USA > Virginia > Historical collections of Virginia : containing a collection of the most interesting facts, traditions, biographical sketches, anecdotes, &c. relating to its history and antiquities ; together with geographical and statistical descriptions ; to which is appended, an historical and descriptive sketch of the District of Columbia. > Part 53
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Braddock's army, in their route to the west, passed through this region : one mile west of the village, on the land of Pushrod Wash- ington. Esq., there is a well dug by them.
The annexed view wastaken in the central part of the village, looking down the principal street ; the public building on the right. is the court-house, recently erected. The town is flourishing, and contains li mercantile stores, a branch of the Bank of the Val- ley, an academy, newspaper printing-office, 1 Presbyterian, I Epis- copal, and 1 Methodist church, and a population of about 1,200
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JEFFERSON COUNTY.
Central view in Charlestown, Jefferson co.
Washington's Masonic Cave is two and a half miles southeast of Charlestown. It is divided into several apartments, one of which is called the lodge-room. Tradition juforms us that Washington, with others of the masonic fraternity, held meetings in this carein. In the spring of 1844 the masons in this vicinity had a celebration there.
Ruins of Trinity Church, Nori cone Parish.
About two miles southwest of Charlestown, near the line of the rail-road to Winchester, in an open, cultivated field, stand the re- mains of an ancient church. It is a venerable and picturesque ruin, overrun with vines, which, clinging in their beauty and ver- dare to the crumbling walls, gently wave in the passing winds. The cedar-wood of the windows is yet sound and fragrant, and on the walls are carved the names of visitors. Its age is unknown. The dead of other generations, who repose at its base. are dospoiled of the monuments that cose marked their resting-place, and gave token to the stranger of the names, and ages, and virtues of the departed.
The Shannondale Springs are situated upon the Shenandoah River near the Blue Ridge. They are easier of access from the
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KANAWHA COUNTY.
Atlantic cities, than any others in Virginia. The cars from Balti- more will convey the traveller, in seven hours, through Harper's Ferry to Charlestown, at which place coaches run to the springs, a distance of fire miles. The scenery of the place is mest bowl tiful and magnificent, to which the engraving annexed by no means does justice.
The late Dr. DE Berrs analyzed the Shannondale water in 1821. An examination was made from a quantity of the solid contents of both springs, obtained by evaporą- tinn. One hundred grains from the principal fountain afforded the following results :--- sulphets of lime, 63 ; carbonate of lime, 10.5 ; sulphate of magnesia. (epson salt,) 23.5 ; muriate of magnesia, 1; murinte of soda, 1; sulphate of iron, 0.3 ; carbonate of iron, 0.7. Gassous CONTENTS :- Brilhantea hydrogen, quantity not ascertained ; carbone acid, quantity not ascertained. SOLID CONTENTE : 30 grains to the pint. TEMPERATURE : 55º of Fahrenheit.
Conformably to the preceding analysis, the Shamondale water may be properly classed with the Sultne Chalabeates, a combination .. the most valuable description in the whole range of mineral waters, and closely resembling the celebrated Bedford waters in composition, operation, and efficacy.
KANAWILA.
KANAWHA was formed in 1759, from Greenbrier and Montgomery : it is about 60 miles long, with a mean breadth of 40 miles. Gauley River unites with New River, and forms the Great Kanawha upon the eastern border of the county. The Kanawha then flows through the county in a ww. direction, receiving in its passage through the county, Elk, Pocatalico, and Coal Rivers. The sur- face of the county is much broken. It is famous for its mineral treasures, salt, coal, dec. Pop., in 1810, whites 10,910, slaves 2,560, free colored 97 ; total, 13,567.
The first settlement in what is now Kanawha county, was made abont twenty miles above Charleston, at Kelly's creek, by a man after whom that creek was named, Ouo of the first setth y was Lewis Tachet, concerning whom, and the marauding parties of Indians that harossed the early settlers, there are many traditions in the Kanawha val . ley. He erected a fort at the month of Cole River, which was destroyed by a party of Indians from the towns on the Scioto, in 1788, when His family were made prisoners. In 1798 there was a fort bailt immediately above the mouth of Elk, on the site of Charles- ton. Among the earliest settlers were also the Morrisses from Culpeper, whose desesud- ants, mostly of the first respectability, now form perhaps nearly a teath of the popula- tion of the county. Joseph Carroll, the Clondenins, John Young, William Droddy, Andrew Donnally, Michael Sec, and John Jones, were also very early settlers. For many years they subsisted chiefly on buffalo, bear, elk, deer, and raccoon meat, and In- dinn corn broken in stone mortars. In the Indian dialect, Kanawha signifies " river of the woods." Pocatafico, a considerable tributary of that stream, signifies " plenty of fat doe."
