USA > West Virginia > Preston County > A History of Preston County, West Virginia, V.1 > Part 1
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GEN
ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY 3 1833 00098 8185
Gc 975.401 P92m v. 1 Morton, Oren F. A history of Preston County West Virginia
A HISTORY 3
OF
PRESTON COUNTY W.Va.
WEST VIRGINIA
Vil
BY OREN F. MORTON, B. LIT.
Author of "Under the Cottonwoods," "Winning or Losing?" "Land of the Laurel," "History of Pendleton County, W. Va.," "History of Highland County, Va.," "Pioneer Annals of Bath County, Va.," "The Story of Daniel Boone."
KINGWOOD, W. VA. THE JOURNAL PUBLISHING COMPANY 1914
Allen County Public Library Ft. Wayna, Indiana
1681121
COPYRIGHT, 1913 BY H. S. WHETSELL All Rights Reserved
SURNAME FILE
Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2016
https://archive.org/details/historyofpreston01mort
CONTENTS
PART ONE
Chapter
Page
I Introductory Observations
3
II A General Glance 7
III Physical Geography 14
IV Political Divisions
27
V Indian Period
35
VI Discovery and Exploration
VII Early Pioneer Period
VIII Later Pioneer Period
IX Seventy-five Years of America 84
x Formation of Preston
90
XI Sub-Pioneer Period 102
XII Preston in 1825 100 125
XIII Early Middle Period
XIV The War of 1861
I34
XV Preston in War Time
143
XVI Transition Period
152
XVII Industrial Period
158
XVIII
Judicial and Political 164
XIX
The Church in Preston 169
XX
The Professions in Preston 175
XXI Schools and Newspapers 180
XXII Industrial Preston 196
XXIII Turnpikes and Railroads. 203
XXIV
The Town of Kingwood. 214
XXV The Preston People of To-Day 224
XXVI The Preston of To-Morrow 229
XXVII Preston as Seen in a Discriptive Tour 234
45 5.I 65
*
PART TWO
Chapter
Page I Our European Forefathers 280 II America and Virginia in 1766 290
III The Old Frontier 297 IV Immigrants to Preston. 303
V Our Surnames and Given Names 309
VI Our Immigrant Families 318
VII A Geneologie Outline 409
VIII Preston Soldiers 48.4 -
APPENDICES
Page
A Population by Decades 528 B Statistical Items 529
C A List of Vetogenarians. 53I
D Surveys in 1774 533
E Land Patents, 1782-1790 534
F Some Early Conveyances of Land 540
H
G Preston Legislators 544 Supplementary Paragraphs 547
I Sketch of Samuel T. Wiley 551
J
Sketch of Oren F. Morton
556
€
CHAPTER I INTRODUCTORY OBSERVATIONS
It is now thirty-two years since the appearance of the only other history of Preston county. To the late Samuel T. Wiley, the author- in-chief of that book, local history was a very congenial field and was pursued with well-directed industry. His presentation of our annals is an able and painstaking effort. He enjoyed the inestimable advantage of writing from a point of time one generation nearer the coming of the pioneer than is the case in the present instance. In some guarters there has been a tendency toward ungenerous criticism of Wiley's book. But the author had a true sense of the comparative values of historical data, and it did not fall within his purpose to give a detailed account of all the pioneer families. If again, there is some error and incompleteness in his book, it should be remembered that no historian is infallible. and that the material which comes to his hand is by no means as certain as the facts of mathematic science. To him the remark will apply that was made by Doctor Worcester concerning his own great dictionary: "No amount of labor, research, and care can render such a work free from error and defects."
Wiley's history was soon out of print, and as a simple matter of course it fell behind the times. About fifteen years after its publication, a local company was organized to bring out a more comprehensive work under the editorship of W. Scott Garner. Untoward financial con- ditions brought the enterprise to a full stop, and the time came when Mr. Garner discerned that his physical strength, impaired by a severe illness, was hardly equal to so large an undertaking. This is a matter of much regret. Mr. Garner is a son of Preston and has a warm affection for his native hills. He is a gentleman of unusual literary taste, and of unusual insight into the actions of men. He is a practical writer and has had successful experience in historical research. With him it was in large degree a labor of love to produce a history of his home county.
