USA > Virginia > Tazewell County > Tazewell County > History of Tazewell county and southwest Virginia, 1748-1920 > Part 25
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In some respects it was a lonely and monotonous, as well as dangerous, life our ancestors led when they first moved into this wild, uninhabited region; but there were many things to stimulate and interest those who were brave, intelligent and industrious. They were constantly experiencing thrills that came from contacts with the ferocious animals that lurked in every mountain hollow and valley; and from the still more exciting experiences that came from actual or anticipated encounters with hostile Indians. And there was an excitement, intense and pleasurable, in their task of home- making. There is no greater pleasure to normal men and women than the work of making a home, where they can be surrounded by their children, and enjoy the comforts and beautiful things that are the products of honest, earnest toil. What a delight it must have been to our ancestors. Like happy birds building nests for their young were the men as they felled the trees and built their cabins; and the good women, no doubt, would joyfully sing the old-time songs, in rivalry of the love-songs of their feathered neighbors, as they placed in position their modest household possessions.
There was still another exciting pleasure enjoyed by the pioneers, as hunters. It combined both business and amusement. At the time the first settlements were made, the Clinch Valley was the most cherished hunting ground of the Shawnee and Cherokee Indians. Both of these tribes were very jealous of its appropriation by white men; and, as rival claimants to the territory, had engaged in many bloody contests for its possession.
Though hunting parties from Eastern Virginia, known as "Long Hunters", had been visiting the Clinch Valley regularly for nearly twenty years previous to the advent of the pioneers, and had killed thousands of splendid animals for their valuable hides; and, though the Indians had made frequent journeys to this favorite hunting ground to procure supplies of meat for winter use, there was an abundance of deer, bears, and smaller game animals left here. Small herds of buffalo and a few elk also wandered in to graze upon the succulent herbage, the wild pea vine and the bluegrass, that
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was found in profusion everywhere; and it was truly a hunter's paradise for the first settlers. They hunted the animals I have mentioned chiefly for meat for their families ; but the skins were also of special value as they were used, together with the hides of the otter, beaver, mink, fox, and other fur-bearing animals, to buy powder and lead, iron and other necessary articles from merchants or dealers in the eastern part of Virginia.
The pioneers were all expert hunters, or soon became expert after they reached the Clinch regions. They acquired all the tricks and arts used by the Indians to lure game within range of their rifles, imitating the call of the turkey, the howling of the wolf and the sounds and calls of other animals and fowls. The keen-eyed hunters could easily distinguish the marks or traces left by different kinds of game, and soon became familiar with the haunts of the decr, the elk, the bear, the wolf, and every kind of animal that abided or roamed in the region. All the men were successful hun- ters, but some won the distinction of experts. James Witten, son of Thomas Witten, the first settler, who was only fifteen years old when he came with his father to the Clinch Valley, soon after his arrival was admitted to be the most skillful hunter and woodsman in the settlements; and in the time of the Revolutionary War he became the most noted and efficient scout in the entire region. Dr. Bickley, who obtained much valuable information directly from the sons of the pioneers, wrote in his History of Tazewell County the following interesting story of the accomplishments of the early woodsmen :
"Neither was hunting the mere pastime, devoid of skill, which it now is. The hunter might be considered somewhat of a meteorol- ogist; he paid particular attention to the winds, rains, snows, and frosts; for almost every change altered the location of game. He knew the cardinal points by the thick bark and moss on the north side of a tree, so that during the darkest and most gloomy night he knew which was the north, and so his home or camp. The natural habits of the deer were well studied; and hence he knew at what times they fed, etc. If, in hunting, he found a deer at feed, he stopped, and though he might be open to it, did not seek to obscure himself, but waited till it raised its head and looked at him. He remained motionless till the deer, satisfied that nothing moving was in sight, again commenced feeding. He then began to advance, if he had the wind of it, and if not he retreated and came
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up another way, so as to place the deer between himself and the wind. As long as the deer's head was down he continued to advance till he saw it shake the tail. In a moment he became the same motionless object, till it again put down its head. In this way, he would soon approach to within sixty yards, when his unerring rifle did the work of death. It is a curious fact that deer never put their heads to the ground, or raise it, without shaking the tail before so doing.
