USA > Virginia > Tazewell County > Tazewell County > History of Tazewell county and southwest Virginia, 1748-1920 > Part 46
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is reasonable to suppose, was lead by a man named Clinch, whose companions named the river in honor of their leader or most popular companion.
With these facts in possession, I undertook, by searching the old records in the State Land Office at Richmond, to discover if any man named Clinch was living in Virginia about the time Dr. Walker made his expedition through Southwest Virginia to Ken- tucky. I found record of only one man of that name, William Clinchı. In Patent Book No. 29, I found a patent recorded, for
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Residence of the late Col. Wilk Witten, son of James Witten, the scout. It was built in 1838, just in front of where James Witten's log cabin stood, is a brick structure, and of a style of architecture popular in that day.
5,300 acres of land in Lunenburg County, which had been issued on November 3rd, 1750, to Wm. Clinch. It is known, from tradition, and also from existing records, that, previous to and after 1750, hunting parties came from Southside Virginia and also from Tide- water to hunt in the Clinch and Holston valleys. They were called "Long Hunters", because they came prepared to stay for several months each trip; and they hunted for profit, not for sport, nor to procure meat as did the Indians. Sometimes they would kill more than a thousand splendid animals on a single hunting trip- buffalo, clk, bear, deer, and other kinds that were valuable for their hides. They would take great numbers of their hides on pack- horses to Tidewater, where they brought fine prices for shipment
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to England and other European countries. It is very probable that William Clinch came from Southside Virginia with the first party of Long Hunters that visited the Clinch Valley; and that the river and the mountain that bear the name Clinch received it from him. The Indian name for the river was Pellissippi.
The Big Sandy gets its name from the many sand bars that were found in the bed of the stream. Different tribes of Indians called it Tatteroi, Chatteroi, and Chatterawha. The Miamis called it We-pe-po-ne-cc-pe-we. The Delawares called it Si-ke-a-ce-pe, Salt River. And Little Sandy was called Tan-ga-te Si-ke-a-ce-pe-we, or Little Salt River. Three of the branches of Big Sandy River had
The first residence of Samuel Cecil, built in 1814. It stands north of and overlooking Clinch River, opposite the mouth of Plum Creek, and is three miles west of the county seat. It was originally a two-story double log house, and was later weatherboarded. The floors are made of yellow locust lumber and are as hard as polished metal. The author's mother, daughter and eldest child of Samuel Cecil, was born in 1815 and was reared, and married to my father, in this house. It is now owned by Mrs. O. E. Hopkins, a great-granddaughter of Samuel Cecil, and is used as a tenant house.
their source in Tazewell when the county was first formed. These were the Lonisa, Dry Fork, and Tug Fork. Since 1858, when Buchanan and McDowell were taken from Tazewell, only one of the branches, Dry Fork, has its head in the county. Bickley said in 1852: "La Visee (Louisa) has many branches in Tazewell, and is navigable for flat-boats, to the county line. The first white man who ascended it was a Frenchman, who found a well-executed design or painting upon a peeled poplar ; hence its name-"l'a" trans- lated, meaning the, and "visee," meaning a design, aim, or repre- sentation. It is sometimes called Louisa fork, from Lonisa C. H., Kentucky, near its junction with the Tug River."
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This river should be called Louisa. Dr. Thomas Walker dis- covered and named it "Louisa River," on June 7th, 1750, when he was returning from his expedition to Kentucky. Captain Dan Smith was deputy surveyor of Fineastle County, and made numer- ous surveys for Dr. Walker, who was the agent of the Loyal Com- pany. Captain Smith made a map in 1774 on which he laid down the headwaters of the Holston, Clineh and Sandy rivers. On this map he placed the headwaters "of a River Commonly called Louisa." As he was then actively engaged surveying traets of land for the Loyal Company in the present Russell and Tazewell counties, it is evident he was told by Dr. Walker the name of the river, "Louisa." Smith's map shows that it is a branch of Sandy River.
East River was given its name by the white settlers, because it flows in an easterly direction. The Miamis ealled it Nat-weo- ce-pe-we, and the Delawares named it Ta-le-mo-te-no-ee-pe.
