USA > Virginia > Tazewell County > Tazewell County > History of Tazewell county and southwest Virginia, 1748-1920 > Part 51
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History of Tazewell County
By the erection of these two new counties, Tazewell had to part with a large territory that abounded with vast natural resources. The extent of the area assigned to Buchanan County is about 300 square miles, and to McDowell about 533 square miles. The territory given to both counties was magnificently timbered and was known to have beneath its surface extensive veins of coal. These natural resources were then but little appreciated, as the possibility of making them available to the markets of the world were believed to be indefinite and remote.
According to the United States census taken in 1860, two years after Buchanan was formed, the county had a population of 2,793 persons. The census of 1910 made the population of the county 12,334 souls. The taxable values of Buchanan County in 1860 amounted to the small sum of $301,506; and the assessed taxable values in 1918 amounted to the large sum of $5,037.721.
The last change made in the boundary lines of Tazewell County was caused by the establishment of Bland County. On the 30th of March, 1861, eighteen days before Virginia seceded from the Union, the General Assembly passed an act to form Bland County from the counties of Giles, Wythe and Tazewell. The dividing line between Tazwell and Bland began at the top of East River mountain at the then county line between Giles and Tazewell; "thence with the top of said East River mountain, westward, to a point two miles west of George Steel's house, on Clear fork ; thence across and by a line as near as may be at right angles to the course of the valley between, to the top of Rich mountain, and westward along the top of said Rich mountain, so far as to include the settlement on Wolf creek, thence across the top of Garden moun- tain ; thence along the top of the said Garden mountain, to a point through which the line between Wythe and Smyth would pass if prolonged; thence by said prolonged line, to the said line between Wythe and Smyth."
This left Tazewell County with its present physical outlines, and with an area of 557 square miles.
TAZEWELL'S LOSSES ALMOST INESTIMABLE.
What Tazewell has lost in the way of wealth by the detachment of territory that was incorporated in the bounds of the present coun- ties of MeDowell and Mercer, West Virginia, is almost inestimable.
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Each year that has passed since the development of the vast mineral and other resources of these two counties was begun has served to enlarge the measure of Tazewell's loss; and the extent of the loss will continue to be augumented for many years to come.
Of the territory that originally constituted Tazewell County, that which has made the most marvelous progress in wealth and population is the present county of McDowell, West Virginia. When McDowell was taken from Tazewell, in 1858, it was so inaccessible and unsuited for agricultural purposes that it was not deemed a loss, but was, possibly, considered a social and economic gain for the mother county.
McDowell County had at the time it was formed, and still has, an area of 533 square miles, 24 miles less than the present area of Tazewell County. In 1859 there were but 282 freeholders in the county, and only about one-third of the land was placed upon the Land Books for taxation -- the remaining two-thirds being unentered and still held by the Commonwealth of Virginia. The lands held by private ownership were assessed at 12 cents per acre, and the amount added for buildings on all the privately owned land was the small sum of $3,240, making the total assessed value of the lands and buildings $163,585.00. The taxes collected from these assess- ments amounted to the meagre sum of $654.38. These figures have been furnished me from memorandums found in the clerk's office of McDowell County. The records in the State Auditor's Office, at Richmond, show that the real estate values returned from the county in 1860 amounted to $93,190, and the personal property to $39,520 -a total of $132.710.
That the wealth of McDowell has been enormously increased is shown by the following tables which are made from the county records :
Assessed Values, 1918.
Real Estate. $30,614,783.00
Personal Property 11,456,892.00
Public Utility Property 12,344,692,78
Total
$54,416,367.78
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History of Tazewell County
Taxes Levied for all Purposes for the Year 1917 in McDowell County.
Real Estate $432,936.00
Personal Property
152,903.00
Public Utility Property.
174,221.00
Total
$760,060.00
These tables show that the increase in the taxable values of McDowell since the county was organized amounted to the astound- ing sum of $54,252,782.00. They further show that the taxes paid in the county in 1917 amounted to a sum six times as great as the assessed value of all lands and buildings in McDowell in the year 1859.