"The quantity of game will be apparent when it is known that Mr. Ebenezer Brewster killed, during his life, twelve hundred bears in this county. He died in the summer of 1850, and this statement occurred in an obituary notice."
There was another famous hunter in Tazewell County who was a contemporary of Ebenezer Brester. I refer to 'Squire Thomas Peery. He was called "Squire Tommie" to distinguish him from a number of other Peerys who bore the name of Thomas. His father, William Peery, settled in 1773 where the town of Tazewell is now located, and he was born and reared near the site of the resi- dence of the late Albert P. Gillespie. He was a fine business man and acquired a splendid estate, but was an ardent hunter, bear- hunting being his special delight; and he had a record for the num- ber of bears he killed that nearly equalled that of Ebenezer Brew- ster. If he had devoted more time to hunting and less to his personal affairs, he would, no doubt, have beaten Brewster's record. As it was, he had a record of more than a thousand bears and killed great numbers of deer and wolves.
THE COUNTY OF FINCASTLE ESTABLISHED.
When the county of Botetourt was established by an act of the General Assembly, passed November 28th, 1769, there were but few inliabitants in that portion of Virginia west of the New River, all of which section was made a part of the new county. They were so remote from the place where it was known the county seat was to be located that the act provided that the people "situated on the waters of the Mississippi," which included the few settlers in the Clinch Valley, "shall be exempted from the payment of levies, to be laid by the said county court for the purpose of building a county court-house and prison for the said county." Another important and substantial reason was recited in the act for the exemption of such inhabitants from the specified taxation. This reason was, that the
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people living on the waters of the Mississippi: "Must necessarily become a separate county, as soon as their numbers are sufficient, which will probably happen in a short time."
The General Assembly was acquainted with the fact that many men with their families were on the borders, ready to cross New River and settle on the waters of the Mississippi-that is in the Clinch, Holston and New River valleys-and that some settlers had already moved out to the wilderness country. So, it was found necessary, in less than three years after Botetourt County was formed, to verify the prediction that a new county would have to be provided for the inhabitants living on the waters of the Missis- sippi west of New River. In the winter of 1771-72 the settlers of the Holston and New River valleys presented a petition to the General Assembly, setting forth the inconvenience arising from their remoteness from the county seat of Botetourt, and praying for the erection of a new county. Responding to this petition, the General Assembly, on the 8th day of April, 1772, enacted the fol- lowing:
"I. Whereas it is represented to this present General Assembly, by the inhabitants and settlers on the waters of the Holston and New River in the county of Botetourt that they labour under great inconvenience, by reason of the extent of said county and their remote situation from the court house:
"Be it therefore enacted, by the Council, and Burgesses of this present General Assembly, and it is hereby enacted, by the authority of the same, That from after the first day of December next, the said county of Botetourt shall be divided into two distinct counties, that is to say, all that part of the said county within a line to run up the east side of the New River to the mouth of Culberson's creek; thence a direct line to the Catawba road, where it crosses the dividing ridge between the north fork of Roanoke and the waters of New River; thence with the top of the ridge to the bent where it turns eastwardly; thence a south course, crossing Little River to the top of the Blue Ridge Mountains shall be established as one dis- tinct county and called and known by the name of Fincastle, and all the other part thereof, which lies to the east of the said line, shall be one other distinct county and retain the name of Botetourt."
The act provided for a justices' court to be held on the first Tuesday of every month after the county was regularly organized, and made provision for the usual county officers and public buildings,
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but did not designate any location for the county seat. The Colonial Governor ordered that the county seat should be placed at the Lead Mines, in the present county of Wythe, and where the village of Austinville is now situated; and the name of the county, Fincastle, was received from the country seat of Lord Botetourt, in England.