Bluestone River, among the rivers of Tazewell, is seeond only to the Clinch in historieal interest. This river was so named by the white settlers from the deep blue limestone over which it flows, which tends to give a clear blue color to the water in the stream. It also flows in an easterly direction and empties into New River in the present Summers County, West Virginia. The Miami Indians called it Mee-ee-ne-ke-ke-ee-pe-we; and the Delawares named it Mo-mon-ga-sen-eka-ee-pe, or Big Stone Creek.
Wolf Creek rises in Burke's Garden, passes through the gap, which is the only outlet for water from the Garden, flows down through the rugged breaks between Rich and Garden mountains, enters Bland County and runs on to and through Rocky Gap, thence to New River, entering that stream at the Narrows in Giles County. The early settlers found so many wolves along and about the stream, from its source to its confluence with New River, that they naturally gave it the name of Wolf Creek.
There are a hundred or more ereeks and branches in the present bounds of Tazewell County that have received their names from their peculiar location, or some traditional incident. Owing to their large number, only the most noted ones can be mentioned in this volume.
Laurel Fork, a branch of the North Fork of Holston River, has its souree at the head of Poor Valley, about ten miles southeast of the town of Tazewell. It is a beautiful freestone stream and
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runs a westerly course down the valley some fifteen miles to the Smyth County line, where it turns south, and, after passing through Laurel Gap, empties into the North Fork of Holston about half a mile from the gap.
Great Indian Creek, in what is called the Sinking Waters, has its head about fifteen miles west of the county seat. Its course is southerly to the Clinch, entering that river at a point about six- teen miles west of Tazewell, where the hamlet known as "Indian"
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This old mill is still standing in Plum Creek Gap, about half a mile below the point where the big spring that is the source of the creek gushes from the mountain side.
formerly stood, but where the present thrifty town of Cedar Bluff is now located. A man named Ray and his entire family were massacred by the Indians on the creek in 1788, or 1789; and from this incident the stream got its name. One of the springs at its head petrifies vegetable matter, such as nuts, twigs from trees, etc. I have been shown specimens of these petrifactions.
Clear Fork, a branch of Wolf Creek, heads six miles east of Tazewell. It flows easterly through the narrow, but beautiful Clear Fork Valley for a distance of about twenty miles, and joins Wolf . Creek at Rocky Gap.
Plum Creek is one of the most historic streams in the county,
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and received its name from the large number of wild plum trees the first settlers found growing about its borders. Its principle source is in the gap of Rich Mountain, known as Plum Crcek Gap, about three miles southwest of the court house.
In 1852 the creek that rises in Ward's, or Barns' Cove, was known as Cove Creek. Now another stream bears that name. This Cove Creek has its source in Nye's Cove on the south side of East River Mountain, about twelve miles northeast of Tazewell. It passes through a gap in Buckhorn Mountain, and empties into Clear Fork at the old Peter Dills place. On the 1st of October, 1789, a party of Indians entered the home of Thomas Wiley, who lived half a mile above the mouth of Cove Creek, and made cap- tives of Mrs. Virginia Wiley and her four children. As they were going up Cove Creek the Indians killed the four children, but took Mrs. Wiley to their towns in Ohio. She afterwards made her escape in company with a man named Samuel Lusk.
Laurel Creek is now one of the most noted streams in Tazewell County. It passes directly through the town of Pocahontas; and near its banks the first coal was mined for shipment from the Poca- hontas coal fields. Dr. Thomas Walker, when returning from his expedition to Kentucky in 1750, camped on Laurel Creek, and made a note in his journal of the coal he found there.
Big Creek also has come prominently into notice in recent years. This creek rises in the southern slopes of Sandy Ridge about twenty miles west of the county seat and near the dividing line between Buchanan and Tazewell counties. It flows in a southerly direction and joins the Clinch at Richlands. There are several large coal operations on its upper waters, from which many thousands of tons of coal are being mined and shipped annually.
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CHAPTER III.
INTERESTING SECTIONS OF COUNTY-THE HEAD OF CLINCH VALLEY.
