USA > Virginia > Tazewell County > Tazewell County > History of Tazewell county and southwest Virginia, 1748-1920 > Part 49
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"It was late in a November evening that we ascended the lofty Clinch Mountain, after leaving Tazewell C. H. for Abingdon, and put up for the night at a miserable hut on its summit. The next morning the sun shone bright and clear as we buckled on our knap- sack and resumed our journey through a light snow which covered the mountain-road that winds with great steepness down the
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declivity. In about half a mile was presented a scene of which none but a painting in the highest style of art can convey an adequate impression. The whole of a vast landscape was filled with a sea of mountains beyond mountains, in an apparently interminable con- tinuity. Near, were huge mountains, dark and frowning, in the desolation of winter. Beyond, they assumed a deep blue color, and then grew fainter and fainter, until far away in the horizon-fifty or sixty miles-their jagged outlines were softened by distance, and sky and mountain met and mingled in the same light cerulean hue. Not a clearing was to be seen-not even a solitary smoke from some cabin curled up the intervening valleys to indicate the presence of man. It was-
"A wild and lonely region, where, retired From little scenes of art Nature dwelt In awful solitude."
When a small boy, the author, in company with his parents and brothers, traveled over this road frequently; and even at an early age was impressed with thoughts similar to those expressed by Howe. It took nearly half a day to cross the mountain with a carriage or other vehicle. We often rested at or near the little cabin Howe mentions ; and ate our lunch at the spring, whose waters were highly flavored with the laurel and ivy bushes that grew thickly on the mountain top.
After leaving Tazewell C. H., before reaching Clinch Mountain, Henry Howe had to pass through Plum Creek Gap, where the road was then rougher and more dangerous than the one which crossed Clinch Mountain. It has been a current tradition, that, in the thirties of the last century, Judge Benjamin Estill, then Judge of the Superior Court of Tazewell County, in his general charge to the grand jury at a term of his court, made special mention of the wretched condition of the Plum Creek Gap road. He had been traveling this road from Abingdon to Jeffersonville to hold his courts, and knew what a frightful pretense it was for a highway. The judge directed the grand-jury to indict the overseer of the road for neglect of duty, but took occasion to say to the jury: "You have put a road where God Almighty never intended one to be placed." What would Judge Estill say now, if he could return and view the
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History of Tazewell County
splendid highway that passes through the Gap, over which auto- mobiles are sped at a rate of fifteen or twenty miles an hour?
A road similar to the one that crossed Clinch Mountain at Thompson's Gap was built across Rich Mountain and through the Gap into Burke's Garden. After passing through the Garden, it connected with a similar road that crossed Garden and Brushy mountains into Wythe County, and from thence crossed Walker's Mountain, and on to Wytheville.
Plum Creek Gap, showing a section of the modern highway built on the route where Judge Estill said God never intended a road to be placed .. ,
All the roads in the valleys were, comparatively, as wretchedly bad as thos that crossed the mountains, and most of them were even worse, especially in the winter season.
The first turnpike road that was built in, or through, the county was the Cumberland Gap and Fincastle Turnpike. It was built by the State; and, starting at Cumberland Gap, passed through the counties of Lee, Scott, and Russell, and entered Tazewell County west of Midway. Passing Midway and Liberty Hill, it ran on to Tazewell Court House. From the Court House it ran by way of
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the north fork of Clinch River and through the Bluestone Valley to the head of East River; and thence down that stream to New River. From that point the turnpike continued up the river, passed through the Narrows, on by Pearisburg, and again reached New River at Ripplemead. There persons traveling the road were ferried across the river, at the same place the pioneers crossed the stream when they came to the Clinch. On the east side of New River the Cumberland Gap and Fineastle Turnpike began again.
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One of the most beautiful old homes in Tazewell County. It was built for Colonel Harvey George in 1832; and is on the old Fincastle and Cumberland Gap Turnpike, about six miles west of the court house. In recent years it was the home of the late John Bundy, and is now owned and occupied by one of his sons, Wm. Rees Bundy.
Thenee it passed Newport in Giles County, ran up Sinking Creek into the present Craig County to Newcastle; and thence to Fin- castle. The road was built in the thirties of the last century.
