USA > Virginia > Tazewell County > Tazewell County > History of Tazewell county and southwest Virginia, 1748-1920 > Part 45
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At this term of the court, Andrew Thompson was appointed Commissioner of Revenue for the year 1801. The assessments within the bounds of the new county had been made for 1800 by the commissioners of Wythe and Russell. Thompson's appointment about completed the civil organization of the county.
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A very important duty then devolved upon the court, that of effecting the military organization of Tazewell. This was accom- plished by the court entering orders recommending certain citizens to the Governor and Privy Council as "fit and Capable" persons to act as officers of the militia. The court recommended: John Thomp- son as Major in the 1st Battalion of the 112th Regiment; John Ward as Major of 2nd Battalion of the 112th Regiment; Archibald Thompson, Hezekiah Harman, and Andrew Davidson as Captains in the 1st Battalion of the 112th Regiment; John Davidson, Ambrose Hall, and John Maxwell as Lieutenants in the 1st Battalion of the 112th Regiment; Elias Harman, John Cartmill, and James Peery as Ensigns in the 1st Battalion of the 112th Regiment; George Davidson to act as Captain, William Peery, Jr., Lieutenant, and William Williams, Ensign, in a Company of Light Infantry for the 1st Battalion of the 112th Regiment; Thomas Ferguson, James Witten, and Thomas Greenup as Captains in the 2nd Battalion of the 112th Regiment; Reese Bowen, Abram Eheart, and William Smith as Lieutenants in the 2nd Battalion of the 112th Regiment, Hugh Wilson, John Cecil, and Samuel Belcher as Ensigns in the 2nd Battalion of the 112th Regiment; Samuel Witten as Captain, Wil- liam Witten, Jr., as Lientenant, and Reese Gillespie as Ensign of a company of Light Infantry in the 112th Regiment.
The 112th Regiment, when organized, consisted of eight com- panies, each with fifty men, rank and file, making a very respectable organization of four hundred fighting men. That they were a splendid fighting force is evidenced by the names of the men who were the commissioned officers. They came chiefly from the pioneer families, and some of them were veteran Indian fighters; while most of them were sons of the pioneers, and had used their rifles in more than one encounter with the red men.
A study of the early court records reveals much that bears upon the social, moral, and economic conditions that prevailed in Taze- well at the time the county was organized. This is why I have written thus much and will write more about the proceedings of the first county court. Preachers were few and far between in the frontier settlements in those days; and it became a public necessity for authority to be given other persons than regularly
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ordained ministers to celebrate the rites of matrimony in Tazewell County. So, I find that the county court on the 3rd of March, 1801, made the following order:
"Ordered that John Tollett be authorized to celebrate the rites of matrimony in this County according to law and thereupon he took the oath of allegiance to this Commonwealth, whereupon he, together with Hezekiah Harman and George Peery his securities entered into and acknowledged their bond in the penal sum of fifteen hun- dred dollars conditioned for the faithful discharge of the trust reposed in him. Thereupon testimonials is granted him to celebrate the rites of matrimony in this county."
At the same time a similar order was entered authorizing David Ward to celebrate the rites of matrimony in the county, with John Ward and James M. Campbell as his securities. Both Tollett and Ward were justices of the peace and members of the county court.
On the 14th of May, 1801, the court entered four judgments to be paid in pounds, shillings, and pence. These judgments must have been given on contracts that were written in English money, though the Congress of the United States had in 1785 adopted the silver dollar as the unit ; and on the 2nd of April, 1792, had enacted that "The money of the United States shall be expressed in dollars or units," the dollar "to be the value of a Spanish milled dollar as the same is now current." and to contain 371144 grains of pure silver. The same act of Congress fixed the weight of the gold dollar at 2434 grains, which made the ratio of value of silver to gold, by weight, as one to fifteen.
