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HISTORY OF BRAXTON COUNTY AND CENTRAL WEST VIRGINIA
J. D. SUTTON'S FUNERAL SET
1940 Last Union Veteran of Braxton County Dies
SUTTON, March 31 (Special) .- Funeral services for Colonel John Davison Sutton, 97, Braxton, county's last surviving Union vet- eran of the Civil war who died Saturday evening at his home near here, were to be held at 2 o'clock this afternoon at the home. Rev. E. O. Mclaughlin of Flatwoods, and Rev. J. P. Atkins, Sutton, Methodist ministers, were to offi-
JOHN DAVISON SUTTON
ciate, and burial was to follow in the family cemetery near , the home.
Colonel Sutton observed his 97th birth anniversary on March 1. Dur- ing his long career he had been a soldier, author and statesman and was a member of a family promi- nent in the development of south- ern West Virginia. The town of Sutton was named for a relative, James Sutton. His grandfather, John Sutton, settled in Sutton in 1810.
Born Feb. 4, 1844 at Flatwoods, Colonel Sutton was a son of Felix and Susan Skidmore Sutton. At the outbreak of the Civil war, when he was 17 years old, he enlisted in the Union army, seeing action at the battles of the Valley of Vir- ginia, Richmond and Appamattox as a member of the 10th West Vir- ginia infantry.
Returning at the close of the war, Colonel Sutton was married Oct. 23, 1866, to Mariah Virginia Morrison, who died several years ago. He engaged in farming and stock raising and during the ad- ministration of President Harrison was connected with the federal revenue bureau. In 1919 he pub- lished "A History of Braxton County and Central West Vir- ginia," which is considered authori- tative. Other works include "The Rise and Fall of the Bull Moose Party," "Lottery in the Pines," "A Confederate Scout," "Sixty Years in a Dream," and "The Soldier Boy."
In 1916 Colonel Sutton was a delegate to the Democratic na- tional convention at St. Louis, and, at the age of 79, was elected to the house of delegates, serving from 1923 to 1927. His title of Colonel came through his designation by Governor Gore as a member of his staff.
Surviving the veteran are tw sons, O. O. Sutton, attorney, Sutton, and Clarke Sutton, farm of Gassaway, and one daugh Mrs. J. H. Watkins, at home.
THE CHARLESTON DAILY MAIL, FRIDA
J. D. Sutton, Statesman And Soldier, Enters 95th Year
Member of Pioneer Family Which Founded Brax- ton County Town Active on 94th Birthday
SUTTON, Feb. 4 .- John Davison Sutton, author, soldier and statesman, is observing his ninety-fourth birthday today at his home near Sutton. In spite of his age, he is still active and enjoys walking.
He and members of his family have played an important role in the history of this community, from the time his grandfather first vis- ited this section in 1798 until the present time when his son, Oley Ord Sutton, is the mayor.
In 1798, John D. Sutton, at the request of his father, John Sutton, made a journey from Alexandria, Va., to look over 7,000 acres of land which the latter owned in this sec- tion. In 1810 he returned and settled where Sutton now stands. He gave an acre of land for a public square and the town was named in his honor. In 1839 the first session of circuit court for the newly organ- ized county of Braxton was held in his home.
Fought in Civil War
His son, Felix Sutton, spent his life in the community, where he was a successful farmer and served as a county judge, assessor, sheriff and school superintendent. He was a member of the first constitutional convention and served in the first West Virginia legislature.
John Davison Sutton was born at Flatwoods on Feb. 4, 1844, the son. of Felix and Susan Skidmore Sut- ton. He was reared in Braxton county and took advantage of such
Sutton Man Is 94
JOHN DAVISON SUTTON
school as was available at the time. He planned to attend a Virginia col- lege and study law but the Civil
war broke out and changed his plans. He was 17 years old when he enlisted in the 10th West Vir- ginia infantry and saw service in many battles, mostly in the valley of Virginia, He served until the end of the conflict when he returned to his home and in 1866 was married to Mariah Virginia Morrison. They settled at the old homestead, about 4 miles from Sutton, where Mr. Sut- ton still resides.
Was in Legislature
He engaged in farming and stock- raising, in which he was successful, but throughout his life has had many other interests. During the administration of President Harri- son, Mr. Sutton held a position in the United States revenue depart- ment. After he had passed the age of 80 he served two terms in the state legislature and was appointed by Governor Howard Gore as
a member of his staff.
He was the first chairman of the Droop Mountain battlefield com- mission. The battlefield has since been taken over by the state park commission.
