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PENDLETON'S
HISTORY OF
TAZEWELL COUNTY
PSAND
SOUTHWEST
VIRGINIA
1 .: 3
ERKELEY BRARY VERSITY OF ALIFORNIA
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Clarence Selaward
Url Pendleton
HISTORY
OF
TAZEWELL COUNTY AND
SOUTHWEST VIRGINIA
1748-1920
BY WM. C. PENDLETON 11
With Illustrations
1920 W. C. HILL PRINTING COMPANY RICHMOND, VA.
.
LOAN STACK COPYRIGHT, 1920, BY WILLIAM C. PENDLETON
T274
DEDICATED To the memory of my beloved son JAMES FRENCH PENDLETON He was pure in heart, faithful in service, and the embodiment of truth
588
W. O.Barns
S.C.Graham
-
S.L.Graham
Jno.C.St.Clair
A.St.Clair
R.O.Crockett
A.S.Higginbotham
Executive Committee, Tazewell Historical Society, A. St.Clair, President.
H.S. Bowen
Wm.E.Peery
C.R. Brown
R.M. Lawson
Jno.5. Bottimore
H.E.Harman
E.L.Greever
Executive Committee, Tazewell Historical Society, Jno. S. Bottimore, Secretary.
4
PREFACE
WHEN I was first requested by certain gentlemen, who are descendants of the pioneer settlers of the Clinch Valley, to write a history of Tazewell County, it was intended to be a purely local history. But, after giving the proposition careful deliberation, I conceived the scheme which has made it a history of the Settle- ment, Development, and Civilization of Southwest Virginia. with Tazewell County as the central figure. The reason for the adoption of this plan will be obvious to every person who is sufficiently interested to read the volume, for the history of the entire South- west Virginia, Tazewell County included, is, practically. identical. And their history is intimately identified with that of Virginia and of the Nation. as the people who have lived in this region have had much to do with forming and developing the political thought and social character of the State and Nation. In executing this plan, I have separated the book into six distinctly marked Periods, and they are as follows:
1. The Aboriginal Period, which is devoted to that branch of the human family that occupied or roamed over this section of the continent before men of the white race came here to make their homes. And in this Period the origin of the American Indians, together with their social organizations, tribal relations, religious characteristies, et cet., are discussed.
2. The Period of Discovery and Colonization, in which the Spanish Discoveries and Conquests, the French Discoveries and Settlements, and the English Discoveries and the Settlement at Jamestown in 1607, are concisely narrated.
3. The Pioneer Period. This is the most extended Period of the book; and is used to tell who the pioneers were, from whence they came, how they got here, and how they wrought mightily to reclaim this wonderful country from a wilderness waste. The Period begins with the first settlements made west of the Blue Ridge Mountains in 1732, and terminates with the creation of Tazewell County in 1799, thus comprising the settlements made in the Shen- andoah, Roanoke, New River, Holston, and Clinch valleys. and Kentucky.
PREFACE
4. The Ante-Bellum, or Formative, Period, which begins with the organization of Tazewell County in 1800, and concludes with the commencement of the Civil War in 1861. Of the various events mentioned in this Period. the one which treats of the forming and developing of the politieal. social, and industrial thought and char- aeter of the people is, possibly. the most interesting.
5. The War and Reconstruction Period, which embraces the eventful years 1861-1869. In this Period I relate and discuss the potential causes that provoked the Civil War. Detailed accounts of the four raids made by Federal soldiers into and through Taze- well County, and the battles these raids occasioned. are herein written into history for the first time.
6. The Post-Bellum. or Development. Period tells. in brief form. about the immense development of the mineral. agrieultural, and other natural resources of Tazewell County and adjacent sections of Southwest Virginia and Southern West Virginia.
In prosecuting this work my chief aim has been directed to gathering and preserving. in the form of written history, many interesting events connected with the performances of the pioneer settlers of the Clinch Valley and Southwest Virginia, that have been handed down by reasonable tradition, or are to be found in authentie records. But I have found it very difficult to select from the great mass of available material only that which I deemed the most important and essential for the proper accomplishment of my task. To that end. I have earnestly examined the records of Taze- well County, and of other counties with which Tazewell was eivilly connected before it was organized as a distinct county. I have also acquired many facts from the valuable archives. of manuscript or printed form, that are deposited in the Virginia State Library, and have carefully studied many local and general histories that are recognized as reliable sources of information.