When Tazewell County was organized there were no banks of issue in Virginia, and comparatively no paper money in circulation in the frontier counties. A mint had been established at Phil- adelphia under the coinage act of 1792, but very few, if any, of the minted coins had been brought to the remote settlements on the Clinch. There was, however, sufficient specie in Tazewell to con- duct the ordinary business of the inhabitants, most of the local commercial transactions being conducted by barter. The coins in circulation here were mostly of English mintage, with smaller portions of French and Spanish coinage. From 1780 until the close of the Revolutionary War hard money had been plentiful in the United States. This condition was caused by the large disburs-
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ments made by the British and French armies and navies during the closing years of the Revolution, together with the loans nego- tiated by the Continental Congress and our heavy commerce with the West Indies. It is said that the flow of specie from Europe to America was so heavy that the drain was seriously felt in France and England.
The thrifty, industrious citizens of Tazewell had not only become self-sustaining, but had been sending out to the eastern markets large numbers of cattle and horses; and were bringing back in exchange therefor, gold and silver, which did not quickly find its way back to the East. Careful business men in Tazewell did not accept the gold and silver pieces at their face value, but had money scales and weighed each piece to ascertain its actual value. Robert Barns, the Irish schoolmaster, who settled in the Cove, died in 1802; and among his personal effects listed by the appraisers was one money scales.
At the July term in 1801, on the 16th day of the month, the sheriff of Tazewell made his first return on an attachment, which had been sued out by Richard Pemberton vs. Solomon Roe. The return is both unique and amusing, and is as follows:
"Executed on one fur hat, two hunting shirts and one close bodied coat." At the August term judgment was given the plain- tiff against the defendent for three pounds, twelve shillings and four pence; and the property aforesaid was ordered to be sold by the sheriff to satisfy the judgment.
On the 16th of July the court entered its first order fixing tavern rates in the county as follows:
"Ordered that the tavern rates for this county be as follows, to-wit:
For a dinner 25c
For a breakfast or supper. 17c
For lodging in clean sheets (one shilling) 1
For whiskey by the half Pint (one shilling) S
For rum, French Brandy or wine by the half pt. 25c
For Cider, Beer or Mathalgalum by the quart (one) S
For Peach or apple Brandy by the half Pint. 121/2 cts
For corn oats or barley by the gallon (one shilling) S
For stable for hay or fodder for 12 hours. 121/2 cts Fer Pasturage for 12 hours 121/2 cts
TH .- 31
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In fixing the rates to be charged by the tavern keepers the first county court of Tazewell did not exercise arbitrary power, but responded to the requirements of an act of the General Assembly enacted on the 26th of December, 1792. The act was mandatory; and required "every county court in this Commonwealth to set the rates and prices to be paid at all ordinaries within their respective counties, for liquors, diet, lodging, provender, stableage, fodder and pasturage, with authority to increase or lessen the rates at pleasure. This fixing of rates had to be done at least twice in each year.
The first tavern rates fixed in Tazewell were very reasonable, and the bibulous citizens could not complain of the excessive prices charged for liquors. One of the beverages named in the above table of rates, "Mathalgalum," was a peculiar liquor and is unknown in this day and generation. It was something like the nectar of the gods ; and was made of honey and water, boiled and fermented, and often enriched with spices. The Roman name for this drink was "methegline." Pliny in his Natural History, published A. D. seventy-seven, declared it has all the bad qualities of wine but not the good ones. It was a very popular beverage in ancient times, both with the cultured nations of Southern Europe and the bar- barous tribes of the Northern regions. The Anglo-Saxons intro- duced it into England, and called it mead. The recipe for this once popular beverage was brought from the old countries by our ances- tors, but they found no material in the wilderness with which they could make it when they came here. In fact, the honey or live bees were not indigenous to America. They are natives to the warm climates of the Old World, that is, Europe, Asia, and Africa; and were brought to America from Europe by the Spanish, French, and English colonists, became naturalized here, and followed the white men into the forests.