The Tazewell C. H. and Fancy Gap Turnpike, which ran from Jeffersonville to Wytheville; and the Kentucky and Tazewell C. H. Turnpike, which ran from Jeffersonville to Grundy, the present county seat of Buchanan County, were chartered by the Legisla- ture in 1848, and were construeted just prior to 1852. These two turnpikes are shown on a map in Bickley's History of Tazewell
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County, published in 1852; and the Cumberland Gap and Fincastle Turnpike also appears on the said map.
From the time the Cumberland Gap and Fincastle Turnpike was constructed, until about 1850 or 1851, that road was the principal thoroughfare used by the people of Tazewell County for conveying their products to the eastern markets. And all the merchandise and other articles purchased in the eastern markets for consump- tion in Tazewell were brought here in wagons over this same road. The cattle and horses that were sold from the county were driven east by this route. Sometimes droves of cattle numbering a thous-
This scene is located on what is called "Hubble Hill"; and the modern road is built on the location of the old Tazewell C. H. and Kentucky Turnpike. Looking south Rich Mountain is seen in the distance. All of the mountain visible in the picture is denuded of the heavy original forest, and the sides and top of the mountain are covered with as fine bluegrass sod as can be found in the world.
and, or more, head would be driven to the Valley of Virginia and to Northern Virginia; and there disposed of in bunches to farmers, who would graze and prepare them for the markets, just as the export cattle are now prepared by the Tazewell graziers for export- ing.
After the State built the splendid macadam road, which extended in an unbroken line from Buchanan, in Botetourt County, to Seven Mile Ford, in Smyth County, travel and traffic from and to Tazewell was almost completely diverted from that part of the Cumberland Gap and Fincastle Turnpike east of Bluefield. Transportation was then directed across the mountains to Wytheville over the Tazewell C. H. and Fancy Gap Turnpike; and from Wytheville the haul was
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continued eastward until the advancing line of the Virginia & Ten- nessee Railroad was reached. The track of this road was slowly laid in the direction of Bristol, and got to Wytheville in 1855. From the eastern part of the county all travel and traffic was then directed to Wytheville, until the Norfolk & Western built its line from Radford to Graham.
In 1858-59 the Tazewell and Saltville Turnpike was built from the Cove across Clinch and Little Brushy mountains to Poor Valley ; and from that time the travel and traffic from the west end of the
A view of the Main Street of Tazewell, taken ten or twelve years ago. Since then great improvements have been made to the street . and buildings.
county went to Saltville. The branch railroad from Glade Spring to Saltville had been previously built, giving to the citizens of the west end of Tazewell County greatly improved transportation facilities.
Isolation and inaccesibility have always been regarded as two of the most powerful retardments to the progress and development of a nation, state, or community. Against these uncompromising foes of wealth and civilization the Tazewell pioneers and their descendants and successors were compelled to persistently contend for more than a hundred years after the first settlements were made here. But there are other great physical causes which influence
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History of Tazewell County
and govern the ereation and accumulation of wealth and the develop- ment of a high civilization in nations or communities. Among these eauses are a fertile soil and an invigorating climate. Fortunately both of these-a rich soil and an invigorating climate-were attri- butes of the Clinch Valley region; and proved ample to mitigate and largely overcome the disadvantages of isolation and inaccessi- bility from which the inhabitants of Tazewell suffered before rail- roads came and gave them access to the outside world.
INCREASE IN POPULATION AND WEALTH.
Although the people of Tazewell were greatly hampered by their isolation, there was a steady and healthy increase in the popu- lation and wealth of the county from its organization to the begin- ning of the Civil War. The population was 2,127 when the county was organized in 1800. The census taken by the United States each succeeding ten years plaeed the population of the county as follows: In 1810, 3,007; 1820, 3.916; 1830, 5.749; 1840, 6.290; 1850, 9,942; 1860, 9,920. It will be seen that there was a decrease of 22 in the population of the county during the ten years that intervened between 1850 and 1860. This was due to the formation of McDowell and Buchanan counties, all of the territory which composed McDowell County and most of that embraced in Buchanan being taken from Tazewell County. MeDowell had a population of 1,535 in 1860, and Buchanan had 2.793, a combined population of 4.328. If these two counties had not been created previous to the census of 1860, Tazewell's population would have been about 13,000.
The inerease in the wealth of the county during the first fifty .years of its existence was normal and satisfactory. Bickley pub- lished in his history in 1852 the following table showing the wealth of the county :
"Table Showing The Wealth of The County.