No reference is made in the act to the settlers on the Clinch River, and, apparently, none of the inhabitants of the Clinch Valley signed the petition. These omissions may have been caused by the fact that the Clinch Valley was then so inaccessible and isolated, that the men who promoted the scheme did not undertake to cross the mountains and present the petition to the settlers, who were scat- tered for more than seventy miles up and down the valley. At the time the petition was prepared and presented to the General Asesembly there must have been several hundred people living in the territory that now constitutes Tazewell County; and as many more were located lower down the Clinch, in the present counties of Russell and Scott. As early as 1770 there was quite a community of settlers in the present Castle's Woods neighborhood in Russell County. The men who formed that settlement were:
Castle, from whom the place received its name; Henry Dickenson, Charles Bickley, Simon Oscher, James Bush, William Fraley, Arch- elous Dickenson, Humphrey Dickenson, James Osborn, William Richie, Jerry Harold, William Robertson, Richard Long, William Bowlin, William Russell, Samuel Porter, Henry Neece, Henry Ham- blin and William Wharton.
John Murray, Fourth Earl of Dunmore, was then governor of the colony of Virginia; and was the last royal governor Virginia had. On December the 1st, 1772, he issued a "Commission of Peace" appointing the justices who were to constitute the first county court of Fincastle County, as follows: William Preston, William Christian, Stephen Trigg, Walter Crockett, Anthony Bled- soe, Arthur Campbell, Benjamin Estill, William Inglis, John Mont- gomery, Robert Doach, James McGavock, James Thompson, Wil- liam Russell, Samuel Crockett, Alexander McKee.
William Russell, one of the above named justices, was from the Middle Clinch Valley. He then lived at or near Castle's Woods, where he erected a fort in 1774 on the land of one Cowan; and later he became very prominent in both the civil and military affairs of the Clinch Valley and of Southwest Virginia, as succeeding pages of this volume will disclose. The first county court for Fincastle was held at the Lead Mines on the 5th of January, 1773, with the T.H .- 17
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following members of the court present and sitting: Arthur Camp- bell, James Thompson, William Preston, William Ingles, Walter Crockett and James McGavock.
The court elected William Preston sheriff of the county; and Daniel Trigg, John Floyd, James Thompson, and Henry Moore were made his deputies. William Preston was also elected surveyor of the county, with the following as his deputies: John Floyd, Daniel Smith, William Russell, Robert Preston, Robert Doach, and James Douglas. Two of the deputy surveyors, Smith and Russell, were from the Clinch Valley, and were then living in the present county of Russell.
John Byrd was elected clerk of the county, with William Chris- tian, Stephen Trigg, and Richard Madison for his deputies. John Aylett was elected King's Council, which completed the civil organ- ization of the county.
From the showing of the records, it seems that the pioneer set- tlers of Tazewell County took no active part in the organization of the county of Fincastle. They were too busily occupied with the building of their homes, clearing their fields, and perfecting them- selves as woodsmen and frontier soldiers to give much heed to their civil connection with the Virginia Government. The upper Clinch settlements were then the extreme northwestern outposts of the territory occupied by white men west of New River; and were directly at the front of three of the favorite war-paths, or trails, that the Shawnees traveled when they came to this section to hunt or make atacks upon the settlers. Being so perilously located, our ancestors on the Clinch were very wise in preparing to defend their homes and possessions against the attacks they apprehended were coming from the red men; and, in doing this, they were rendering a great service to the inhabitants of the Holston and New River val- leys by erecting a strong barrier for their protection from the Indians.
When the first settlers came to Tazewell they knew they were taking a very serious risk of having their families suffer for a time from a lack of proper food; and they realized that a much graver danger would have to be met, that of having their dear ones, and perhaps themselves, murdered by the Indians. The danger of any- one suffering for lack of substantial food, or other creature comforts, in the Clinch settlements had, apparently, disappeared by the time Fincastle County was established; but the perils from Indian inva-
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sions had increased considerably, and, in fact, were imminent. For several ycars previous to 1773 the Northwestern Indians had been exhibiting marked hostility to the Fort Stanwix treaty, by which treaty the Iroquois Nation had assumed the right to ccde all the hunting grounds south of the Ohio to the Dominion of Virginia; and the Shawnees were greatly exasperated by the avowed purpose of the Virginians to extend their settlements along the Kanawha River and from its mouth on down into Kentucky.