David Ward and Samuel Walker were appointed commissioners at the first term of the court to contract for the building of a jail; and at the September term, 1800, David Ward, Samuel Walker, James Thompson, and George Peery were appointed commissioners to advertise for bids for building a court house. I find that William Smythe (Smith) contracted to build the jail and William Williams the court house. Among the first claims against the county allowed by the court were those held by these contractors. All the out-
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standing claims were as follows and were, on the 11th of September, 1801, ordered to be paid:
William Smythe, for building jail $220.00
William Williams, for building court house 938.00
Joseph Moore, for laying off lots in Jeffersonville .. 12.00
Samuel Walker, David Ward, and George Peery,
for letting out contract for court house. 20.00
Samuel Walker and David Ward, for lettting out contract for jail 6.00
William George, for Brandy at letting out of the building of the court house 1.50
Thomas Harrisson, for Rum and Brandy at selling of the front and back lots 4.16
William George, John Crockett, James Witton, and Thomas Harrisson as commissioners to attend the laying off of the Town lots. 16.00
Hezekiah Harman, for surveying the public lands .. 5.25
Henry Harman, for trouble sustained in holding the first court at his house. 2.00
At the April term of the court in 1802, William Smythe, builder of the jail, presented a claim "for extraordinary services done to said jail amounting to forty pounds and sixteen shillings" There- upon the court "went and viewed the extraordinary services," and were of the opinion that thirty pounds and sixteen shillings was an allowance fully adequate for the services. Smythe at first refused to receive this amount, but subsequently accepted it.
The court house was a frame structure, and must have been a pretty neat and commodious building, as it cost the county about one thousand dollars, though the finest timber in those days was almost valueless. It was erected on the lot where the temporary court house had been built by the citizens in June, 1800, and was used until it was destroyed by fire in the thirties of the last century.
Thomas Harrisson was granted leave at the April term, in 1802, to keep an ordinary at his home in Jeffersonville. This gave the town three taverns, but not more than enough to accommodate the persons who came to town, especially on court days.
The proceedings of the county court of Tazewell, recorded in the first order book, are very instructive as to the character and
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purposes of the citizenship of the county. That the people were intelligent, ambitious and industrious is proven by the deep interest they took in their local affairs, and the dispatch with which the county government was put in operation. The justices were men of high character and sound common sense-a dignified body of patriotic citizens. The county courts in Virginia at that time were given a very extensive jurisdiction. They had "authority and juris- dietion to hear and determine all causes whatsoever, then depending
The present court house of Tazewell County. It is hardly equal in its appointments to the needs and importance of the county, but is a very imposing structure when compared with the little log house first used as a temple of justice.
or thereafter to be brought, or which should thereafter be brought. in any of the said courts at the Common Law or in Chancery, and criminal cases, except such as where the judgment upon conviction would involve capital punishment, and prosecutions for outlawry. This very ample jurisdiction, however, did not inflate the excellent men who composed Tazewell's first county court, or cause them to swerve from what they thought was right in making their judicial decisions. Even when the dignity of the court was involved they were conservative in defending it against contempts, as is evidenced.
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by the following orders entered by the court on the 14th of July, 1803 :
"Ordered that David Waggoner be fined in the sum of five dol- lars for raising a riot in the presence of the Court.
"Ordered that Abraham Davis be fined in the sum of two dollars and thirty four cents for raising a riot in the presence of the Court.
"Ordered that Abraham Davis be fined in the sum of one dollar & sixty six cents for swearing two oaths in the presence of the Court."
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CHAPTER II.
BOUNDARIES AND TOPOGRAPHY OF TAZEWELL COUNTY.
A few years after the creation and organization of Tazewell County, certain citizens of Russell County, who lived on territory adjoining Tazewell County, petitioned the General Assembly to have the line between the two counties so altered as to place the said territory in the limits of Tazewell. The petition was acted upon favorably by the Legislature, and on the 20th day of Decem- ber, 1806, the following act was passed:
"Be it enacted by the General Assembly, That all that part of the county of Russell within the following bounds, to wit: Begin- ning on the top of Clinch Mountain at the head of Cove Creek on the line dividing the counties of Russell and Tazewell, and to run a straight line from thence to Jacob Francisco's Mill, from thence a direct line to Daniel Hortons, (to include his dwelling house in Tazewell,) from thence a straight line to the mouth of Cole Creek, and to extend on the same direction till it intersects the line which divided the state of Virginia from Kentucky, shall be, and it is hereby added to, and made a part of the county of Tazewell."
