USA > New Jersey > Monmouth County > Shrewsbury > A history of Seventh Day Baptists in West Virginia : including the Woodbridgetown and Salemville churches in Pennsylvania and the Shrewsbury church in New Jersey > Part 7
USA > Pennsylvania > Bedford County > Salemville > A history of Seventh Day Baptists in West Virginia : including the Woodbridgetown and Salemville churches in Pennsylvania and the Shrewsbury church in New Jersey > Part 7
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Just why Samuel Fitz Randolph called this village New Salem is not wholly certain. There is a well defined tradition that it was so-called for Salem, in the southern part of New Jersey, with which Samuel Fitz Randolph, as well as some of the members of the Shrewsbury Church, may have been more or less intimately connected, on account of family ties; and the present writer is inclined to accept that as the true explanation, but conclusive documentary evidence in support of that theory is not available.1
Here in the town of New Salem, the new settlers made
I. There is a village by the name of New Salem in the township of Menallen, in Fayette County, Pennsylvania, which was laid out into a village of sixty lots on August 17, 1799, by David Arnold. Why it was called New Salem is not known. Ellis, History of Fayette County, Pennsylvania, p. 658.
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their homes for the purpose of security from the Indians. In the meantime, they selected and purchased farms in the vicinity which they cleared and tilled as best they could under the circumstances, since the necessity previously pointed out, for mutual protection from their red-faced foes, which required them when they went out to do their farm work, to go in groups of several each, working one another's farms in successive order, naturally militated greatly against the best interests of the crops.
As soon as they felt that it would be safe to do so, they moved to their farms. Then they began to extend the limits of their settlement over a larger range of country. The Middle Fork of Ten Mile Creek was occupied from its very head to its mouth at the West Fork River. Several of its tributaries, as well as Lamberts Run which flows into the West Fork a short distance further up the West Fork River towards Clarksburg, supplied homes for several of the families of the new immigration.
Some passed west of New Salem to Long Run, Buckeye Run, Buckeye Fork, and Middle Island Creek down three or four miles below the site of the present town of West Union ; then still further west across Arnolds Creek, to the North Fork of Hughes River, near the site of the present village of Pennsboro.
To the south of New Salem, they took their way up Pattersons Fork over to Greenbrier Run, and the head waters of Buckeye Creek ; thence on to Meat House Fork, and beyon.1 to the South Fork of Hughes River. To the north and northwest of New Salem, they penetrated the deep forests of Robinsons Fork and Flint Run.
Thus from the West Fork River at the mouth of Ten Mile Creek and Lamberts Run, there ran a chain of Seventh Day Baptist homes, practically unbroken, across a belt of country from two to ten miles in width and some forty miles in length, or more than half the distance from the West Fork of the Monongahela River to the Ohio River.
The settlement on the South Fork of Hughes River was detached, geographically, from this belt, but it covered several square miles.
On Elk Creek, which flows into the West Fork River at
-
A QUIET HOUR. ( From a photograph taken in 1900).
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Clarksburg, was another settlement at what it now known as Quiet Dell, situated at a distance of some five miles from Clarksburg ; and ten miles south of Clarksburg was the settle- ment on Lost Creek, which afterwards extended to Hackers Creek on the south and south-east of Lost Creek.
This stream of immigration brought with it the Davises, the Maxsons, the Babcocks, the Thorps, the Brands, and the Claytons, from the Shrewsbury Church. They were either accompanied or followed by the Randolphs from Piscataway, New Jersey; the Bonds from Maryland and Pennsylvania ; the Bees and Kelleys from the vicinity of Salem, New Jersey ; and the Suttons, the Lippincotts, the Van Horns, the Kennedys, the Williamses, the Loofboros, the Battens and others from various points in New Jersey and Pennsylvania.
These people came into a goodly heritage. The surface formation of the country was hilly. It lay at an altitude of from some seven hundred feet, to about thirteen hundred feet above the level of the sea. The ground was covered by an unbroken forest of heavy building timber of the best quality in great variety. The soil was fertile, and the mineral resources vast. Land could be had at from a few cents to a dollar or two an acre.