That section of a county where the seat of justice is located is generally the most important, because of the location of the county government at that particular point. The valley in which the county seat of Tazewell is placed has added importance on account of its unexcelled physical beauty and unsurpassed fertility of soil. This valley has a length of seven miles and extends from the west end of East River and Buckhorn mountains to the east end of Paint Lick and Deskins mountains. It is bounded on the south by Rich Mountain and on the north by Kent's Ridge; and, with the northern slopes of the mountain and the southern slopes of the Ridge. included, has an average width of about four miles. Within these bounds there are about 18,000 acres of as good land as can be found anywhere on the North American Continent. The main fork of Clinch River meanders through it. Plum Creek heads in a gap of Rich Mountain. about three miles south of the town of Tazewell and flows a northerly course across the valley, joining the Clinch about a half a mile above the place where the first settler, Thomas Witten, built his cabin. Cavitt's Creck finds its source in the southern slopes. of Stony Ridge, runs through a gap in Kent's Ridge, and unites with the Clinch, a mile above the mouth of Plum Creek. Scores of limpid branches flow down from the mountains, ridges and hills and find their way into the river, or into one or the other of the two above named creeks. Thousands of crystal springs burst forth from the mountains, ridges and hills and even in the lowlands, and are the sources of the numerous branches that create the crecks and the historic Clinch River. It is impossible to find anywhere on the earth the same quantity and quality of land that is more abundantly supplied with pure, flowing water.
It was in this immediate section of Tazewell that the first set- tlers-the Wittens, the Harmans. the Peerys, the Wynnes, the Cecils, and others-located with their families. Two of the first three forts built by the pioneers of the Clinch Valley, were erected in this area-Thomas Witten's, at the "Crabapple Orchard," and William Wynne's, at "Locust Hill."
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The scenic grandeur of this particular valley and the mountains that encompass it, is beyond description. Its most conspicuous and gigantic feature is Dial Rock. This rock is the face of one of the three heads of East River Mountain that stand at the eastern extremity of the valley. It is composed of several cliffs, which, viewed from a distance, present the appearance of a single rock. How it received its name is not known. There is an old story, handed down by tradition, that in the pioneer days a natural sun-dial, which correctly measured the time of day, was found upon the roek. It
This exquisitely beautiful "scene shows the Exhibition Grounds of the Tazewell Fair Association with the Fair in full swing. In the background can be seen the two principal faces of East River Moun- tain. The tall peak at the right is crowned and faced with Dial Rock.
is more reasonable to believe that it got its name from the man named Dial, who was living in that vicinity, and was killed by the Indians on the 11th of April, 1786.
The summit of the rocks is about fifteen hundred feet above the valley and the Clinch River, which stream flows not very far from the base of the mountain. Dr. Bickley, who scaled the cliffs in 1852, made an estimate of their elevation, and he says: "These cliffs are from one hundred and fifty to two hundred and fifty feet above the common level of the mountain; and seem as if some internal commotion had started them from the bowels of the earth, to awe and affright the eye that should dare look from their tops."
The view from the pinacle of Dial Rock is very extensive and T.H .- 32
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ravishingly beautiful. Bickley, who stood upon the "sixth rock" sixty-seven years ago, thus describes the view one has from the height :
"Mountains rise above mountains, in endless succession, till far in the smoky distance his vision ceases to distinguish the faint out- line of the Cumberland and the Tennessee mountains. Looking to the north he sees the great Flat Top, from which others gradually fade into indistinctness, and in imagination seems to say, There,
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View of a portion of the town of Tazewell. Wynne's Peak is seen in the background. The location of the town is physically of such a character as to make it impossible to get a complete view of the place in one picture.
there is the valley of the beautiful Ohio-the garden of commerce and industry. To the west, rises Morris' Knob, the highest point of Rich mountain, its summit kissing the very clouds, and seeming to bid defiance to the storms of heaven. To the right, rise Paint Lick and Deskins mountains, and nearly behind them, the rocky peaks of House and Barn mountains, in Russell county. Far in the distance, are seen ranges of Clinch mountain and its various spurs. To the left, is seen Wolf Creek Knob, a continuation of Rich mountain. Close at hand, the rocky sides and top of Elkhorn (Buckhorn), and far in the distance, ridges of the Alleghany range. From this beautiful scene the eye is directed down to the valley
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when a disposition to shrink back is felt. * * The scene, in the distance, is beautiful beyond description. The scene around him is sublime beyond conception. It is beyond the power of the wildest imagination to picture half its grandeur."