My cordial thanks are due. and are hereby given, to the Presi- dent and Secretary, and to the Executive Committee of the Taze- well Historical Society; and to the following named gentlemen. who became my financial backers and made it possible to procure the publication of my manuscript in book form:
S. C. Graham. A. St.Clair. R. O. Crockett, J. W. Chapman, W. T. Thompson, Jno. S. Bottimore. Jno. P. Gose. R. M. Lawson. H. P. Brittain, H. G. MeCall, H. G. Peery, Chas. R. Brown.
xi
PREFACE
Wm. E. Peery. A. S. Higginbotham. W. O. Barns, W. T. Gillespie, Geo. R. McCall. G. S. Thompson, A. S. Greever, Barnes Gillespie. E. L. Greever. C. H. Peery, J. D. Peery, Henry A. Bowen. Henry S. Bowen. J. Ed. Peery, R. C. Chapman. C. B. Neel. Jeff Ward, A. G. Kiser. J. A. Greever. H. W. Pobst. O. E. Hopkins. C. P. Harman. B. I. Payne. Jno. H. Thompson, J. G. Barns. W. R. Bowen. S. S. F. Harman. M. J. Hankins.
I wish to acknowledge my indebtedness to certain gentlemen who have given me valuable assistance, in various ways, in the prosecution of my work-Mr. E. G. Swem, who was for years and until recently the popular and most capable Assistant Librarian of the Virginia State Library. and Mr. Morgan P. Robinson, the polite and efficient Archivist of the Library. These two gentlemen responded so generously to every call I made upon them for assist- ance or information. that I can hardly estimate the extent of my obligation to them.
I am also heavily indebted to Messrs. H. P. Brittain, County Treasurer; A. S. Greever. Superintendent of County Schools; S. M. Graham. A. St.Clair, C. H. Peery and Jno. S. Bottimore for helping to gather material used in my work; and to Messrs. W. O. Barns. Wm. E. Peery and Henry A. Bowen for special substantial favors.
The history has been arranged in as nearly chronological order as it was possible for me to place it. It is hardly necessary for me to say that it has been truly a labor of love to write about the deeds and accomplishments of the splendid men and women who were the pioneer settlers of the Clinch Valley and other sections of Southwest Virginia. And it has been a pleasant task to compile and relate the ways and means that have been used by their descend- ants and sueeessors to bring this section of Virginia to its present social and industrial high position. My earnest hope and desire is, that its people shall continue to advance on these lines until they have attained the most exalted stage of Christian civilization and human freedom.
June 1st, 1920.
WM. C. PENDLETON.
NOTE-The book has been published under very trying circum- stanees, produced. in the main. by unsettled labor conditions. This
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xii
PREFACE
has not only oceasioned delay in getting the history ready for publi- cation. but is, possibly, responsible for most of the typographieal and mechanical errors that appear on its pages. These will be easily detected and corrected by the careful and intelligent reader. There is. however, one error in a date to which special attention is called. It occurs in the sketch of Captain Henry Bowen, Taze- well's most distinguished son, on page 636. He was born December 26th. 1841, and not in "1815" as appears in the sketch. The lines that immediately follow the incorrect date in the sketeh fully expose and correct the error.
CONTENTS
ABORIGINAL PERIOD. Page character, etc. 3-14
I. Origin of the Red men; their distribution, civilization,
II. Nations and tribes north of Mexico 15-57
III. The Indians; their civilization, government, manners, and religion 58-69
PERIOD OF DISCOVERY AND COLONIZATION.
I. Spanish and French discoveries and conquests. 73-84
II. French discoveries and settlements 85-98
III. Birth of American Nation-English Settlement at James- town 99-129
IV. From death of James I to 1676 130-137
V. Bacon's Rebellion and discovery of Shenandoah Valley. 138-151
PIONEER PERIOD.
I. Settlement of Shenandoah and Roanoke Valleys. 155-170
II. The Walker and Gist expeditions 171-185
III. French and Indian war 186-203
IV. Drapers Meadows Massacre and other Tragic Incidents .... 204-217
V. Holston Valley invaded by Indians-The Sandy expedi- tion 218-223
VI. Why settlements delayed in Clinch Valley 224-230
VII. The Tazewell Pioneer settlers 231-270
VIII. Frontiers of Fincastle County invaded by Indians. 271-289
IX. Fincastle men called for Ohio expedition-Indians invade Clinch and Holston settlements 290-310
X. Battle of Point Pleasant-Kentucky opened for settle-
ment
311-334
XI. The Revolutionary War 335-352
XII. First Constitutional Convention-Declares United Col- onies free and independent States-Declaration of Rights and Constitution adopted 353-360
XIII. Kentucky, Washington and Montgomery counties are -361-369 formed
XIV. Clark's expedition to Illinois, and Battle of King's Moun-
tain
370-397
xiv
CONTENTS
APPENDICES-PIONEER PERIOD.