The new settlers purchased large farms ranging in size from two or three hundred to several thousands of acres. Samuel Fitz Randolph already held lands in Pennsylvania aggregating eleven hunderd acres; and without disposing of them he made an initial purchase at New Salem of two hundred and sixty-six and a half acres. Three brothers, Nathan, Joseph, and William Davis, purchased a tract of twenty thousand acres of land of the original patentee at the rate of twenty-three cents an acre. It was on a part of this purchase that the present town of West Union in Doddridge County was laid out.
The forests were soon converted into grazing lands upon which were produced fatted cattle that were the envy of the cattle markets of the large cities of the Atlantic seaboard. Gradually the timber markets opened up, and the forests of pine, oak, ash, and yellow poplar, with a fair sprinkling of black walnut and wild cherry were converted into valuable merchandise.
Then later, the boundless wealth of coal and oil was
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discovered, so that within the past decade there has been poured into the coffers of the farmers of this region a stream of money aggregating, literally, many millions of dollars, of which our Seventh Day Baptist friends have had a generous share, and, as a result, have become a most prosperous people.
NOTE. In the preparation of this chapter the author has consulted freely, besides the authorities already cited, the following: History of West Virginia. By Virgil A. Lewis. Philadelphia. 1887; The History and Government of West Virginia. By Fast and Maxwell. Morgantown (W. Va.). 1901; Chronicles of Border Warfare. By Alexander Withers. Clarksburg, Va. 1831; Historical Collections of Virginia. By Henry Howe. Charleston, South Carolina. 1845; Notes on The State of Virginia, with additions. By Thomas Jefferson. 1801; et al.
IV.
FRONTIER LIFE IN WESTERN VIRGINIA.
THE Reverend Dr. Joseph Doddridge, a physician and Episcopal clergy- man of Wellsburg, Virginia (now T West Virginia), wrote a book which he published in 1824, entitled, Notes on the settlement and Indian wars of the western parts of Vir- ginia and Pennsylvania, from the year 1763 until the year 1783, inclusive, together with a view of the state of society, and manners of the first settlers of the western country. Although this book was reprinted in 1876, it is very scarce ; and as it contains much that is of interest in this connection, as showing the manners and customs of the frontier life into which the Shrewsbury Church projected itself, when it left its home in New Jersey and sought a new home in the mountain fastnesses of western Virginia, the present writer has quoted somewhat freely from several chapters of Dr. Dod- dridge's most excellent, if somewhat plain and blunt book. In this connection, it should be observed that although Dr. Doddridge gives the year 1783 as his latest date on the title page, the last chapter of his book records events which occurred in the year 1793, four years after the Shrewsbury Church went to that region.1
I. Communication with the outside world was difficult as the postal service was very limited. Of the five hundred and ten (510) post offices in the United States in 1797, there were eight within the present territory of West Virginia, and the one nearest to New Salem was the post office at Morgantown. American Gazeteer. Cf. Transallegheny Historical Magasine. Vol. I. No. 1, p. 111. But "a mail route was established in Monongalia County as early as 1794." Ibidem. Vol. I. No. 2, p. 125.
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The conditions, together with the manners and customs of life as set forth by Dr. Doddridge may then fairly be accepted as typical of those which greeted our pilgrims upon their arrival at New Salem. The book records its author's own personal observations, thus stamping his evidence as first hand and wholly authentic.
WEDDING CUSTOMS.
Of Wedding Customs in Western Virginia, Dr. Doddridge observes the following :-
"For a long time after the first settlement of this country, the inhabitants in general married young. There was no distinction of rank, and very little of fortune. On these accounts the first impression of love resulted in marriage; and a family establishment cost but a little labour, and nothing else. A description of a wedding from the beginning to the end, will serve to show the manners of our forefathers, and mark the grade of civilisation which has succeeded to their rude state of society in the course of a few years. At an early period, the practise of celebrating the marriage at the house of the bride began, and, it should seem, with great propriety. She also has the choice of the priest to perform the ceremony.
"A wedding engaged the attention of a whole neighbourhood; and the frolic was anticipated by old and young with eager expectation. This is not to be wondered at, when it is told that a wedding was almost the only gathering which was not accompanied with the labour of reaping, log-rolling, building a cabin, or planning some scout or campaign.