The county, as then formed, was bounded on the north by Kana- wha County, on the south by Wythe and Washington, on the east by Giles, and on the west by Russell and the State of Kentucky. In 1806 the whole of the present MeDowell County, a part of Wyoming, a part of Mereer County, West Virginia ; and about one- half of Buchanan, and a part of Giles and Bland were embraced in the bounds of Tazewell County. If Tazewell still possessed all this territory, she would be the richest county in the world, as she is now one of the most noted and best in the United States.
Dr. Bickley in his history of Tazewell County, in the chapter headed: "Formation, And Outline Geography of Tazewell, says of the county as it then existed:
"The county is bounded on the north by the State of Kentucky, Logan and Wyoming counties, Virginia ; on the east by Mereer and Giles ; on the south by Wythe and Smyth and on the west by Rus-
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sell. It has a superficial area of about 1,920,000 square acres, or 3,000 square miles, and is traversed by numerous ranges of the Alleghany and Cumberland mountains. Clinch, one of the principal mountains, passes through it in an easterly and westerly direction, about forty miles. This mountain was named, as will be scen in the chapter on mountains, in consequence of Clinch river. Rich mountain passes through the county about twenty miles; it is a branch of the Clinch. Garden and Brushy mountains are in the southern part of the county, the latter being the county line; they run parallel with Clinch mountain. Paint Lick and Deskins moun- tains are also parallel and north of the Rich mountain. They are parts of the same range with East river and Elk-horn, being sepa- rated by the Clinch, in the valley in which stands the town of Jeffersonville. There are no other mountains deserving of notice, at this place, except the Great Flat Top, in the north-east corner of the county.
"The county is traversed by many streams; some of considerable size; the principal of which are Clinch river, Bluestone, La Visee, Dry, and Tug forks of Sandy river and their branches. The Clinch river rises from three springs; the first on the 'divides' about ten miles east of the town of Jeffersonville; the second in the valley between the Elk-horn (now called Buckhorn) and Rich mountains; the third in Thompson's valley, about eight miles south-east of the county seat. The two first unite about one and a half miles east of Jeffersonville, and flow, in a westerly direction, about twenty- five miles, and unite with the Maiden-Spring fork, and thence flow through Russell, Scott, Lee, and a part of Tennessee, and after receiving the Powell river, empty into the Tennessee about sixty miles above Kingston.
"Bluestone creek rises in the eastern part of the county; flows in a north easterly direction, and empties into the Great Kanawha. The different branches of the Sandy River, rising in this county, flow in a northerly direction and empty into the Ohio."
All the mountains mentioned by Bickley, except the Great Flat Top, still traverse Tazewell County, but they are greatly changed in appearance. They have been practically denuded of the splen- did forest trees that crowned their peaks and magnified the won- drous beauty of each mountain side from crest to valley beneath.
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Rich bluegrass pastures are now seen, and charm the eye, where giant poplar, walnut, sugar maple, hickory and other magnificent forest trees grew in abundance. Kent's Ridge, which runs through the county north of the Clinch River, as latc as 1852 was almost a continuous forest for its entire length; and all the ridges in the numerous valleys were similarly wooded. The rivers and creeks are also greatly altered in their appearance. They are not as trans- parently clear, nor nearly as large in volume as they were in the early days of the county. The present condition of the streams is due largely to the destruction of the forests.
THIE MOUNTAINS.
Bickley in his "Descriptive Geography" of the county writes further about its mountains. In 1852, the Jeffersonville Historical Society, headed by the scholarly Dr. Fielding Peery, was in exist- ence, but its valuable records have been lost. From the papers of the Society, Dr. Bickley gained much of his information, and he thus further describes our mountains:
"The principal mountains of Tazewell are Clinch, Rich, East River, Brushy, Garden, Paint Lick. Deskins, and Flat Top. They have an elevation, above the valleys, of about eight hundred feet, and about three thousand above the level of the sea. For remarks upon their geological formation I would refer the reader to the Transactions of the Jeffersonville Historical Society. The general course of these mountains is N. 67° E.
"Clinch mountain, which receives its name from Clinch river, extends through the entire length of the county. It has several gaps, through which wagon-roads pass.
"Rich mountain, so called from the character of its soil, is a branch or spur of Clinch mountain, running parallel to it, its entire length.
""East River mountain, so called from a stream of that name flowing along near its base, begins a few miles east of Jeffersonville, and runs parallel to the Rich mountain to the county line on the east.