The source of the stupendous growth in the way of taxable wealth and population of McDowell is primarly found in the exten- sive mining of the vast deposits of coal that underlie nearly every acre of land in the county. There are a number of coal operations along Tug River, which stream flows through the county from its southern to its northern border. Like conditions are found on the Dry Fork, and on all the other creeks and branches that are trib- utarics of Tug. Enormous quantities of coal are being mined and shipped to every section of the United States. The coal products in 1917 were: 18,671,942 tons of coal, and 1,415,490 tons of coke- a total of 20,087,432 tons.
It is not surprising that the extensive mining operations have increased the population of the county in proportion to its wealth. The census of 1860 gave McDowell a population of 1,533-all white persons. I have been unable to procure the returns from the census which has been taken this year by the Government, but it is estimated that this census will give the county a population of at least 90,000.
Another evidence of the marvelous progress of McDowell County is found in what she did in the way of supplying men for the service during the late horrible war. The State of West Vir- ginia, from her 55 counties, furnished 55,648 men under the Select Service Act ; and McDowell headed the list, by furnishing 3,081 men that were inducted into military service by the Local Boards; and, yet the county had no large cities from which to draw the men. Of the number furnished, 1,578 were white men, and 1,503 were
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colored. It is also a fact, that a large number volunteered and entered the service through various recruiting offices. With these added, McDowell gave not less than 4,000 soldiers to the Govern- ment for service in the late war.
McDowell County has developed into a splendid industrial com- munity, and will continue to progress as such for many years to come, as her vast mineral resources have merely reached an initial stage of development. But she has already attained sufficient . industrial standing to make her of great economic value to Tazewell, her mother county.
The severance from Tazewell of that portion of her territory which was made a part of Mercer County, by an act of the Virginia General Assembly in 1837, has also proven a heavy economic loss to the mother county. All of the present area of Mercer County situated west of a straight line, beginning at the top of East River Mountain at a point about ten miles east of the city of Bluefield, crossing East River just west of Ingleside, thence to the western limits of the city of Princeton, and thence to the northern line of Mercer, was comprised in the original boundaries of Tazewell County. Within this area as great industrial activity has prevailed during the past twenty-five or thirty years as that which has wrought such astonishing results in McDowell County; and with like results in the way of accumulated wealth and increased popu- lation.
The celebrated Flat Top coal fields are located upon territory that was taken from Tazewell; and these fields were the next to be developed after the mining of coal was commenced at Pocahontas. Bluefield, the magic city of this region, is also situated within this area. In fact, about one-half of the territory of the present Mercer County was taken from Tazewell County, and this has made the business and social relations between these two counties very inti- mate ever since Mercer was erected into a county.
It was my purpose to give as detailed statement of the progress made by Mercer as I have written of McDowell County. I have gotten repeated promises that data would be supplied to that end, but the desired information has not been given. However, I do
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History of Tazewell County
know that there has been, comparatively, as marvelous increase in the wealth and population of Mercer County as in McDowell. The assessed values of all property-real estate, personal property, and public utility property-in Mercer County in 1918, amounted to the sum of $41,650,020 This, of course, includes the assessed values of the cities of Bluefield and Prineeton. It has been esti- mated that, at least, $37,000,000 of these values are located within the territory that was taken from Tazewell and given to Mercer.
By estimate, the city of Bluefield has about 15,000 inhabitants and Princeton about 8,000. The mining towns in the Flat Top region, and those that are scattered along the Norfolk and Western, and the Virginian Railway, will, no doubt, make the population of Mercer County quite as large as that of McDowell.
Bluefield is bountifully supplied with banking capital, does a large amount of business in the mercantile and manufacturing lines, is rapidly increasing its population, and is constantly extending its improved (building) area toward the line which separates Tazewell County from West Virginia. In fact, the improved limits of Blue- field and those of Graham (Tazewell's largest town) are now nearly united, and may, in the near future, be called the "Twin- Cities." Bluefield is not only the metropolis of the Pocahontas, Flat Top, and Elkhorn coal fields, but occupies the same relation to Taxwell County and the entire Upper Clinch Valley.