"In the morning of the wedding-day, the groom and his attendants assembled at the house of his father, for the purpose of reaching the mansion of his bride by noon, which was the usual time for celebrating the nuptials, which for certain must take place before dinner.
"Let the reader imagine an assemblage of people, without a store, tailor, or mantua-maker, within an hundred miles; and an assemblage of horses, without a blacksmith or saddler within an equal distance. The gentlemen dressed in shoe-packs, moccasins, leather breeches, leggins, linsey hunting-shirts, and all home-made. The ladies dressed in linsey petticoats, and linsey or linen bed-gowns, coarse shoes, stock- ings, handkerchiefs, and buckskin gloves, if any. If there were any buckles, rings, buttons, or ruffles, they were the relics of old times; family pieces, from parents or grand-parents. The horses were caparisoned with old saddles, old bridles or halters, and pack-saddles, with a bag or blanket thrown over them; a rope or string as often constituted the girth, as a piece of leather.
"The march, in double file, was often interrupted by the narrowness and obstructions of our horse-paths, as they were called, for we had no roads; and these difficulties were often increased, sometimes by the good, and sometimes by the ill-will of neighbours, by falling trees, and (4)
.(-x81) HORSEBACK WEDDING. I
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tying grapevines across the way. Sometimes an ambuscade was formed by the wayside, and an unexpected discharge of several guns took place, so as to cover the wedding company with smoke. Let the reader imagine the scene which followed this discharge; the sudden spring of the horses, the shrieks of the girls, and the chivalric bustle of their partners to save them from falling. Sometimes, in spite of all that could be done to prevent it, some were thrown to the ground. If a wrist, elbow, or ankle happened to be sprained, it was tied with a handkerchief, and little more was thought or said about it.
"Another ceremony commonly took place before the party reached the house of the bride, after the practise of making whiskey began, which was at an early period; when the party were about a mile from the place of their destination, two young men would single out to run for the bottle; the worse the path, the more logs, brush, and deep hollows, the better, as these obstacles afforded an opportunity for the greater display of intrepidity and horsemanship. The English-fox- chase, in point of danger to the riders and their horses, is nothing to this race for the bottle. The start was announced by an Indian yell; logs, brush, muddy hollows, hill and glen, were speedily passed by the rival ponies. The bottle was always filled for the occasion, so that there was no use for judges; for the first who reached the door was presented with the prize, with which he returned in triumph to the company. On approaching them, he announced his victory over his rival by a shrill whoop. At the head of the troop, he gave the bottle first to the groom and his attendants, and then to each pair in succession to the rear of the line, giving each a dram; and then putting the bottle in the bosom of his hunting shirt, took his station in the company.
"The ceremony of the marriage preceded the dinner, which was a substantial back-woods feast, of beef, pork, fowls, and sometimes venison and bear-meat, roasted and boiled, with plenty of potatoes, cabbage, and other vegetables. During the dinner the greatest hilarity always prevailed, although the table might be a large slab of timber, hewed out with a broadaxe, supported by four sticks set in auger holes ; and the furniture, some old pewter dishes and plates; the rest, wooden bowls and trenchers; a few pewter spoons, much battered about the edges, were to be seen at some tables. The rest were made of horns. If knives were scarce, the deficiency was made up by the scalping knives, which were carried in sheaths suspended to the belt of the hunting shirt.
"After dinner the dancing commenced, and generally lasted till the next morning. The figures of the dances were three- and four-handed reels, or square sets and jigs. The commencement was always a square four, which was followed by what was called jigging it off; that is, two of the four would single out for a jig, and were followed by the remain- ing couple. The jigs were often accompanied with what was called cutting out; that is, when either of the parties became tired of the dance, on intimation the place was supplied by some one of the company without any interruption of the dance. In this way a dance was often continued till the musician was heartily tired of his situation. Towards
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the latter part of the night, if any of the company, through weariness, attempted to conceal themselves, for the purpose of sleeping, they were hunted up, paraded on the floor, and the fiddler ordered to play, 'Hang on till to-morrow morning.'