"Value of lands $3,189.080.00
farming utensils 36,390.00
live stock 517,330.00
agricultural productions 226,579.00
meehanieal productions 7,000.00
66 slave property 530.000.00
stoek in trade 85,000.00
Total wealth of the county
$4,591,379.00"
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Bickley published another table in his history which showed that there were 58,110 acres of improved, 220,530 acres unimproved, and 1,641,360 acres of land unentered or in large surveys within the bounds of the county in 1852. These figures he must have obtained from the assessors books for that year; and it is evident that most of the unentered land and the large surveys were in the bounds of the present McDowell and Buchanan counties. The improved lands were valued in Bickley's table at $696,320 an average of about $10 per acre. This must have been the assessed valne, as many
A bunch of Dorset lambs, over one hundred in number, that were bred and grazed by the late Henry S. Bowen. They had been weighed at the scales of the Packing House at North Tazewell, and averaged 102 lbs. The lambs at that time brought about five or six dollars each. In 1919 they would have sold for fifteen dollars per head.
thousand acres of the improved lands had a much larger actual or sales value at that time, for Bickley said of the lands in the vicinity of the county seat :
"The lands are well improved; and will compare favorably with any in the county. There are many fine farms near the town, among which may be mentioned those of Thos. Peery, Esq., John Wynn, Esq., Col. John B. George, Kiah Harman, Henry, Elias, G. W., and William Harman, Joseph, and Thomas G. Harrisson, A. A. Spotts, Harvey G. Peery, Esq., and Dr. H. F. Peery. 50,000 acres of these
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History of Tazewell County
lands, are worth from forty to fifty dollars an acre, and little could be purchased for even that sum."
There were other localities in the county where the lands were considered as valuable, even more valuable than those about Jeffer- sonville. The lands in Burke's Garden were nearer the markets and as fertile as any in the county; and in writing about the Cove, including the lands of Colonel Henry and General Rees T. Bowen, Bickley said: "I hesitate not to call this the garden-spot of Taze- well county." The lands that Bickley wrote about in 1852 now have an average salcs value of $200 per acre, or more. Tazewell's first historian compiled from the census of 1850 a table showing the kind, number and value of the live stock in the county. It is as follows:
Specificd kinds.
Number.
Value.
Horses
5,150
$309,000.00
Mules and asses
127
8,890.00
Milch cows
4,576
54,840.00
Working oxens
117
2,340.00
Other cattle
10,260
102,600.00
Sheep
19,530
19,530.00
Swine
20,130
20,130.00
Total Value of live stock
$517,330.00
In the above table, compiled by Dr. Bickley, it will be seen that cows were valued at $11 per head. The sheep and hogs were, each, valued at $1 per head. These were certainly very low valua- tions, as wool was then worth thirty cents, and bacon not less than ten cents a pound, and the valuations must have been based on assessed and not on the sales value of the animals.
But if the values given by Bickley, of lands and live stock, be accepted as fair and adequate, still it is evident that Tazewell County had, during the first fifty years of its existence, developed into a community of considerable wealth. This conclusion is strongly sustained by the fact that the economic condition of the county had become so excellent that two banks were established in Jefferson- ville as early as 1852. One of these was a branch bank of the Northwestern Bank of Virginia, the mother bank being located at Wheeling, then in Virginia, but now in West Virginia. It was a
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bank of issue, deposit, and discount. In 1852 its officers were: President, John W. Johnston; Cashier, Isaac M. Benham; Clerk, Rees B. Gillispie.
The Directors were as follows: John C. McDonald, John B. George, Kiah Harman, Geo. W. G. Browne, S. F. Watts, Samuel L. Graham, and Isaac E. Chapman. This bank had a capital of $100,000, and Friday of each week was discount day. It was a flourishing institution and continued to do business until all the State banks passed out of existence during the Civil War.
John Warfield Johnston was born near Abingdon, Virginia, Sep- tember 19th, 1818. His mother was a sister of Gen. Rees T. Bowen. He received his academic education at Abingdon Academy, and South Carolina College, Columbia, S. C .; studied law at the University of Virginia; and was admitted to the bar in 1839. He located at Jeffer- sonville, and was Commonwealth's Attorney for Tazewell County in 1844-1846. He represented the county and district in the State Senate at the sessions of 1844-45 and 1846-47. In 1866 he was made judge of this judicial circuit and served as such until 1870. He was elected to the United States Senate from Virginia, and served in that body from October 26th, 1869, to March 3rd, 1883. Judge Johnston died in Rich- mond, February 27th, 1889.