Charleston, the seat of justice for the county, is 308 miles w. of Richmond. and 46 miles E. of the Ohio River. It is a neat and flourishing village on the north bank of the Kanawha. Charies- ton was named after Charles Clendenin, an early settler, and an owner of the soil forming its site. The first house of worship was built by the Methodists, the second by the Presbyterians, in 1630. and the third by the Episcopahans, in 1835. There are in the
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KANAWHA COUNTY.
place, Il dry-goods and 6 grocery stores, 2 saw and grist mills, a newspaper printing-office, a brauch of the Bank of Virginia, and a population of about 1,500. The district court of the United States is held at this place twice a year. Within the present 043- tury Charleston has arisen from the wilderness. Where, within the memory of man, a few scattered log-buts onco arrested the traveller's eye, he now sees commodious and, in some instances, elegant buildings, the abodes of comfort and refinement. The
View in Charleston, Kanawha county.
Kanawha is here a beautiful sheet of water, more than 300 yards wide, and is navigated by steamboats. The state turnpike. the principal thoroughfare from Richmond to Guyandotte on the Ohio, passes through the town. Fine sandstone and bituminous coal abound in the vicinity.
Terra Salis, or Kanawha Salines, is a flourishing town about 6 miles above Charleston, containing 4 dry-goods and 2 grocery stores, an extensive iron-foundry, 1 Episcopal, I Presbyterian, and 1 Methodist church, and a population of about 800.
The Kanawha salt-works commence on the river, near Charles- ton, and extend on both sides for about 15 miles, giving employ- ment, directly and indirectly, to about 3.000 persons. The view annexed was taken opposite the residence of Col. Reynolds. 6 or 8 miles above Charleston, and gives an idea of the character of the scenery in which the sait-works are situated. The description below (written several years since) is from the pen of a gentle- man, now occupying a prominent office in the government of the state.
It is nearly 20 miles below the falls before the Kanawha valley widens into soure- thing like a plain, and spent its branchfel viste to the eye. The mountains what enclose it on either side become gradually depressed into hills ; and, for the first ime, the dense, dark volumes of smoke which ascend from the salt-furnaces, announce the
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KANAWHA COUNTY.
busy and bustling scene which enlivens the highway to the village of Charleston. What a serne of animation, indeed, contrasted with the deep solitudes from which the traveller has but just emerged. Here he is feasted with a continued succession of green meadows and cultivated fields, teeming with flocks and herds, and adorned by commodious and even elegant mansions. The chimneys of the salt manufactories pour
View of the Sali- Works on the Kanawha.
forth, at short intervals of space, their curling masses of black vapor, while swarms of laborers, and others connected with these establishments, are continually passing to and fro, presenting a pleasing coup d'œil of incessant activity and industry. Nature, indeed, acems to have been prodigal in her bounties to this interesting region. The contignous forests having been almost stripped to supply fuel to the satt-furnaces ; the precious mineral so necessary to human comfort, must have remained for ever useless but fo" the discovery of inexhaustible beds of coal, so convenient of access as to make the cost of procuring it scarcely worth considering. Sometimes, by suitable platforms and in clined culverts, it is thrown from the mountain-side immediately to the door of the manufactory, and when more remote from the place of consumption, it is transported with equal ease, in wagons or cars, over rail-roads constructed for the purpose.
The whole product of the salt district is estimated at 1,200,000 bushels annually ; and this product meist ventasde to swell with the increasing demand, and with the employ- ment of additional capital. It is a curious fact, and worthy of philosophical inquiry, that while the salt water is obtained by boring at a depth of from 3 to 500 feet below the bed of the Kanawha, it invariably rises to a level with the river. . When the letter is swollen by rains, or the redundant waters of its tributaries, the saline fluid, enclosed in suitable gums on the shore, ascends like the mercury in ats tube, and only falls when the river is restored to its wonted channel. How this mysterious correspondence is pro- duced, is a problem which remains to be solved. . Theories and speculation I have heard on the subject, but none seem to me to be precisely consonant with the principles of science.
