Rockbridge.............5. 1777
Rockingham............. L77
Hfarrison.......... aeeae as 1778
Hard yes sesiecds sans dione 1786

RUSSO) esis Soe esse eean 1786
Randolph................ 1787
Pendleton................ 1788
Kanawha................. 1789
W.Yth enone econ can Seton 1790
Bathe ctumiaccwaseavax nace 1791
WCC ix suinglsiceeasee SESS e ee 1792
Grayson.............220-. 1793
Brooks... ss.cecds aismadies.s 1797
MORPOEs 20 ccaac s ndeaeens 1799
Tazewell............ 0.005 1799
WO0dGe sconce atye's ausiaie's 1799
Jefferson...........22005% 1801
Mas Otlineuicy vee sdasaxacrone 1804
GIleSe 623 csonendsc 8S boat es 1806
Cabelas so.c50¢ aii seeker 1809
SeOttacesanviasensseidgans 1814
DY CP ics.ah cutie seinen dices 1814
TiG WAS udiaiosGas octeeietearstia-e 1816
PreStoOUs veasscnew ah by nes 1818
Nicholas. sss seiswesesas ys 1818
MOPrgan ese tsar deci nicccmies 1820

 

* Youghiogheny abolished when the State line between Virginia and Penn-

sylvania was settled.

+ Instead of Dunmore, and Dunmore abolished.

22
330 Trans-Allegheny Pioneers.

Pocahontas............... 1821 MHighland................. 1847
Allegheny..............0 1822) BOONE: isc scasseceaercess 1847
LOSADi <4 sis ccwaisvion seanas 1824 Wittes.sc-cccsdsnavaects ss 1848
PABGis code 4etaiinansovbiad 18381 Hancock..............06. 1848
FAV CUE scciuedie od hea eases 1831 Putmam.................. 1848
POV cnndsnacneriasra ans 1831 Wyoming................ 1850
DIM Vth comacaaes et etwas 1831. “Ral€ighiv-.c. acacia. 1850
AEF ¢: (0) oa 183L Upshur ¢.s secs s seceece 1851
Marshall cic: vissasdse se aendie 1835 Pleasants................. 1851
Braxtonlncnansexssteexeaas 1836 Calhoun.................. 1855
Clark@: cucede tee gesdecess 18386 “W186: e205 c8 30504 s04e< us 1855
Mercer.......... 0.0 cee 1837 ROG! isc acineeat «aa Faas 1856
Roanoke................- 1838: Clave: jaicasaeatautne cauaien 1856
Pitlaskae... ciisceunceeieiele doe H839° “LUCK ei a wzcusian congas eddy 1856
Carroll ecccka caaweenagoes 1842. McDowell................ 1858
MarlOMs osc outa aaes ete 1842 Buchanan................ 1858
Wayne socivesaslnadete ave va 1842 Webster.................5 1860
Ritchie: sic<c2eegese verges 1843. “Bland sve sescsesiewassc y3e5 1861
Gilmer: <2 ices acidecevarss 1843 Mineral.................. 1866
Barbours vs nassesmiess ves W843  Gralite:24 25-3.-nahe eoed8 1866
TA ylOP esse ciscdsinsiawniiand dees 1844 Lincoln.......... ........ 1867
Doddridge................ 1845 Summers..... ........... 1871
Wetzel: paoeceauesaaaenens 184 Dickinson...............5 1880
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