Page
A-Sketches of Pioneer Families 401-433
B-Massacres by Indians 434-468
ANTE-BELLUM, OR FORMATIVE, PERIOD.
I. Organization of Tazewell County 471-485
Il. Boundries and Topography of Tazewell County 486-495
III. Interesting sections of county-The head of Clinch Valley 496-516
IV. Development of political, social, and industrial character of its people 517-529
V. The roads of Tazewell County-Growth in population and wealth. etc. 530-546
VI. The origin and descent of Tazewell County. 547-560
WAR AND RECONSTRUCTION PERIOD.
1. Principal causes of the Civil War. 563-598
II. The Harper's Ferry Insurrection 585-592
III. The Presidental election of 1860 593-598
IV. Virginia holds convention and secedes from Union 599-605
V. What Tazewell did in the war. 606-637
Appendix to War and Reconstruction Period 638-654
POST BELLUM, OR DEVELOPMENT, PERIOD.
I. County recovers from effects of Civil War 657-664
II. Prosperity returns to Tazewell County. 665-672
Appendix-List of men from Tazewell County in World War 1914-army and navy 673-684
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
Page
Osceola, Indian Chief.
24
Sequoya, Cherokee Indian 41
Tecumseh, Shawnee Chief 49
Plum Creek Valley, Tazewell County, Va. 56
Jamestown Tower. 132
Site of Thomas Witten's Cabin 233
Campbell House at Royal Oak 236
Thomas Witten's Fort. 242
John Witten's Cabin 244
William Wynne's Fort
269
Rees Bowen Homestead- 296
Statue of General Andrew Lewis 308
Old Powder Magazine at Williamburg 351
Colonel Wilkinson Witten
403
Samuel Cecil- 405
Rees T. Bowen 408
William Moore 415
Oscar Moore, Jr., on "Rose". 416
Major David Peery. 419
Residence of Major Harvey George Peery.
421
Residence of Major David Peery. 423
Colonel Archibald Thompson 425
First Brick House Erected in Tazewell County. 431
439
Apple Tree in Abb's Valley
450
Rock Under Which Martha Evans Hid
453
Squire Thomas Peery and Son
466
Colonel Henry Bowen 473
First Plat of Town of Tazewell, Va. 474
Court House at Tazewell, Va.
484
Residence of Colonel Wilk Witten
491
Residence of Samuel Cecil 492
Mill in Plum Creek Gap 494
Grounds of Tazewell County Fair Association 497
Town of Tazewell, Section I. 498
499
Gap at Burke's Garden 502
Rev. John J. Greever. 503
Floyd Estate in Burke's Garden 505
Site of James Burke's Cabin 506
Colonel Peter Litz 507
Town of Tazewell, Section 11
Site of Major John Taylor's Cabin.
xvi
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
Page
Captain George G. Gose
508
Major Otis Caldwell
512
Charles Fitzgerald Tiffany
515
Walnut Log from Tazewell County, Va.
527
Loom and Wheels
528
Plum Creek Gap
532
Residence of Colonel Harvey George
533
"Hubble Hill"
534
Main Street, Tazewell, Va.
535
Dorset Lambs from Tazewell County, Va.
537
John Warfield Johnston
539
High School at Tazewell, Va.
543
Major Rufus Brittain.
545
William P. Cecil
599
Judge Samuel L. Graham
600
Captain William E. Peery
607
Walnut Tree at Wm. E. Peery's
608
Captain Charles A. Fudge
610
Dr. John S. Pendleton and Wm. C. Pendleton
612
Home of Mrs. Henry S. Bowen
614
Colonel Andrew J. May
616
Captain David G. Sayers
617
Major Thomas P. Bowen
624
Colonel William L. Graham
627
Colonel Robert Smith
630
Captain Henry Bowen
636
Colonel Joseph Harrison
639
Colonel Titus V. Williams
640
Colonel Edwin Houston Harman
641
Captain D. B. Baldwin
643
Captain John H. Whitley
644
Captain Jonathan Hankins
645
Captain James S. Peery.
647
Captain A. J. Tynes 648
Captain John Thompson
649
Captain James P. Whitman 650
Residence of Thomas Witten, third 657
Doctor George Ben Johnston 659
Doctor Samuel Cecil Bowen 666
"An Old Virginia Road" 670
The Aboriginal Period
Which Treats of the Origin of the American Indians, their Forms of Government, Civilization, Religion, etc.
History of Tazewell County and Southwest Virginia
ABORIGINAL PERIOD
CHAPTER I.
ORIGIN OF THE RED MEN, THEIR DISTRIBUTION,
CIVILIZATION, CHARACTER, ETC.