The other bank was the Jeffersonville Savings Bank. Its officers were: Cashier or Treasurer, Addison A. Spotts; Secretary, William O. Yost. The Directory was constituted as follows: Thomas Peery, Rees T. Bowen, A. A. Spotts, Granville Jones, William Cox, Wil- liam O. Yost, John C. Hopkins. Capital, by limitation, $100,000. Discount day, Saturday. This bank passed out of existence before the Civil War began.
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History of Tazewell County
THE RELIGIOUS DENOMINATIONS.
The religious character of the inhabitants of the county was coexistent and developed along with the social, political, and relig- ious thought of the people. It was my intention to give an accurate and detailed account of the introduction and growth of the various religious denominations that now have church organizations in the county. For the accomplishment of this purpose the ministers and leading lay members of the several denominations were requested to supply necessary data ; but the world war so completely engrossed every one's attention that they failed to supply the author with any information in time. Dr. Bickley in his history had a brief chapter on the Church History of Tazewell, which gives some information about the various denominations in the county in the year 1852. It is as follows:
"No portion of my labors, if properly investigated, would be more interesting than this: yet the paucity of material afforded me, makes it quite difficult to give anything like a correct and full church history of this section. The principal denominations in the county are Methodists, Baptists, Presbyterians, and Roman Catlı- olic; each of whom will be noticed.
"The first sermon preached in the county was in 1794, by Rev. Mr. Cobbler, appointed to the New River circuit, by the Baltimore conference. This sermon may be regarded as the budding of Metho- dism in Tazewell county. The seeds sown by this good man fell upon a genial soil, and he had the satisfaction of seeing Jeremiah Witten and Mrs. Sarah Witten, William Witten and his lady, John and Sarah Peery, Elizabeth Greenup, Samuel Forguson, Isabella Forguson, and two colored persons, flock around the Christian standard, determined that Christ should not be forgotten, even in the mountain-gorges of the wild 'backwoods.'
"Thomas Peery gave them a piece of land, and in 1797 they built a meetinghouse about one mile west of Jeffersonville.
"Between 1794-7, meetings were generally held at the house of Samuel Forguson, near the present seat of justice. Before 1794, prayer-meeting was the only form of worship practiced: this seems to have been coexistent with the earliest settlement. The march of Methodism has been steadily onward; they have, at present, seven churches in regular fellowship.
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"The first Baptists in the county, were the Seaggs and Hankins. The first sermon preached to them, was by Rev. Simon Cotterel from Russell county, in 1796. Their first meetings were held in private houses, in the Hankins' settlement. The Baptists seem not to have made as rapid progress as the Methodists; as they have now only two regular churches in the county. I have been unable to learn the number of communicants, but understand that it is greater than would be supposed from the number of churches.
"The first Presbyterians in the county were William Peery, Samuel Walker, and his wife. Prof. Doak preached the first sermon to them, somewhere about 1798. He was soon followed by Rev. Mr. Crawford, from Washington county. The first church organ- ized was in the Cove, in 1833, which was placed in charge of Rev. Dugald McIntyre, assisted by Rev. Mr. McEwin. This church, from some cause, was suffered to go down, and the Presbyterians were without a regular church till the summer of 1851, when a church was organized at Jeffersonville, and placed in charge of Rev. Mr. Naff. They have one church, and about twenty communi- cants.
"At what time the first Roman Catholics appeared in the county, is not known. Edward Fox, a priest who resided at Wytheville, preached the first sermon to them in a union church at Jeffersonville in 1842. He continued to preach, at intervals, till the close of the controversy between him, and President Collins of Emory and Henry College. Having been beaten from every position, he quit Wytheville, and consequently the Tazewell Catholies were left with- out a priest. Bishop Whelan coming to this section of the state, took occasion to visit his flosk in Tazewell; the Methodists opened their pulpit for him, and in acknowledgment of their kindness, one of his first sentences was not only to insult them, but the house of God. He remarked, he "felt embarassed because he was preaching in an unconsecrated house." President Collins, who had firmly opposed the spread of this doctrine in South-western Virginia, being in the neighborhood, heard of the occurrence and replied to him in a few days. Notwithstanding this, Catholicism began to spread, and preparations were made for building a cathedral, which is now in course of construction."