A number of prominent men, resident both east and west of the Blue Ridge, were anxious to secure large holdings of the splendid, fertile lands that were known to lie in the lower Kanawha Valley, along the southern banks of the Ohio, and in most of the sections of Kentucky, while the settlers in Clinch Valley were more than con- tent with what they had found here, and were intent upon holding the valuable territory they had already acquired. Among the then and subsequently distinguished men of Virginia who were seeking to locate large boundaries of land on the Kanawha and Ohio Rivers, and in the territory of the present State of Kentucky, were: George Washington, Patrick Henry, William Byrd, Andrew Lewis, William Preston, William Russell, Arthur Campbell, and others. George Washington had already won a leading position in the citizenship of Virginia, and Patrick Henry had just emerged from thriftless obscurity and become famous as an orator and tribune of the people. Some of those who were eager to acquire lands in the unsettled territory were real home-seekers, a few were speculators who desired to accumulate large estates, and many were officers and soldiers who had obtained grants from the Virginia Government for valuable service rendered in the French and Indian War.
Small exploring parties had visited the Kanawha, Ohio, and Kentucky regions in 1773, and had returned to the settlements in Virginia with glowing accounts of the wonderful fertility of the soil and the abundant resources of the unappropriated lands they had traversed. The Indians were well informed, through their spies and hunting parties, of these exploring expeditions ; and reasonably concluded that they were the precursors of an active movement of the white men to take complete control, for settlement, of the entire country south of the Ohio, and to drive the natives from their splen- did hunting grounds. Then began a series of outrages, committed by both the Indians and the whites, that brought a reign of terror to the borders; and the Tazewell pioneers had barely erected their cabin homes when they were required to enter into a desperate
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struggle with the most intrepid Indian warriors then living east of the Mississippi.
Small bands of Shawnees began to make hostile incursions into the Lower Clinch Valley, and during the fall of 1773, according to reports of Colonel William Preston, county lieutenant of Fincastle County, eleven persons were murdered by the Indians in the county of Fincastle. The most notable of the outrages committed was the killing of James Boone, son of Daniel Boone; Henry Russell, son of Captain William Russell, and Drake, son of Captain Drake. Daniel Boone had collected a company of emigrants in North Carolina and from the Holston and Clinch valleys, and had started to Kentucky to establish a settlement. The three young men, or youths, had separated from the party to engage in hunting, and had secured a large number of valuable pelts which they intended to take to market. On October 10th, 1773, they were sur- prised and killed by a mixed party of Shawnees and Cherokces. It was thought that one Isaac Crabtree, a white desperado and outlaw, had provoked the attack; and that the three youths were murdered for purposes of robbery, as all their pelts and other belongings were stolen by the murderers. Daniel Boone abandoned his migration to Kentucky for the time being, and brought his party back to the Clinch and Holston valleys. He remained in this section throughout 1774, and rendered very valuable assistance to the inhabitants of the Clinch Valley while Dunmore's War was in progress.
Early in the spring of 1774 a number of surveying parties made their way to the Lower Kanawha Valley and to Kentucky, where they surveyed a number of large and valuable tracts of land, and entered them in the names of the several persons who had employed them to do the work. Among the surveyors were: James Douglas, Hancock Taylor, Anthony Bledsoe, and John Floyd. The descend- ants of John Floyd have had so much to do with the making of the history of Tazewell County that it will be appropriate to give a brief sketch of the life and career of the pioneer surveyor, which I take from Thwaites' "Dunmore's War:"
"John Floyd was born in Virginia in 1750, and when about twenty-two years of age removed to Fincastle County, and engaged in school-teaching, living in the home of Colonel William Preston. In 1774 he was appointed deputy sheriff (also deputy surveyor) and in the spring of the same year led a surveying party into Ken-
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tucky. Upon his return he joined the Point Point Pleasant expedi- tion, but arrived too late to engage in the battle. The following ycar he returned to Kentucky as surveyor of the Transylvania Com- pany and remained at St. Asaph's till the summer of 1776. Return- ing to Virginia he embarked on a privateering enterprise, was cap- tured, and spent a year in Dartmouth prison, England. Having effected an escape to France, Franklin aided him to return to America, where he married Jane Buchanan, a niece of Colonel Pres- ton, and in 1779 set out for his final emigration to Kentucky. There he built a station on Beargrass Creek, but was shot and mortally wounded by the Indians in 1783. His son John became governor of Virginia."