There is one thing connected with the discovery of America which has been settled beyond dispute by historians; and that is that the American aborigines received their name from Christopher Columbus. When the great navigator started out from Palos with his three little ships, manned with one hundred and twenty men, his main purpose was to travel to India by sailing a westward course. After a trying and thrilling voyage of seventy-one days, on the 12th of October, 1492, Columbus landed on one of the Bahamas, took possession of the island for Spain, and named it San Salvador. He there found a tribe of natives whom he called Indians, believ- ing he had reached the shores of the Asiatic Continent and had landed upon the eastern coast of India.
Much has been surmised and a vast deal written about the origin of the Red Men who were the primitive inhabitants of the American Continent. All historians have agreed that they are one of the older races of mankind, but whether they arc indigenous to this continent, or are the descendants of an Asiatic racc is still not only a matter of dispute but seems likely to remain for all future time an unsolved problem.
Some of the most profound and ardent students of mankind have confidently asserted that the American Indians are a distinct variety of the human race. Among these are Blumenbach, the eminent German naturalist, and Samuel George Morton, the dis- tinguished American ethnologist. On the other hand quite a number of able and celebrated ethnologists, philologists and anthropologists have asserted with equal positiveness that the Indians of both North and South America are descendants of the Mongolian family and came here from Asia. But when they reached this continent or by what route they traveled is completely enveloped in mystery.
[3]
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History of Tazewell County
Dr. Robert Brown, who has been regarded as one of the most accom- plished, as he is one of the latest writers on the subject, in his "Races of Mankind" expresses firm conviction that the American race is of Asiatic origin. He says :
"Not only are the Western Indians in appearance very like their nearest neighbors, the Northeastern Asiaties, but in language and tradition, it is confidently affirmed there is a blending of the people. The Eskimo, on the American, and the Tchuktehis, on the Asiatie side understand each other perfectly."
Modern anthropologists, who uphold the theory of Asiatic origin, are of opinion that the ancestors of the greater part of the American raee came here from Japan. the Kuriles and the regions thereabout. Baron Humboldt. one of the greatest scientists the world has ever produced. after traveling extensively in South America, Mexico, Cuba and parts of the United States, said this about the aboriginal inhabitants :
"The Indians of New Spain bear a general resemblance to those who inhabit Canada. Florida, Peru and Brazil. We think we per- ceive them all to be descended from the same stock, notwithstanding the prodigious diversity of their languages. In a portrait drawn by Volney of the Canadians we recognize the tribe scattered over the Savannahs of the Apure and the Caroney. The same style of features exists in both Americas."
It is a notable fact that the Mongolian east of feature is most pronounced in the Indian tribes nearest the Mongol coasts, that is on our Pacific coast; and becomes less distinct as we trace the tribes eastward to the shores of the Atlantic. And it is a generally accepted historie fact that the tribes on the eastern seaboard gave as one of their traditions that their ancestors came from the West. while the Western tribes claimed that their progenitors came from regions still further West. Though there were at the period about which Humboldt was writing hundreds of tribes among the American Indians, all of them bore a striking similarity of physical structure, personal characteristics, and languages. This similarity of lan- guages led Albert Gallatin to say :
"Amidst that great diversity of American languages, considered only in reference to their vocabularies, the similarity of their struc-
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and Southwest Virginia
ture and grammatieal forms has been observed and pointed out by the American philologists. The result appears to confirm the opinions already entertained by Ponceau, Mr. Pickering and others; and to prove that all the languages, not only of our own Indians, but of the native inhabitants of America, from the Arctic Ocean to Cape Horn, have, as far as they have been investigated, a distinct character common to all. and apparently differing from any of those of the other continents with which we are most familiar."
That all the Indians of both American continents were of common origin is indicated not only by similarity of the structure and grammatical. forms of their languages, but by the strong resemblance of their physical characteristies. These have been described as follows:
"A square head, with low but broad forehead, the back of the head flattened, full face and powerful jaws ; cheek-bones prominent, lips full, eyes dark and deeply set; the hair long, not absolutely straight. but wavy, something like a horse's mane. and like that, of a glossy hue; little or no beard, where it does appear carefully eradi- cated with tweezers; color of the skin reddish or copper, height of the men about the average, but looking taller from their erect pos- ture and slender figure; the women rather shorter and more inclined to obesity, but many of them with symmetrical figure and pleasing countenance ; hands and feet of both men and women small."