The discovery of salt water in this region was led to by a large buffalo-lick on the NE. side of the river, 5 miles above Charleston. In this lick the first salt-well was sunk, in 1809.
Several vestiges remain on the Kanawha, which show that the Indians were ac- quainted with and made use of the salt water. Remains of rude pottery are found in abondance in the neighborhood. respecting which there is but little doubt that they din the remains of vessels used by them for the evaporation of the salt water. That the neighborhood of the Big Lick was their favorite resort, is evinced by the traces of their idle hou,a to be found upon the neighboring rocks. A short distance below the Big
44
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KANAWHA COUNTY.
Lick was, some years since, a rock called the pictured or culico rock, on which the natives had sculptured many rude figures of animals, birds, &c. This rock was finally destroyed to make furnace chimneys. Another similar sculptured rock is, or was lately, on the sw. side of the river, upon the summit of the nearest hill. The article annexed, originally published in the Lexington Gezette in 1843, above the signature of H. R. , describes a curiosity peculiarly interesting to the scientific, and promising to have a y nederland in Quence upon the prosperity of this region.
The Cas WELLs or Navawna .-- These wonderful wells have been so lately discoy. ered, that as yet only a brief and imperfect notice of them has appeared in the news. papras. But they are a phenomenon so very enrious and interesting, that a mors com. plete description will doubtless be acceptable to the public.
They are, in fact, a new thing under the sun ; for in all the history of the world, it does not appear that a fountain of strong. brine was ever before known to be mingled with a fountain of inflammable gas, sufficient to pump it out in a constant stream, and then, by its combustion, to evaporate the whole into salt of the best quality.
We shall introduce our account of these wells by some remarks on the geological structure of the country at the Kanawha salt-works, and on the manner in which the salt water is obtained.
The coumr, is mountainous, and the low grounds along the river are altogether allu- vial, the whole space, of about a mile in width, having been at some time the bed of the river. The rocks are chiefly sandstone of various qualities, lying in beds, or strata, from two inches to several feet in thickness. These strate ato nearly horizontal, but dipping a little, as .in other parts of the country, towards the Nw. At the salt-works they have somehow been heaved up into a swell above the line of general direction, so as to raise . the deep strata nigher to the surface, and thus to bring those in which the salt water is found within striking-distance.
Among the sand-rocks are found layers of slate and coal; this latter being also, by the same upheaving, made more conveniently accessible than in most other pans of the country.
The salt water is obtained by sinking a tight curb, or gum, at the edge of the river, down about twenty feet, to the rock which underlies the river, and then boring into the rock. At first the boring's did not exceed two hundred fect in depth, but the upper strata of water being exhausted, the wells were gradually despeved, the water of the lower strata being generally stronger than the upper had ever been. Until last year, (1812,) none of the wells exceeded six or seven hundred feet in depth, Mr. Tompkins, an enterprising salt-maker, was the first to extend his borings to a thousand feet, or more. His experiment was attended with a most unexpected result. He had somewhat exceeded a thousand feet, when he struck a crevice in the rock, and forth gushed a powerful stream of mingled gas and salt water. Generally, the salt water in the well's was obtained in rock merely porsus, and rose by hydrostatic pressure to the level of the river. To obtain the strong water of the lower strata, unmixed with the weak water above, it is the practice to insert a copper tabe into the hole, making it fit tightly below. by means of wrapping on the outside, and attaching the upper end to the pump, by which the water is drawn up to the furnaces on the river bank.
When Mr. Tompkins inserted his tube, the water gushed out so forcibly, that instead of applying the pump, he only lengthened his tube above the well. The stream followed it with undiminished velocity to his water-cistern, sixty feet above the level of the river.