"About nine or ten o'clock, a deputation of the young ladies stole off the bride, and put her to bed. In doing this, it frequently happened that they had to ascend a ladder instead of a pair of stairs, leading from the dining- and ball-room to the loft, the floor of which was made of clap-boards, lying loose, and without nails. . . As the foot of the ladder was commonly behind the door, which was purposely opened for the occasion, and its rounds at the inner ends were well hung with hunting shirts, petticoats, and other articles of clothing, the candles being on the opposite side of the house, the exit of the bride was noticed but by few. This done, a deputation of young men in like manner stole off the groom, and placed him snugly by the side of his bride. The dance still continued; and if seats happened to be scarce, which was often the case, every young man, when not engaged in the dance, was obliged to offer his lap as a seat for one of the girls; and the offer was sure to be accepted. In the midst of this hilarity the bride and groom were not forgotten. Pretty late in the night, some one would remind the company that the new couple must stand in need of some refreshment; black Betty, which was the name of the bottle, was called for, and sent up the ladder; but sometimes black Betty did not go alone. I have many times seen as much bread, beef, pork, and cab- bage, sent along with her, as would afford a good meal for a half a dozen hungry men. The young couple were compelled to eat and drink, more or less, of whatever was offered them."
"It often happened that some neighbours or relations, not being asked to the wedding, took offence; and the mode of revenge adopted by them on such occasions, was that of cutting off the manes, foretops, and tails of the horses of the wedding company."
"On returning to the infare, the order of procession, and the race for black Betty, was the same as before. The feasting and dancing often lasted for several days, at the end of which the whole company were so exhausted with loss of sleep, that several days rest were requisite to fit them to return to their ordinary labours."
Notwithstanding Dr. Doddridge's declaration that these customs so vividly depicted by him were rapidly passing at the time of his writing, many of them existed in a more or less modified form down to a quarter century ago.1 Doubtless
I. About the middle of the second half of the nineteenth century, "horse- back" weddings were much in vogue in some parts of this country. The bride and groom, accompanied by one or more other couples, all mounted on horseback, the usual mode of conveyance at that time, travelled to the home of some clergy- man, often without previous notice to him, and without dismounting, were married in the public highway, the clergyman standing by the roadside in front of his home. Sometimes the clergyman was overtaken as he travelled along the
A WEDDING GROUP. (From a photograph taken about 1885).
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many distinct traces of them may be found even to-day in the more remote parts of that country.
In continuing, Dr. Doddridge gives the following description of
THE HOUSEWARMING.
"I will proceed to state the usual manner of settling a young couple in the world.
"A spot was selected on a piece of land of one of the parents, for their habitation. A day was appointed shortly after their marriage for commencing the work of building their cabin. The fatigue party consisted of choppers, whose business it was to fell the trees and cut them off at proper lengths. A man with a team for hauling them to the place, and arranging them, properly assorted, at the sides and ends of the building, a carpenter, if such he might be called, whose business it was to search the woods for a proper tree for making clapboards for the roof. The tree for this purpose must be straight grained and from three to four feet in diameter. The boards were split four feet long, with a large frow, and as wide as the timber would allow. They were used without planing or shaving. Another division was employed in getting puncheons for the floor of the cabin; this was done by splitting trees, about eighteen inches in diameter, and hewing the faces of them with a broadaxe. They were half the length of the door they were intended to make. The materials for the cabin were mostly prepared on the first day and sometimes the foundation laid in the evening. The second day was allotted for the raising.
"In the morning of the next day the neighbours collected for the raising. The first thing to be done was the election of four corner men, whose business it was to notch and place the logs. The rest of the company furnished them with the timbers. In the meantime the boards and puncheons were collecting for the floor and roof, so that by the time the cabin was a few rounds high the sleepers and floor began to be laid. The door was made by sawing or cutting the logs in one side so as to make an opening about three feet wide. This opening was secured by upright pieces of timber about three inches thick through which holes were bored into the ends of the logs for the purpose of pinning them fast. A similar opening, but wider, was made at the end for the chimney. This was built of logs and made large to admit of a back and jambs of stone. At the square, two end logs projected a foot or eighteen inches to receive the butting poles, as they were called, against which the ends of the first row of clapboards was supported.
road, and under the friendly shade of some nearby tree, the marriage service took place. Often the horseback weddings were regarded as a sort of adventure, when the bride and groom were likely to be accompanied by a dozen or more couples. At other times it was resorted to as a means of economy, and to avoid display, when the bride and groom were accompanied by but a single couple, or were wholly unattended, members of the family of the officiating clergyman, or of some nearby neighbour, acting as witnesses.