The years continued to come and go, every season making it in- creasingly difficult to keep in touch with the starting-points of our local history. A new industrial era had arrived and was rapidly developing. Time-honored landmarks were passing from the field of vision, and thus the traces of earlier days were growing dim. The people of the younger
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PRESTON COUNTY, WEST VIRGINIA
generation., their thoughts centered on the swift events of the new epoch, were growing up in an ignorance of their local history which in later years they would be sure to regret. If Wiley's labors were to be supplemented by more extended work, it was high time to be up and doing. Horatio S. Whetsell, of the Preston County Journal, chose to put his own shoulder to the wheel, and a new beginning was attempted.
Oren F. Morton had for several years been a quasi-resident of Preston. He had repeatedly visited all portions of this county, and had thus gained a broad knowledge of its topography, its people, and its general history. In February, 1907, he was asked by Mr. Whetsell to prepare for the Journal some sketches on salient facts in our local history, and in particular a series of articles on the group-families which have sprung from the pioneer settlers. The offer was accepted, work began at once, and in due time serial articles were appearing. But there were repeated requests that the published matter appear in book form, and not in fugitive articles only. So it was decided to broaden the scope of the work, and in the fall of the same year a company was organized to publish as a book the results of Mr. Morton's field work. The adver- tised price of the same was placed at the lowest living figure. Never- theless, it was disclosed by a test canvass that there was a very unfounded objection to a price which was much below that usually asked for books of such limited circulation as local histories. In conse- quence if this lack of practical support the company tacitly dissolved, but to prevent the loss of the effort already put forth, Mr. Whetsell assumed personally the expense of completing the manuscript.
In the early spring of 1908 Mr. Morton removed from the county, writing up his notes afterward. He entitled his work, "Pioneer Families of Preston County." It was a record of the families themselves, and was not a formal history of the county considered as a political unit.
As already observed, it was the desire of the projectors of the book to offer it to the public at a price which would not be entertained by the companies who make a business of publishing county histories. But owing to the unfortunate lack of a cordial and ready response on the part of a large share of the Preston county people, the only alternative was to look to those citizens who made the price a secondary considera- tion, and to limit the edition accordingly. An increase in the price was therefore unavoidable. To bring out the work on the new basis, Mr. Whetsell in 1911 entered into an arrangement with Mr. J. R. Cole of New York, a gentleman of long experience in the compilation of bio-
5
PRESTON COUNTY, WEST VIRGINIA
graphic cyclopedias. It was now decided to remodel the work, so that it might in a more complete sense be a new history of Preston . In- cidentally thereto, Mr. Morton revisited our county the next May in order to consult Messrs. Whetsell and Cole and to add some further touches to the manuscript as rewritten. Of the work as it now appears, the biographic sketches, save the two in the appendix, and one other, have been supplied by Mr. Cole. The remainder of the work has been contributed by Mr. Morton.
At the time it was first decided to issue this work in book form, a compend of local biography was projected. But since it was not con- venient to prosecute such feature until publication was assured, there was no formal work in this line until the arrival in Preston of Mr. Cole. To avoid any conspicuous overlapping of effort, Mr. Morton did not enter into biographic writing in detail. This will explain why such mention is not interspersed in the chapters he contributed.
The present work is thus an evolution. Like Topsy in Uncle Tom's Cabin' it "growed." At the start there were to be only serial contribu- tions to one of the local papers. Later, there was to be a single volume in book form. The final result is now before the reader
While designing no injustice to any person who freely and gladly gave his recollections of other days, it would seem that in several instances a special word is in order.
While the field work was in progress, James C. McGrew and David O. White were still living. Though ninety-four years of age, they were clear in intellect and tenacious in memory. With a retrospect which went even beyond the organization of the county, their aid to the compiler was invaluable. Thomas M. Startzman, whose observant eye was aided by a keen and exact recollection, was a storehouse of local history for the southeast of Preston. Of the West Side, Uriah N. Orr has an ex- ceptionally far-reaching knowledge. The same was true of Jehu Jenkins with respect to the northern districts. A particularly large amount of neighborhood information was supplied by Henry Albright, Henry C. Beatty, Henry E. Bolyard, Leroy S. Bucklew, Mrs. Sarah E. Cale, Rev. Joseph B. Feather, W. Scott Garner, James Graham, Rev. Solomon P. Hawley, George B. Jackson, Jacob J. Martin, John Matlick, and Dr. M. S. Scott. Important aid was also furnished by several persons living at a distance. And last, though by no means least, the accounts of early customs related by Ann E. Pell and Hannah Boylan were of great interest and value.