In the next place, he inserted the end of the spout from which the water and gas flowed, into a large hogsheud. making a hole in the bottom to let out the water into the cistern. Thus the light gas was caught in the upper part of the bogshead, and thence conducted by pipes to the furnace, where it mingled with the blaze of the coal fire. It so increased the heat as to make very little coal necessary ; and if the farnace were adapted to the economical use of this gaseons fuel. it would evaporate all the water of the well, though the quantity is sufficient to make five hundred Bushels of salt per day. The same gentieman has since obtained a second gas-well, near the former, and in all respects similar to it. Other proprietors of wells have also struck gas-fountains by deep boring .. In one of these wells the gas forces the water up violently, but by fits, the gush continuing for some two or three hours, and then ceasing for about the same length of time, In another of these wells there has been very recently wrack, a gas- fountain that acts with such prodigious violence as to make the tubing of the well in the usual way impossible ; when the copper tabe was forced dowa drough the mushing stream of brine and gas. it was immediately flattened by the pressure ; and the auger- hole must be enlarged to actait a tube selliciently strong and espacious to give Vous se
1
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KANAWHA COUNTY.
the stream without being crushed. In another well, a mile and a half from any gas- well, a powerful stream of gas has been recently struck. It forces up the water with great power ; but, unfortunately for the proprietor, the water is too weak to be profit ibly worked. It appears from this fret that the gas is not inseparably comected with. strong brine. When struck before good salt water is reached, it will operate injuri- ously, for no water obtained below it can rise at all, nuless the pressure of the gas be taken off by means of a strong tube extending below it.
Several wells have been bored to a depth equal to that of the gas-wells, without striking the gas; the source of which seems to lie below, perhaps far below, the depth of the wells. This light, elastic substance, wheresoever and howsoever generated, naturally presses upwards for a vent, urging its way through every pore and crevice of the superincumbent rocks; and the well-borer's auger must find it in one of the " narrow routes of its upward passage, or penetrate to its native coal-bed, before it will burst forth by the artificial vent.
The ophion just intimated, that the gas originates in deep coal beds, is founded on the fact that it is the same sort of way that constantes the dangerous fire dump of coalpits, and the same that is manufactured out of bituminous coil for illuminating our cities. It is a mixture of carbureted and sulphureted hydrogen. Philosophers tell us that bituminous coal becomes anthracite by the conversion of its blumen and sulphur into this gas, and that water acts a necessary part in the process. Whether the presence of salt water causes a more rapid evolution of the gas, the present writer will not undertake to say; but, somehow, the quantity generated in the salt region of Kanawha is most extraordinary.
It finds in this region innumerable small natural vents, It is seen in many places bubbling np through the sand at the bottom of the river, and probably brings up salt water with it, as in the gas-wells, but in small quantity. The celebrated burning spring is the only one of its natural vents apparent ou dry land. This stream of gas, unaccompanied by water, has forced its way from the rocks below, through seventy or eighty feet of alluvial ground, and will'n (ighty vards of the river bank. It is near this burning spring where the principal gas-wells have been found. But, twenty five years ago, or more, a gas-fountain was struck in a well two bandred feet deep, near Charleston, seven miles below the Beraing Spring This blew up, by fits, a jet of weak salt water twenty or thirty feet lagh. On a torch being ap- plied to it, one right, brilliant flames played and flashed about the watery coluna in the most wonderful manner.
The Hon. LEWIS SUMMERS, (says a Kanawha paper,) was born of highly respectable parentage in Fairfax co., Nov. 7th, 1778. He entered upon the duties of active life during the presidency of the elder Adams. With the ardor which distinguished the Virginia youth at that period, he used his influence to achieve the civic victory which bore Mr. Jefferson into the presidential chair ; and, through a long hfe, adhered to the political principles of his younger days with an undeviating constancy. In 1808, bore- moved to Gallipolis, Ohio, and served for several years in the senate and legislature of that stato. In 1314, he took up his permanent residence in this county. In 1817-18, he served in the legislature of Virginia, and in Feb., 1:19; he was chosen one of the judges of the general court, and a judge of the Kanawha judicial circuit. For some time he was a member of the board of public works of Va. ; and in 1829 he was elected a member of the convention to revise the constitution of the state.
In all these relations his own strong, original, and vigorous mind, has been indelibly impressed upon the times and events with which he was connected. As a judge, he was most able and faithful. As a statesman, his efforts were perseveringly directed to the best interests of his country. Most of all that Virginia has accomplished in the great work of internal improvement, has been ascribed to his exertions.
In that most remarkable assemblage, the state convention for the amendment of the constitution of Va., which sat in 1823-30, the sterling, vigorous, and practical character of Judge Summers' mind made him, before the close of its deliberations, one of the most useful, if not one of the most conspicuous members of that illustrious body. As the able champion of the truc principles of elective government, he, in that assembly, performed services and acquired a reputation which will ever cause his memory to be cherished with warm and respectful aflection by the people of western Virginia.