As to things spiritual, it is questionable whether there has been much progress made on that line in the county since the days of
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History of Tazewell County
which Bickley wrote. There are more church organizations, more Christian denominations, more numerous and handsomer church buildings, and there are hundreds of professed Christians where there were but tens in the early days of the county.
The people who attend worship are better dressed, and better educated; and thousands of youths and children are being trained in Sunday Schools and other church organizations that have been established for their benefit. The music is of a higher class, but it does not have the same spiritual force and feeling that attended the congregational singing heard at the old camp meetings and within the sacred walls of the old log churches at Pisgah, Concord and elsewhere in the county. It may be possible that the churches are becoming materialized at the expense of their spirituality.
EDUCATIONAL CONDITIONS.
At that time there was one thing, that historians, generally, pronounce as absolutely essential to the welfare, progress, and civilization of a state or community, in which the people of Taze- well were deplorably deficient. They had accepted and made prac- tical use of the social, political, and economic doctrines of Thomas Jefferson; but had neglected to follow his precepts as the champion of popular education. It may be possible that the isolation of Tazewell rendered it difficult to get competent and sufficient teachers to give instruction to the large number of children then in the county. Whatever may have been the cause, it is a fact that from the time the county was organized there was a constant increase of illiteracy among the inhabitants, certainly until 1852, and, possibly, until the present free school system was established by the State Constitu- tion of 1870.
The entire white population of Tazewell in 1852 was 8,832; and there were 1,490 white persons over twenty-one years of age who could neither read nor write. It is likely that there were nearly as many illiterate whites who were under twenty-one years old as there were above that age. There were only 694 children attending the schools, and but fifteen school houses in the entire county. Bickley said these houses were better suited for barns than seats of learning.
This alarming condition of illiteracy aroused the serious atten- tion of the Jeffersonville Historical Society, whose membership was composed of about a hundred of the most influential citizens
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of the county. The late Major Rufus Brittain was then an accom- plished and popular teacher, and was earnestly engaged in educa- tional work in the county. At the request of the Jeffersonville Historical Society he prepared a paper on the educational situation, which was submitted to the Historical Society. It was and is a very valuable paper, and is as follows:
"This cause, so important to the best interests of every well- regulated community, has not heretofore, in this section, received
High School Building at Tazewell. It is very different in appear- ance and appointments from the few school houses scattered over the county in 1852, which Bickley said were better suited for barns than seats of learning.
that attention it deserves: and as a natural consequence of this neglect, we find the county sadly deficient in the means of training up the children of her citizens for stations of honor and usefulness.
"By the returns of the last census, it is found that out of 3,317 persons in the county over twenty-one years of age, 1,490 are unable to read and write. This is indeed a deplorable picture of the intelligence of our county, and might well cause every intelligent man in it to blush with shame, were it not that we find some excuse for this ignorance when we consider the situation of the greater
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History of Tazewell County
portion of our population, scattered as it is over a wide extent of country, and laboring under great disadvantages for maintaining schools.
"The early settlers of this region had many difficulties to encounter in their efforts to procure homes for themselves and their children, and too frequently education appears to have been of but secondary importance in their estimation. Yet primary schools of some sort seem to have been maintained from an early date after its settlement, in those neighborhoods where children were suffi- ciently numerous to make up a school, and parents were able and willing to support a teacher. Instances, also, have not been wanting, where families not situated so as to unite conveniently with others, yet appreciating the advantages of a good school, have employed teachers to instruct their children at home, and thus afforded them privileges of which the children of their less enlightened neighbors were deprived. But of late years, since portions of the county have become more densely populated, and in various ways much improved, the cause of education here has not kept pace with that improvement, for even in those parts of the county best able to maintain schools, no permanent provision has been made for their continuance; and in those schools that generally have been best supported, long intervals between sessions so frequently occur, that pupils forget much of what they acquired during their attendance; and thus the little time spent by many in school is spent under the greatest disadvantage for the proper development of their intel- lectual faculties. Teachers, as might be supposed, under these circumstances, together with the fact that their compensation is usually very moderate, are often incompetent for the task they have assumed, both as respects talents and acquired qualifications. And though under these circumstances good teachers are sometimes obtained, yet most generally in such cases the office is only assumed as an available stepping-stone to some other and more profitable pursuit. Indeed, it would be unreasonable to expect persons to prepare themselves for the proper discharge of the onerous duties of a primary school teacher, unless they hoped to receive some adequate reward for their services.
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