.
6
PRESTON COUNTY, WEST VIRGINIA
Since the field work was begun, at least eleven of the persons above named have passed from this life, this fact demonstrating that the enter- prise was taken in hand none too soon. It was indeed a little too late to profit by the very great help which still others would have given. For example, there was a keen sense of the aid which lapsed with James M. Carroll, whose familiarity with the West Side was almost cyclopedic.
It is a matter of common observation that until much after the period of youth, historical inquiry of a practical sort is seldom made of the elderly people Not often is more than a passing or fitful interest taken in what the letter voluntarily relate. But as the young themselves grow old, they regret their failure to make effective use of their early opportunities. A local history does something toward removing such regret. What is put into the keeping of the printed page is preserved to an indefinite future.
The compiler of the historical portion of this book is not a native of Preston, is related to none of its people, and is no longer even a domiciliary resident. Yet such is his good will toward the county and its inhabitants, that in writing his own chapters he has made quite regular use of the possessive pronoun of the first person plural,
As a final word it is but giving Mr. Whetsell only simple justice to remind the people of the county that but for his public spirit, proved in carrying for several years the financial burden imposed by his act, this history would not have been taken up, nor carried forward to com- pletion. Though the work began under the auspices of a local newspaper, partisan in its politics, an earnest and constant effort has been put forth to avoid favoritism toward any interests local to Preston county or closely associated therewith.
7
PRESTON COUNTY, WEST VIRGINIA
CHAPTER II A GENERAL GLANCE
Strategic Position of the County - An 'America in Miniature - Diversity of the Immigrant Stock - The Relation of Local to State and National History - Periods in Our Local History - Their Characteristics - Neglect of Local History Unwise.
There is but one Preston county in the United States, and it lies in a northeast angle of West Virginia. Though it covers but one thirty- seventh of the area of the Mountain State, and but one forty-sixth of one percent of the continental United States, this political unit is neverthe- less of much more than common interest. As will presently appear, it is an America in miniature.
From the southeast corner of Preston, waters flow toward the Chesa- peake as well as toward the Gulf of Mexico. The Potomac cuts a gorge through almost the entire breadth of the Appalachians, while the Cheat and the Youghiogheny help to form the Ohio, the most important tributary of the Mississippi. These physical features mark a commercial route, central as well as natural, between the seaboard and the interior. This route has been of great national importance. The building of Fort Duquesne was an attempt to block this highway against the westward advance of the colonial Americans. When that fortress fell, the French empire in America was cut in twain and therefore doomed. It was by this very line that the far-sighted Washington hoped there would be dug an artificial waterway linking the Atlantic Coast with the Mississippi basin. The building of the Potomac canal was a step in this direction.
In the early days of weak national sentiment, it became a matter of public policy to establish at any expense an easy thoroughfare across these mountains, so as to hold the western people in the Union. it is therefore in strict accord with the influence of geography on history that the once magnificent National Road, the first and until of late the only macadamized highway built by the general government, almost touches a corner of Preston. It is for the same reason that the North- western Pike, the first road built by Virginia to the Ohio river, passes through the county. It is also for the same reason that the Baltimore and Ohio railroad, the first iron track to climb the Alleghany barrier. likewise traverses the county.
8
PRESTON COUNTY, WEST VIRGINIA
It is by this cleft in the mountains that the center of population for the United States has advanced from the east of Maryland to the south of Indiana This natural route is associated with an even more im- pressive fact in American history. In a practical sense it follows the Mason and Dixon line, that parallel which was for many years suggestive of a free America to the north and a slave America to the south. Right here on Preston soil was therefore a point of contact between the Northern and Southern types of American civilization.