War and Reconstruction Period
Detailing the Causes of the Civil War and What Transpired from 1861 to 1870
T.H .- 36
WAR AND RECONSTRUCTION PERIOD
CHAPTER I.
PRINCIPAL CAUSES OF THE CIVIL WAR.
The Presidential election of 1860 marked a distinct era in the political thought and practices of the people of the United States. As early as 1818 events began to transpire in the field of American politics that forced the reforming of political parties and threatened to disrupt the Union. It was in December, 1818, that the "Mis- souri Question," as it was then called, made its appearance through the introduction in Congress of a bill for the admission of Missouri to the Union as a slave State. While Missouri had been a Territory, large numbers of slaveholders from Southern States had moved into the Territory and taken their slaves with them. When the bill for its admission to the Union as a slave State came before the House of Representatives, James Tallmadge, Jr., of New York, moved to amend it by providing that "the further introduction of slavery be prohibited in said State of Missouri, and that all children (negroes) born in the State after its admission to the Union shall be free at the age of twenty-five years." The discussion of the bill, as amended, was marked with great ability and much acrimony. Of course, the members from the South, with Henry Clay as their leader, were violently opposed to the Tallmadge amendment. But the ability of Mr. Clay and the stubborn resistance of the Southern members could not stem the swelling tide of anti-slavery sentiment that was sweeping over the North and Middle West. The bill, as amended by Tallmadge, was passed by the House, but when it went to the Senate the anti-slavery amendment was bitterly opposed by the Southern Senators, and the amendment was rejected. Then the House refused to recede; and for a time Missouri was denied admission to the Union.
At the following session of Congress, in December, 1819, the Missouri question again came to the front, when a bill was intro- duced to admit Maine to the Union as a free State. The bill for the admission of Missouri was re-introduced immediately following
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History of Tazewell County
the introduction of the Maine bill. This aroused another fast and furious debate between the pro-slavery and anti-slavery member- ship of the House. But the Missouri bill with the anti-slavery restriction was again passed, as was the Maine bill, by the House. When the two bills went to the Senate that body refused to coneur. and a single bill, uniting Maine and Missouri for admission to the Union, was introduced. Thereupon, Jesse B. Thomas, a senator from Illinois, proposed a compromise feature to the bill, which has since been known among politicians as the "Missouri Compro- mise." This compromise provision forever prohibited slavery north of 36° 30' in all the territory which President Jefferson acquired from France in 1803 by what has since been known, and shown on the maps, as the Louisiana Purchase. It was passed in the Senate, but the House refused to admit the two States by a single bill. The compromise feature, however, was aceepted by the enact- ment by the House of separate bills for the admission of the two States. Missouri then made a Constitution which forbid the resi- dence of free negroes in the State. This so provoked the anti- slavery members of Congress that they refused at the next session to admit the State. After a prolonged and heated discussion, a compromise was effected by writing into the bill a provision, "that Missouri should be admitted to the Union upon the fundamental condition that no law should ever be passed by her Legislature enforeing the objectionable provision in her Constitution, and that by a solemn public act the State should deelare and record her assent to this condition, and transmit to the President of the United States an authentic copy of the Aet. The disciplinary condition was grudgingly accepted, and Missouri thus secured admission to the Union.
Thomas Jefferson and the older statesmen then living, the men who had helped to carry the colonies successfully through the Revolution and establish our independence, were greatly distressed and alarmed by the course the Missouri question had taken. The Compromise had established a geographieal line between the free and slave States; and they believed this would ultimately generate" bitter seetional feeling and bring disaster to the Union. In these gloomy apprehensions, future events proved they were not mistaken. Mr. Jefferson was then living in retirement at a venerable age, but was still in possession of his unsually great mental faculties.
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While the Compromise measure was pending in Congress, he gave expression to his fears in a letter he wrote to a member of the House of Representatives. He said, that "the Missouri question is the most portentous one which has ever threatened the Union. In the gloomiest hour of the Revolutionary War I never had any apprehensions equal to those which I feel from this source."