"Brushy mountain, receiving its name from the brushy character of its growth on the south side, runs in the same direction as the Clinch, and forms the southern boundary line of the county.
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"Paint Lick mountain is a continuation of the House and Barn mountain in Russell county, and is separated from it by the Maiden Spring fork, of Clinch river. There was once a great elk and deer lick, near its western end, and there are many paintings (still visible), supposed to have been executed by the Shawnee Indians, or perhaps, by the Cherokees. The paintings represent birds, women, Indian warriors, etc. From these paintings, the lick was named, which was soon applied to the mountain. It rises near the western county line and runs in the general direction to near Jeffersonville: it here sinks, to admit the passage of another fork of Clinch river, and again rises, forming Elkhorn mountain.
"Deskin's mountain, so called from an early settler, runs par- allel, and near the Paint Lick, for about the same distance.
"The Great Flat Top, rises from a spur of the Cumberland mountains which traverses the county. It is in the north-east corner of the county, and on it, corner Tazewell, Mercer, and Wyoming counties. It receives its name from a large level area on its summit.
NAMES OF RIVERS.
How the rivers and other streams in Tazewell acquired the names they now bear is an interesting matter of history. Bickley, in accounting for the name given Clinch River makes use of the absurd stories told in his day. He says:
"Clinch river heads in this county and receives its name from an incident which occurred on it in 1767. A hunter named Castle, left Augusta and went to what is now Russell county, to hunt with a party of friendly Indians, who were living on it. This tribe made frequent visits to the settlement, carrying off horses, and such other stock as they could get hold of. A man named Harman, who was robbed of some things, and believing Castle to be the instigator to these acts, applied to a Mr. Buchanan, a justice of Augusta, for a writ to arrest Castle and bring him to trial. The writ was issued, and a party raised to arrest him, among whom was a lame man named Clinch. The party went to Castle's camp and attempted to arrest him, but the Indians joined Castle, and Har- man's party were forced to retreat across the river.
"In the hurry of the moment. Clinch got behind. and while ford- ing the river was shot by an Indian, who rushed forward to secure
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his scalp, but was shot by one of Harman's party. The vulgar tradition is, that an Indian was pursuing a white man, who clinched and drowned the Indian in the stream. I had the former statement, however, from a grandson of the magistrate who issued the warrant for Castle's apprehension."
Both of these stories are without foundation. The river was known as the Clinch to explorers and surveyors seventeen years prior to 1767, the date of the Castle incident, as related by Bickley. When Dr. Thomas Walker, made his famous expedition to Cumber- land Gap and Kentucky, he noted in his journal on the 9th of April, 1750: "We traveled to a river which I suppose to be that which the hunters call Clinche's River, for one Clinch, a Hunter who first found it." Dr. Walker and his party had that day reached the Clinch at some point in the present Hancock County, Tennessee. They found the stream too deep to carry their baggage across with safety on their pack-horses and made a raft to get it to the north side of the river.
Colonel John Buchanan, deputy surveyor for Augusta County, on the 14th of October, 1750, surveyed for one John Shelton the "Crabapple Orchard" tract of 650 acres, and, in his official capacity, recorded in the surveyor's book of Augusta the tract as situated on the waters of Clinch River. This is the same tract of land upon which Thomas Witten settled in 1767. And on the 16th of October, . 1750, Colonel Buchanan surveyed for John Shelton another tract of 1,000 acres located on a "Branch of Clinch River." It is more than probable the second tract was situated on Plum Creek.
The hunters had given the name to the river, "from one Clinch a Hunter," a sufficient length of time before Dr. Walker made his expedition to enable him to recognize it as the Clinch as soon as he came upon it in Tennessee. So it was with Colonel Buchanan when he was in Tazewell in 1750 surveying tracts of land that had been sold by the Loyal Company. He and his surveying party then knew the stream as Clinch River. These two facts, that are of record, not only controvert the mythical stories related from tradi- tion to Dr. Bickley, but show clearly that Tazewell's first historian was in error when he stated that it was in 1766 that the first hunt- ing party came to Tazewell County. It is evident that hunting parties came here some years prior to 1750; and the first party, it
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