Dr. Bickley failed to mention "The Peak," which towers above the town of Tazewell. This peak was known in the early days of the county as Wynne's Peak, receiving its name from William Wynne, the pioneer; and the name should be restored. The sum-
View of another section of the town of Tazewell. Rich Mountain is visible at the eastern background of the picture.
mit is 4,250 feet above sea level and has an elevation of 1,716 feet above the town which is nestled at the base of Rich Mountain. From its lofty pinacle the view is equally as far-reaching and entrancing as that one gets from Dial Rock. Persons who have climbed the peak at the end of Paint Lick Mountain, say that the view of the valley from that point is more exquisitely beautiful than it is from either Dial Rock or Wynne's Peak.
The Clinch Valley Branch of the Norfolk & Western Railway runs east and west through the valley its entire length. Two splendid modern macadam roads pass through it from east to west-
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one hugging the foot hills of Rich Mountain, and passing through the county seat-and the other running along Clineh River, and passing through North Tazewell. There are two incorporated towns-Tazewell and North Tazewell-in the valley.
When the pioneers came to this valley it was the habitat of a large variety of wild animals. It was the home of the buffalo, elk, black bear, Virginia or white-tailed deer, panther, wolf, otter, beaver, red and gray fox, and many other kinds of small animals. Of the larger animals none but the bear and an occasional deer are now ever found in the limits of the county.
There had existed in this same valley, many thousands of years before the coming of the pioneers, another variety of animals. The mastodon, nearly allied to the elephant of the present age, once lived in this valley and fed upon the abundant herbage that then grew here. This was during what Sir Charles Lyell, the emi- nent geologist, named the post-pliocene period; but he and other geologists have failed to reckon how many thousands of years have passed since that period ended. Fragmentary fossil remains of the mastodon have been found at several points in this valley. Some years ago when a ditch was being dug near the present resi- dence of Mr. J. P. Kroll, in the town of Tazewell, several fossil teeth of a mastodon were unearthed. In 1893 the late Andrew M. Peery, when having a ditch dug in the meadow near the sulphur spring on his father's, the late Captain Wm. E. Peery's, place, .c. came upon the fragmentary fossil remains of a four-tusked mastodon : (tricophodon Mioeene). He secured and carefully preserved con-, siderable parts of an upper and of a lower tusk, and also severa of the large teeth of the huge beast. They are still kept in the" cabinet of the late Captain Wm. E. Peery.
Similiar remains have been found in the recently discovered asphalt pits at Los Angeles, California. The most notable con- tempary mammals of the four-tusked elephant or mastodon were: the saber-toothed tigers, lions, giant wolves, immense cave bears, large wild horses, camels, mammoths with tusks 15 feet long, and giant ground sloths. These and many other species, large and small, in great numbers, onee lived on the plains of Southern California. It is more than possible that the same animals were abundant here at the same period.
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BURKE'S GARDEN.
That splendid section of Tazewell called Burke's Garden, though lying outside the great Clinch Valley, is considered by many persons the finest section of the county. It is also a region of mueh historic importance. In preceding chapters it has been told how the beau- tiful basin got its name from James Burke, the pioneer hunter; and elsewhere in this volume I have related many interesting ineidents connected with its discovery and settlement. Several years ago Mr. E. L. Greever, who is now one of the most prominent lawyers ¿. of Tazewell's able bar, wrote an excellent sketeh of Burke's Garden, which, for some reason, was never published, though very merito- rious and complete. Mr. Greever was born and reared in the Garden. and his ancestors were among its earliest settlers. His knowledge of the Garden is so ample and accurate that I have concluded. to adopt his description of its physical beauties and outlines. It is as follows:
"Burke's Garden is not a valley in the ordinary sense of the term. It is rather a basin. Clinch Mountain is an unbroken range for many miles between Thompson Valley and Poor Valley. Towards the east it rises in altitude until it suddenly stops in the jumble of mountains called Bear Town. Here, is one of the highest points in Virginia, nearly 4,800 feet above the level of the sea. From this highest point, the mountain extends away in a grand sweep to the north and east, and away in another grand sweep to the south and east, until the two branches are again united, many miles away, in Round Mountain. Burke's Garden is thus a basin, a cup whose rim is an unbroken range of mountains. From northeast to south- east it is ten miles long, and from southeast to northwest it is five miles wide. Only one natural opening in this massive fenee exists, and through it all the water passes out to the sea. This opening is an abrupt, deep notch, cut straight through the mountain. The pass is strewn with great boulders, the wreckage left by the long contest of water and stone. Men have made other roads into the valley, but this is the one mighty gateway constructed by nature.