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The roof was formed by making the end logs shorter until a single log formed the comb of the roof, on these logs the clapboards were placed, the ranges of them lapping some distance over those next below them and kept in their places by logs, placed at proper distances upon them.
"The roof and sometimes the floor were finished on the same day of the raising. A third day was commonly spent by a few carpenters in leveling off the floor, making a clapboard door and a table. This last was made of a split slab and supported by four round legs set in auger holes. Some three-legged stools were made in the same manner. Some pins stuck in the logs at the back of the house supported some clap- boards which served for shelves for the table furniture. A single fork, placed with its lower end in a hole in the floor and the upper end fas- tened to a joist, served for a bedstead, by placing a pole in the fork with one end through a crack between the logs of the wall. This front pole was crossed by a shorter one within the fork, with its outer end through another crack. From the front pole, through a crack between the logs of the end of the house, the boards were put on which formed the bottom of the bed. Sometimes other poles were pinned to the fork a little distance above these, for the purpose of supporting the front and foot of the bed, while the walls were the supports of its back and head. A few pegs around the walls for a display of the coats of the women, and hunting shirts of the men, and two small forks or buck's horns to a joist for the rifle and shot pouch, completed the carpenter work.
"In the mean time masons were at work. With the heart pieces of the timber of which the clapboards were made, they made billets for chunking up the cracks between the logs of the cabin and chimney, a large bed of mortar was made for daubing up those cracks; a few stones formed the back and jambs of the chimney.
"The cabin being finished, the ceremony of house-warming took place, before the young couple were permitted to move into it. The house-warming was a dance of a whole night's continuance, made up of the relations of the bride and groom, and their neighbours. On the day following the young couple took possession of their new mansion."
In the chapter on
"LABOUR AND ITS DISCOURAGEMENTS,"
Dr. Doddridge says :-
"The necessary labours of the farms along the frontiers, were performed with every danger and difficulty imaginable. The whole population of the frontiers huddled together in their little forts, left the country with every appearance of a deserted region; and such would have been the opinion of a traveler concerning it, if he had not seen, here and there, some small fields of corn or other grain in a growing state.
"It is easy to imagine what losses must have been sustained by our first settlers owing to this deserted state of their farms. It was not the full measure of their trouble, that they risked their lives, and often lost
A LOG CABIN. ( From a photograph taken in 1902).
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them, in subduing the forest, and turning it into fruitful fields; but compelled to leave them in a deserted state during the summer season, a great part of the fruits of their labours was lost by this untoward circumstance. Their sheep and hogs were devoured by the wolves, panthers, and bears. Horses and cattle were often let into their fields, through breaches made in their fences by the falling of trees, and frequently almost the whole of a little crop of corn was destroyed by squirrels and raccoons, so that many families, and after an hazardous and laborious spring and summer, had but little left for the comfort of the dreary winter.
"The early settlers on the frontiers of this country were like Arabs of the desert of Africa, in at least two respects; every man was a soldier, and from early in the spring, till late in the fall, was almost continually in arms. Their work was often carried on by parties, each one of whom had his rifle and everything else belonging to his war dress. These were deposited in some central place in the field. A sentinel was stationed on the outside of the fence, so that on the least alarm the whole company repaired to their arms, and were ready for the combat in a moment. Here, again, the rashness of some families proved a source of difficulty. Instead of joining the working parties, they went out and attended their farms by themselves, and in case of alarm, an express was sent for them, and sometimes a party of men to guard them to the fort. These fammies, in some instances, could boast that they had better crops, and were every way better provided for the winter than their neighbours. In other instances their temerity cost them their lives.
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