Colonel George Washington had become greatly impressed with the future value of the lands on the lower Kanawha and in Kentucky. Very largely by his work and influence the government of Virginia had issued large grants to the colonial officers and soldiers who had served in the French and Indian War. Washington was anxious to secure patents for some 200,000 acres for himself and his fellow- officers and soldiers. He had been intimately associated with Col- onel William Preston during the French and Indian War, and had great confidence in Preston's business integrity and sagacity. This induced the future "Father of his Country", and a number of other distinguished Virginians who were associated with him, to place the matter of locating their grants in the hands of Colonel Preston. At that time John Floyd was living at Colonel Preston's and was both deputy surveyor and deputy sheriff of Fincastle County; and he was selected to conduct a surveying party to Kentucky.
On the 9th of April, 1774, Floyd started on his surveying expedi- tion, with eight men as his companions, whom he had collected together at Smithfield, the home of Colonel Preston, which was situated a short distance west of the present town of Blacksburg. One of the party, Thomas Hanson, kept a journal, in which he entered many interesting incidents connected with the expedition; but which, on account of its length, cannot be reproduced in its entirety in this volume. In the first entry Hanson says:
"We left Col. Wm. Preston's in Fincastle County at one o'clock in high spirits, escorted by the Coln. three miles, eight of us being in company, viz Mr. John Floyd assistant surveyor, Mr. Douglas, Mr. Hite, Mr. Dandridge, Thos. Hanson James Nocks (Knox)
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Roderick McCra & Mordecai Batson. We traveled fifteen miles to John McGuffins at Sinking Creek."
Floyd's party, evidently, intended to follow practically the same route the Shawnees pursued in 1755, when they took Mrs. Ingles and the other captives from Draper's Meadows to the Indian towns in Ohio. They overtook Hancock Taylor, assistant surveyor, and his company of seven men on their sixth day out. On the eighth day they passed the Burning Spring, which was situated about fifteen miles above the present Charleston, West Virginia. This spring was then a pool of water, through which natural gas forced its way and kept burning, when ignited, over the surface of the water.
On the 17th day of April the company, then seventeen men, came upon Major John Field and his party of explorers, some nine or ten miles below the mouth of Elk Creek. Hanson says Major Field and his people "informed us, that the Indians had placed themselves on both sides of the Ohio, and that they intended war."
The 19th of April, Floyd and his party saw Thomas Hogg, who was improving a river bottom for cultivation, and Hanson recorded in his journal: "Mr. Hogg confirmed the news we had of the Indians. He says there were 13 People who intended to settle on the Ohio, and the Indians came upon them and a battle ensued. The white people killed 3 Indians (imagined to be chiefs) and then fled. This caused the Indians to hold a council & they are determined to kill the Virginians and rob the Pennsylvanians."
Regardless of the warnings of Colonel Field and Mr. Hogg, the fearless young surveyor and his resolute companions proceeded as rapidly as possible to the mouth of the Kanawha. When they arrived at the point, which in a few months was to be made the scene of the bloodiest battle that had yet taken place between the white men and the Indians, Hanson says in his journal: "At our arrival we found 26 people there on different designs-some to cultivate land, others to attend the surveyors. They confirm the same story of the Indians. * *
* Mr. Floyd and the other Surveyors were received with great joy by the people here."
After resting a day at the place, which now bears the historic name of Point Pleasant, the surveying party divided into two groups and proceeded down the Ohio River. In a few days they reached Kentucky, where they again received from hunters and explorers additional warnings of the threatened outbreak of the Indians; and Hanson notes that "the alarm before mentioned occasioned 4 to
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