Following the admission of Missouri to the Union the slavery question for a while ceased to be a disturbing issue in the politics of the country. But the heated controversies in Congress over the extension of slavery had compelled a complete reconstruction of political parties. The Federalist party, because of the avowed hostility of its founders to popular government, had steadily disin- tegrated, and in 1820 had become an impotent organization. And the Republican party, founded by Thomas Jefferson, after his death on July 4th, 1826, was destroyed as an effective organization through the rivalries and jealousies of its leaders. Two new, vigorous organizations, the Whig and Democratic parties, were con- structed from the ruins of the two old parties. The rank and file of the Whig party came almost entirely from the Federalists and the anti-slavery men of the North and West, while the Democratic party was composed almost entirely of the followers of Thomas Jefferson. Henry Clay had been a nominal adherent of Mr. Jef- ferson, but had evinced a leaning to some of the principles of the Federalists, such as the tariff, suffrage, and finance. This caused him to unite his political fortunes with the Whigs and to be made the most brilliant and highly esteemed leader of that party until his death, which occurred June 29th, 1852. Andrew Jackson, who had been all the while a zealous disciple of Mr. Jefferson, naturally became the aggressive leader of the Democrats, and he remained the idol of his party until the day of his death, which came on the 8th of June, 1845.
The new political parties had their first contest in the Presi- dential election of 1828. Andrew Jackson and John C. Calhoun were the candidates of the Democrats for President and Vice President; and John Quincy Adams and Richard Rush were the candidates of the Whigs. The slavery question was completely ignored during the campaign by both parties, but the Whigs pro- jected two new issues of such absorbing interest that all other questions were cast aside in what was one of the most memorable
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political struggles that has ever taken place in the United States. The Whigs made their fight on what they termed "Militarism," and "Disunion," charging that General Jackson would turn the Government into a military depotism, if he was made President; and that Calhoun would disrupt the Union, if he was given the opportunity. These new and alarmist issues proved unavailing for the Whigs. General Jackson had received as a gift from the hands of Mr. Jefferson the leadership of American democracy, and this was a potent influence which brought victory for the Demo- cratic ticket.
In 1836 an event occurred which, a few years later, made the slavery question a more alarming issue in American politics than ever before. About the same time the Missouri question was agitating the country American citizens began to settle in that part of Texas which lics west of the Sabine River. This part of Texas had been relinquished to Spain by treaty when she ceded Florida to the United States. Many of the settlers had taken slaves with them to Texas; and by the year 1833, eleven years after Mexico had become an independent republic, the number of Americans in Texas had reached twenty thousand. They determined to establish for themselves a republic, independent of Mexico. To promote this scheme, in 1835, a provisional government was set up; and General Sam Houston was made commander-in-chief of the military forces. Houston drove all the Mexicans from Texas. General Santa Anna invaded the country in February, 1836, and invested the Alamo, the old Spanish fort near San Antonio, which was held by a small garrison of Texans under the command of Colonel Davy Crockett. The fort was stormed by the Mexicans and all the garrison butch- ered by order of Santa Anna. Four days previous to the bloody tragedy at the Alamo, the Texans held a convention and issued a declaration of independence. In September, 1836, General Houston was elected President of the Republic; and a Congress was also elected and held its first session in October, 1836.
In 1837, the independence of the "Lone Star State," as it was then called, was recognized by the United States. The political leaders in Texas then began to advocate annexation of the State to the United States. This scheme was bitterly opposed by the
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anti-slavery men of the North and cordially supported by the slave- holders of the South. But the leaders of both the great National parties studiously avoided making the Texas question an issue until 1844, when it became the supreme issue in the Presidential election of that year.
John C. Calhoun, then Secretary of State, concluded a treaty of annexation with Texas, which was communicated to the Senate by President Tyler on the 12th of April, 1844. In negotiating the treaty, Mr. Calhoun's purpose was to defeat Martin Van Buren, who was again seeking the nomination by the Democrats for the Presidency; and also to make the annexation of Texas the chief issue between the two National parties.