"Many theories as to the formation of Burke's Garden have been advanced. By many it is believed that in the general upheaval of the country, this place was left much as it is now, that the basin was soon filled with water, and that the water finally broken through
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the barrier that held it, leaving the fertile bed of the lake to become, in time, a beautiful valley.
"Others maintain that the upheaval broke up the hard sand- stone over a large area, but left it intact on the mountain sides, and that erosion has made Burke's Garden.
"It has been suggested that the rim of mountains now marks the outline of the base of what was once an immense peak, and that the top of the peak being soft was gradually worn away.
The Gap which is the only natural outlet from Burke's Garden. When the photo was made of this scene the ground was covered with a deep snow. The stream shown is Wolf Creek, and has its source in the Garden. It was once a fine trout stream, and the author caught his first "speckled beauty," in this creek, about a fourth of a mile below the mill, in March, 1863.
After awhile the hard sandstone was reached and wearing away process on the outside was stopped. The upheavel of the peak having broken up the strata, the process of disintegration went on over the space where the strata were so broken. Thus the hard rim was left while the softer rocks of the interior of the peak, the lime- stones, gradually wore away until the present state of things resulted. In support of this last theory, attention is called by its advocates to the remarkable fact that the dip of the strata all the way around this mountain rim is toward the outside, very much
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as if the giant force had pushed up the horizontal strata until they sloped away alike in all directions.
"Its altitude, nearly thirty-two hundred feet above sea level, makes the climate cooler ordinarily than the surrounding country, and the seasons in the valley later. The days are seldom uncom- fortably warm in summer and the nights are never oppressive. * *
* When the first settlers reached the place they found the climate extremely cold. Corn and wheat would not mature. Wheat
Rev. John J. Greever was born in Burke's Garden in 1811 and died in June, 1877. He was a minister of the Evangelical Lutheran Church, was an able theologian and a splendid pulpit orator. He was a grandson of Philip Greever, the man who fired the first shot at the battle of King's Mountain.
bread was a luxury enjoyed only on Sundays and the flour was pur- chased on Wolf Creek. Frosts came late in the spring and early in the fall. Fruits, such as apples, peaches, &c., were unknown. Rye did remarkably well. The potato found here, its ideal home.
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"The Indians called Burke's Garden "The Great Swamp.' The name, as were most Indians names, was descriptive and peculiarly appropriate. The whole expanse of level land, now the very finest of bluegrass pasture, was then wet and almost a bog. This was caused by the dense undergrowth, for the whole country is of lime-
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stone formation and is unusually well drained naturally. One man yet living, remembers the time when a bridle path ran through the woods from 'the Gap' to the place where the road to Ceres now erosses the mountain; and he says that the horses had made in the 'mud a succession of steps which closely resembled a stairway. There existed an idea among the first settlers that this broad expanse of level land was too wet and swampy for farming purposes; in fact, they regarded it as hardly worth clearing and we find many of them, under this delusion, establishing their homes along the central ridge and clearing far inferior lands."
Mr. Greever gives very little credence to some of the traditions that have been handed down through several generations about Burke's discovery of the Garden, especially the one which tells of the hunter's pursuit of a monster Elk from Elk Creek, in Grayson County, on. across Cripple Creek, in Wythe County, over three mountains into the Garden, and thenee across mountains and ridges to Elkhorn, in what is now West Virginia. However, Mr. Greever does give credit to the story about Burke and a companion hunter following a very large buck from their camp in Poor Valley into the Garden. 'And he is of the opinion that Burke, and not Sinclair, piloted Colonel Patton to the place.
The records in the State Land Office at Richmond reveal that patents for two boundaries of land, containing 400 and 500 acres, respectively, were issued on Sept. 20th, 1748, to James Burke. These tracts were situated on Goose Creek in Augusta County ; and it is more than probable these lands were obtained from Colonel Patton, under his grant of 120,000 acres. Burke had been inti- mately associated with Patton in some capacity, as he was one of the first settlers at the settlement made by Colonel Patton at Draper's Meadows in 1748.
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