Mr. Summers died at the White Sulphur Springs, August 27th, 1843. after having been for more than 24 years one of the judges of the general court of Va. He was. interred in Charleston.
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KING AND QUEEN COUNTY.
KING AND QUEEN.
KING AND QUEEN was formed from New Kent in 1691, the third Year of the reign of William and Mary. The Mattapony runs on its sw. and the Piankatank on a portion of its an. boundary. les length is 40 miles, mean width 11 miles. Immense beds of marl run through the county, and furnish an inexhaustible source of in- provement to the soil. No county in the state contains memorials of greater magnificence. On the Mattapony, a beautiful stream, are the vestiges of' many ancient and once highly-improved stats, among which are Laueville, Pleasant Hill, Newington, Mantapike, Mantua, Rickahoe, White Hall, &c., known as the former resi- dences of the Braxtons, Corbins, Robinsons, &c. Cotton and l- diau corn are extensively produced. Pop. in 1840, whites 1,4:6, slaves 5.937, free colored 499; total. 10.862.
The Court-House is near the Martapony, 53 miles su. from Rich- mond. Newtown in the N., and Little Plymouth in the s. part of the county, are small places ; the former, which is the largest, has about 20 dwellings. Dunkirk. now a post-office only, was, 30 or 40 years since, a village of considerable trade ; but its unhealthi- ness and other causes have nearly obliterated it.
This county is the birthplace of CARTER BRAXTON, one of the signers of the Decla- ration of Independence. He was born at Newington, September 10th, 1736. His father was a wealthy planter, and his mother a daughter of Robert Carter, at one time president of the council of the colony. Mr. Braxton, having graduated at William and Mary at the age of nineteen, married Miss Judith Robinson, an accomplished lady, and daughter of a wealthy planter of Middlesex Jis style of living was according to the general mode of southern hospitality of that day, and subjected him to great expense
As early as 1765, he was a member of the House of Burgesses when Patrick Henry's celebrated resolutions were passed. In 1969, when Gov. Botetourt, in consequence vi the bold and spirited measures introduced, suddenly dissolved the Assembly, Mr. Braxton was one of the members who retired to a private room and signed a written non-im- portation agreement. In the next house, he was on three of the standing committees. He was elected a member from King, William to the first Virginia convention, in 1774. At the period of the disturbance caused by the removal of the gunpowder from the magazine at Williamsburg by Lord Dunmore, Mr. Braxton was essentially instrumental in effecting a settlement on the part of his lordship which pacified the excited populace. He was a very active and useful member of the last House of Burgesses ever convened in Virginia by royal authority, and was employed upon the committees of the house to whom were referred the subjects of dispute between his lordship and the legislature. Mr. Braxton was a member of the convention chosen by the people which met in Richmond in July, 1775, and was placed upon the committee of public safety. In December of the same year, he was appointed the successor of Peyton Randolph in Congress, that gentleman having died a short time previous. He was omitted in the election of mem- bers to Congress subsequent upon the Declaration of Independence. But on a meeting of the General Assembly, the first under the new constitution, of which he was a mem- ber, he, with Mr. Jefferson, received a vote of thanks from the Assembly, " for the Plus quence, ability, and integrity with which they executed the important trust reposed in them, as two of the delegates of the county (Fing whiting in the general Congress." He was a member of Congress from 1777 to 17 3, and in 1753. From 1986 to 1731 he was a member of the corner of the state, and from 1794 until the day of his death, Ost. 6th, 1797. Mr. Braxton's services, it will be seen, were highly important : The confidence and attachment of his constituents were unequivocally manifested in every vicissitude of circumstance, some of which were.of the most afflictive kind, even to the close of his life.
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KING WILLIAM COUNTY.
KING GEORGE.
KING GEORGE was formed in 1720, from Richmond county. It lies between the Potomac and the Rappahannock, and is 18 miles ong, with a mean breath of 10: its surface is hilly, and its soif diversified. Its principal products are Indian corn, oats, wheat, tobacco, and some cotton. Pop. in 1840, whites 2,269, slaves 3,382, free colored 276 ; total, 5,927.
King George C. H., situated near the centre of the county, 82 miles NNE. from Richmond, and 76 sw. of Washington, contains about a dozen houses. Port Conway, on the Rappahannock, op- posite Port Royal, and Millville on the line of this and Westmore- land counties, are small villages
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