The treaty was received with great disfavor by the Whigs, as Mr. Clay, who was their leader and their avowed candidate for the Presidency, had declared his opposition to the annexation of Texas. And Mr. Van Buren's supporters also, generally, opposed it, because he had pronounced against annexation. In fact, he and Mr. Clay, believing that they would be the candidates of their respective parties, had agreed that the Texas question should not be injected into the campaign.
When the National Convention of the Democratic parly assem- bled at Baltimore, the 27th of May, 1844, the treaty was still pending in the Senate. Nothwithstanding the fact that a majority of the delegates on the first ballot voted for Van Buren, it became impossible to nominate him, as the delegates from the South insisted upon the adoption and enforcement of the two-thirds rule which had been used at preceding national conventions of the party. The Southern delegates stood for James K. Polk, of Tennessee, and secured his nomination ; and the ticket was completed by nominating George M. Dallas, of Pennsylvania, for Vice President. The con- vention declared for the annexation of Texas; and the Democrats immediately adopted for their battle cry: "Polk, Dallas, and Texas," following the example of the Whigs, who had successfully waged their campaign in 1840 with the cry: "Tippecanoe and Tyler Too."
The Whigs had held their National Convention at Baltimore on the 1st of May, and nominated Henry Clay by acclamation for President; and had chosen Theodore Frelinghuysen as their candi- date for Vice President. In a communication written from Raleigh,
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History of Tazewell County
North Carolina, on the 17th of April, 1844, and published in the National Intelligencer, then a Whig organ, Mr. Clay had announced his opposition to the annexation of Texas. He gave several reasons for opposing the treaty. One was, that, although Texas had been a part of the territory acquired by purchase from France, our Government had parted with that portion of the territory beyond the Sabine River, by the treaty with Spain in 1819; and that the Sabine line had been recognized and accepted by the United States in subsequent negotions with Spain, and with Mexico after that country became a republic. Mr. Clay did not think it would be honorable and just for us to regard our treaty with Spain as a mere "serap of paper," though he had heartily opposed its ratifica- tion by Congress. Another reason he assigned for his opposi- tion was that: "Annexation and war with Mexico are identical." He declared: "Assuming that the annexation of Texas is war with Mexico, is it competent to the treaty-making power to plunge this country into war, not only without the concurrence of, but without deigning to consult Congress, to which, by the constitution, belongs exclusively the power of declaring war?"
By the nomination of Mr. Polk the Democrats had forced the Whigs to accept the Texas question as the paramount issue of the Presidential campaign, and which Mr. Clay's Raleigh letter had invited them to do. But the Democrats shrewdly determined to strengthen their position by coupling the Oregon question with that of the annexation of Texas. Great Britain was then secretly form- ing plans to wrest Oregon from the United States upon a fictitious claim to the splendid territory which now constitutes the two great States of Oregon and Washington. Our old enemy, Great Britain, also had her agents actively and offensively at work in Texas to prevent the Lone Star State becoming a member of the Union. Thus was General Jackson given excellent opportunity to hurl one of his terrible javelins at his personal and political foe, Mr. Clay; and to assail the integrity of the British Government, which he cordially despised for its treacherous conduct in Texas and its avowed pur- pose to steal Oregon from the United States. The old hero of the Democracy did his work effectively through a letter written from the Hermitage, June 24th, 1844, to a friend in Indiana. In the letter, he first attacked Mr. Clay's views on the national bank, system of taxation, and other questions; and then assailed his posi-
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tion on the Texas question, as follows: "He says, virtually, that Texas ought not to be admitted into the Union, while there is a respectable and considerable portion of our citizens opposed to it. On such a condition it is obvious annexation can never take place. British influence had considerable and respectable advocates in this country in our Revolutionary War, and our second war with her. Will it ever be without them? Never. As long as there are fanatics in religion, as there are diversities and differences in human opinion respecting the forms of government and the rights of the people, such advocacy will be found resisting the advance of insti- tutions like ours, and laboring to incorporate with them the features of an opposite system.
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