As for the Alleghany range itself, it divides what is distinctively Eastern from what is distinctively Western. The Atlantic coast-plain is little else than a modified Europe. The characteristic America, redo- lent of the soil of the Western Hemisphere, does not fairly begin until we reach waters flowing toward the Mississippi. From the hills of Preston onward to the Golden Gate at San Francisco, Western thought and Western customs are everywhere supreme.
We are thus enabled to see that Preston county is more than a portal to the Great West. It lies at the very intersection of the border lines between East and West and North and South. Having thus been a meeting-point between the forces which have given form to American development, we can the more readily discern why this little area is at once a blending of North and South as well as East and West. With no important exception, every element which has entered into the com- position of the colonial American is here represented. The Preston people of the twentieth century are an intermingling of the Cavalier, the Puritan, and the Quaker English; of the Scotch-Irish, the Germans from the Rhine, and the French Huguenot; of the Welsh, the Dutch, and the Celtic and Saxon Irish. Not only is the quondam slave in their midst, but in later years have come Germans direct from the Fatherland and a noticeable representation of the natives of Italy. Preston is there- fore a strategic point for studying the "making of the American" in its historic and socialogic aspects.
In the commercialized life of the present era, Preston is also a strategic point. Though it lies on the western rim of the Appalachian plateau, the eastern border of the county is only 152 miles by airline from tidewater at Baltimore. The northwest corner is only about an equal distance from the great lake port of Cleveland. Pittsburgh, the coal and steel center of America, lies by rail only 133 miles north of the county seat. The capital city of Washington is less than twice that distance to the eastward. New York ,the metropolis of America and the second
9
PRESTON COUNTY, WEST VIRGINIA
largest city of the world, lies 474 miles toward the northeast. Chicago, the dominant city of the Great West, lies 596 miles toward the north- west, but even this span is a matter of less than twenty-four hours to the express train. These are- short distances compared with those from very much the greater part of the American Union. They exhibit the advantage which may accrue from living within easy reach of the great centers of population, government, and industry.
Within a radius of two hundred miles from Kingwood are twelve millions of the American people. Within the same radius is a rare diversity of agricultural, mineral and forestral wealth, and an industrial development of remarkable variety, extent and importance. Preston, in fact, is not a mere plank on a great commercial bridge, useful only to step upon. This is the age of coal, and with this highly necessary mineral the hills of the county are richly stored. This is also the age of steel, which is no longer made without coke, and if the ores of Preston are not now utilized, they will some day again be laid under tribute. Finally, and by no means least, the uplands appeal to the person in search of attractive scenery and cool, salubrious air.
If the geographical position of Preston is full of interest, so aiso is the record of its historical development. This record reaches back into the colonial time to a date ten years earlier than the Declaration of Independence.
This book was primarily designed as a history of the pioneer families of this county. Yet even with this limitation it would not fulfill its proper purpose, were it to present only a list of the pioneers, the dates of their coming, the spots to which they came, and the names of their children and their children's children. The wideawake Prestonian will not be content with such a dry husk. It is not enough to be told that his great grandfather, Adam Dee, came from Delaware in 1790, lived on the John Dee farm in a house now rotted down, and had seven sons and seven daughters. He will wish to know Adam Dee as a man of flesh and blood, and not as a mere label attached to a bundle of four or five bald facts. It will be a satisfaction to learn somewhat definitely how the ancestor clothed and housed himself, how he worked and what he worked with, the knowledge he possessed, the opinions he held, and the sort of neighborhood in which he lived.
In going into these matters, the great grandson learns why certain Europeans crossed the Atlantic; why certain of these immigrants or their posterity were numerously represented among the settlers of
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PRESTON COUNTY, WEST VIRGINIA
Preston and why certain others were not; why they came by certain routes and how they came, why certain churches appeared here and why certain others did not ; why one political party was at first dominant in the county and then was thrust to the rear; why differing modes of transportation have variously affected the development of Preston ; why this county among others became severed from the parent state of Vir- ginia. The answers to these and other relevant questions contain a good deal of very live American history. It will be seen that the story of the county dovetails into that of the state and nation, and cannot justly be considered as a thing entirely by itself. The local history of Preston not only throws light on the history of Virginia, West Virginia and the nation at large, but it receives light in return.