Though the learned men who have carefully studied and investi- gated the aborigines of America have differed sharply as to how this peculiar race originated. some holding that it was indigenous and others that it was of Mongolian descent, all such ethnologists and philologists have agreed that it had a common origin. Therefore it has been a matter of surprise to those who have been interested investigators of its history to find that but three of the many nations of the American race had attained any considerable degree of civil- ization when they first became known to the white men.
When Hernando Cortes. in 1519, with his cruelly avaricious but desperately courageous band of Spaniards, invaded Mexico, he found there a large and intelligent nation, ruled over by an emperor, living in walled eities, with sumptuous residences, splendid palaces, and magnificent temples. This people. called the Aztecs, had a code of fixed laws, and were skilled in some of the arts and sciences,
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History of Tazewell County
especially astronomy. They were excellent argiculturists, engaged extensively in mining the precious metals, and exhibited much skill in the manufacture of both useful and ornamental articles. His- torians, from what they deem satisfactory record and traditional evidence, affirm that the Aztecs wandered into Mexico in the twelfth century, and succeeded the Toltecs. another tribe of the mysterious American race. The Toltecs are said to have entered Mexico in the seventh century. Both of these tribes or families had come from the same hive in the North, just as the Saxons, Danes, and Normans, successively, journeyed from Scandinavia and ultimately landed in England.
The Toltecs, the predecessors of the Aztecs, judging from the monuments and other indicia they left behind them in Mexico, and the immense architectural remains of the temples they built in Central America, were more advanced in civilization than were their successors, the Aztecs.
The Toltecs were so skilled in architecture that the name Toltec has been pronounced the synonym of architect. They were skillful agriculturists and introduced maize and cotton into Mexico. In making record of events they used hieroglyphics, and left ample monuments to prove that they were skilled in the arts and sciences. They knew how to fuse metals, to cut and polish the hardest stones, to manufacture earthenware, and weave many kinds of fabrics. It is an astonishing fact that they had knowledge of the causes of eclipses, made wonderful sun-dials, had a simple system of notation, and measured time by a solar year of 365 days. The Toltecs were a people of a gentle, peaceful disposition, but very industrious and enterprising. Their laws were simple but justly administered, and their religion was of a mild form. Why and when they left Mexico has not been definitely settled; but it seems certain that they migrated to Central America, perhaps impelled by the nomadic instincts inherited from their Asiatic progenitors.
In the matter of religion the Aztecs were very much fiercer and more barbarous in their practices than their predecessors, the Toltecs. They believed in one supreme creator and ruler of the universe, but this sublime faith was strangely mingled with a belief that hundreds of inferior divinities existed under the control of the supreme divinity. Not only were the Aztecs heathenish, but they were cannibalistic in the practice of their religious ceremonies ; and they were the only family of the American race who offered up
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and Southwest Virginia
human sacrifices. It is related by historians that in the immediate years preceding the Spanish invasion and conquest of Mexico, the Aztecs sacrificed twenty thousand human beings annually upon their altars. The sacrificial ceremonies were performed by their priests on the summits of their temples, and in the presence of vast throngs of worshipers. A victim was bound to the sacrificial stone, the breast was cut open and the heart torn out. This vital organ of the human sacrifice was either placed before an image of their gods, or, after being cut into small pieces and mingled with maiz, was distributed to the assembled worshipers to eat. It was a kind of sacramental ceremony. This strange admixture of a high con- ception of the Supreme Ruler of the Universe and a sanguinary superstition which induced them to sacrifice human beings to their plural gods puts the Aztecs in a distinct class among the numerous tribes of the American race called Indians.
THE CONQUEST OF PERU BY PIZARRO.
Peru, now one of the Latin Republics of South America, was enjoying its second phase of civilization when Francisco Pizarro, the Spanish adventurer, in 1531, invaded that country with his reckless band of freebooters. There were only one hundred and eighty men in his expeditionary force, of whom twenty-seven were cavalry. Pizarro had been incited to make the daring attempt to conquer a native empire from knowledge of what Cortes had accom- plished in Mexico. He had accompanied Balboa when he crossed the Isthmus of Panama in 1513, and was with that cavalier when he first viewed from a mountain top the great ocean which he named the South Sea, but which Magellan a few years later called the Pacific. Pizarro's ambition had also been greatly excited by rumors that came to him of a wonderful country still further South, where silver and gold were found in as great abundance as iron in Spain. Inspired by these reports, with a small company of followers, he made a visit to Peru in 1526 for the purpose of spying out that country ; and had returned to Panama with satisfactory evidence that the immense wealth of the land in precious metals had not been exaggerated. The generous natives, who had never seen a white man until Pizzarro and his companions visited them in an assumed friendly way, gave him valuable and beautiful ornaments made from gold and silver ; and also liberal specimens of fine cloth, of brilliant
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