Although Preston county as a political unit did not come into being until 1818, and although West Virginia as a state was unknown until 1861-3, we of today are so used to these geographical facts that we scarcely think of the time when they did not exist. So as a matter of convenience we shall often speak of Preston county and West Vir- ginia as though their present boundary lines date back to an immemorial past. No violence is thus done to the general spirit of historical truth, and we are relieved from the frequent necessity of qualifying in a monotonous manner our references to the county and state prior to 1818 and 1863. But whenever we use the term "Preston area," it is to be understood as meaning the territory within the present borders of Pres- ton county.
This point being now understood on the part of the reader, we may conveniently present the annals of Preston in six cycles. These are the Aboriginal Period, the Period of Discovery and Exploration, and the Pioneer, the Sub-Pioneer, the Transition, and the Industrial periods.
The Aboriginal Period is largely a sealed book. It opens at a very indefinite day in the far-distant past and closes in 1746. So far as we know, the white man had but very recently visited this region, and in 1746 not even the Indian was actually living here. This long eon might properly be subdivided into the Prehistoric and Indian epochs, the former relating to the time when these hills were undoubtedly tenanted by the early native American, and the other relating to the modern time when certain known tribes used them only as a game preserve. But our acquaintance with these matters is too shadowy to make it worth while to press the distinction we have pointed out.
The Period of Discovery and Exploration opens with the placing of
0
11
PRESTON COUNTY, WEST VIRGINIA
the Fairfax Stone in 1746 and closes with the arrival of permanent settlers in 1766. It might be styled an age of romance and legend. During this interval of twenty years the Indians continued to hunt or fight, yet white trappers and traders came to visit and explore. A few of the strangers lived here a while leading a bachelor existence. Several were put out of the way by the Indians, and several of the latter were slain by a party of rangers.
The Pioneer Period begins in 1766 with the arrival of white families for actual settlement. It ends with the organization of Preston county in 1818. This half-century is the heroic period of our history. It was the day of the bridle-path, the pack-saddle, the round-log cabin, and the land speculator. It was also the day of the grease lamp, the wood fire, and the hunting shirt. The first half of the period was a time of Indian alarm and massacre. The whole period was a time of warfare with predatory animals.
The Sub-Pioneer Period, opening in 1818, closes with the coming of the railroad in 1851. It was the era of the hewed-log house, the toll road, the stage coach, the charcoal iron furnace, and the hand loom. Though much of the early pioneer crudeness gradually took flight, it was yet a time when the "simple life" was everywhere the rule. The infare, the husking bee, the house-raising, and the fireplace with its backlog remained in vogue. The master of the old-field school boarded round among his patrons. Money was scarce, there were but two small villages, and the day of regimental muster was the event of the year.
The Transition Period, beginning in 1851, ended with the coming of a new industrial development in 1897. When it opened, all the soil had passed into private ownership, and the age of settlement was complete. The new epoch was one of social, economic, and political change. It was characterized by the frame house, the steam sawmill, and horse- power machinery; by the sewing machine, the coal-using stove, the public school, the country church, and finally the telephone. On the one hand, it was marked by a progressive decay and comparative ex- tinction of farm and village manufactures, and by a lessening net in- crease in the pipulation. On the other hand, it witnessed a rapid advance in town and village growth and a partial exploitation of the supply of timber and coal.
This tra may well be sub-divided into an Early Transition Period and a Later Transition Period, the year 1865 separating the two. The reason for this is external rather than internal. It is because of the
. 12
PRESTON COUNTY, WEST VIRGINIA
political and economic changes going on in Virginia and the nation. The discovery of gold in, California, the rapid railroad extension in the West, and the coming into general use in that section of improved farming tools, all had the effect of stimulating emigration from the older communities, Preston included. The Early Transition Period is particularly marked by the acute stage of the controversy between North and South. This culminated in the great war of 1861. The Later Transition Period opened with Preston as a county of West Virginia, and subject to certain new laws and usages. Slavery was done away with and the free school had become a fact. But this period is the most colorless and sluggish of all the seven we have enumerated.
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