Always interested in writing, Mr. Sutton is the author of an author- itative history of Braxton county which he published in 1919. This book is invaluable to the people of this community, giving the geneal- ogies of many pioneer families and preserving much of the folklore of an early day. Mr. Sutton has begun a second volume of his history. .
Wrote Severai Stories
He is also the author of several stories which were published se- rially under the nom de plume of "Si Allen." Among them were "Life and Courtship in Virginia in the Forties," "A Conspiracy," "Soldiers Return," and "Sixty Years in a Dream."
At his family home Mr. Sutton has an extensive library which con-
Claims He Was Born In Hanks Log House
PENNSBORO, Feb. 4 (AP) .- William Edward Doll, 89-year-old Ritchie county resident, claims the distinction of having squalled his first lusty cries in the same log house in which Nancy Hanks, mother of Abraham Lincoln, was born.
Doll was born in Mineral coun- ty, then Hampshire, Nov. 11, 1848, on the farm and in the house which have belonged to the Doll family for 150 years.
Four of his 11 brothers and sis- ters were born in the house and three brothers and a sister died there of diphtheria within one week.
Doll, a retired stone mason and a farmer, recalls clearly interest- ing pioneer days spent beyond the mountains but his most vivid recollection is:
"I was refused frequently by the Union army because of my youth although I tried innumer- able times to enlist."
tains many valuable old books. His most prized possession is the Sut- ton family Bible. The book is more than 300 years old and was brought from England to America in 1785 by John Sutton. It has belonged to the family through six generations and names recorded in the volume show that each owner was named John
Sutton ( Felix Su owner.
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THE OF
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http://www.archive.org/details/historyofbraxton00sutt
JOHN DAVISON SUTTON
History of Braxton County
AND Central West Virginia
BY JOHN DAVISON SUTTON
Author of "Sixty Years in a Dream" - and other serial stories
WEST
OF
STATE
GINIA
JUNE ~ 20
1863/
MONTANI SEMPER LIBERI
SUTTON, WEST VIRGINIA, JANUARY, 1919
PRICE FOUR DOLLARS
DEDICATION
This work is dedicated to my Father and Mother and to the noble men and women who helped redeem the land from a savage empire, and planted amid the verd- ant hills of West Virginia the seeds of civilization; and may their sons and daughters ever keep green their undying memory.
6
SUTTON'S HISTORY.
We are indebted to the following persons for assistance in the preparation of this work: Prof. R. M. Cavendish, Fred L. Fox, the late A. W. Corley, of Sutton ; Dr. Wm. P. Newlon, John A. Grose, Editor Braxton Democrat; Wm. R. Pierson, of Twistville; Charles Bland, James and Hanley Humphreys, of Sutton, Squire Benjamin Gillespie, and John P. Berry. 1
We also note the following historical works to which we had occasion to refer : Baxter's Notes of Braxton, Chambers' Works, History and Antiquities of Virginia, Annals of Augusta County, Maxwell's History of Randolph County, Wayland's History of Roekbridge County, Lewis' History of the Battle of Point Pleasant, Virginia Militia in the Revolution, Kerehival's History of the Valley of Virginia, Wither's Border Warfare, Col. Haymond's History of Harrison County, Semi-Centennial of West Virginia, History of Upshur County by Cutright, Morton's History of Pendleton County, Colonel Deweas' Notes on Gilmer County, Moeeasin Tracks by Dodrill, and Traditional History by the late Felix Sutton.
7
SUTTON'S HISTORY.
CONTENTS BY CHAPTERS
CHAPTER I.
The Value and Purpose of History ; Virginia; Its Governors and Officials; Its Early Settlement; Its Name and Origin; The Great Range of Mountains Separating the Old State from the New; The Bison Range.
CHAPTER II.
West Virginia; Its Birthplace in the Hearts of the Freemen of the Moun- tains; Constitutions; West Virginia Legislature; Governors, ete .; Elevation of West Virginia ; Counties of State With Names of County Seats; When Formed, ete. ; The History of Song, "West Virginia Hills." p. 24
CHAPTER III.
Braxton County; Its Origin; When Formed; Population; Wealth; Its Representatives; Its Rivers and Natural Scenery; Its Wealth in Mineral Pro- duets; Its Schools. p.3
CHAPTER IV.
Mound Builders; Cliff Dwellers; Indians; Early Emigration; Defenses and Early Forts. p. L
CHAPTER V.
State and County Roads; County Towns; Central Counties of the State.
CHAPTER VI.
Organization of the County Court; First Court; Last Cireuit and County Court Held in the County Before the Organization of the Board of Supervisors; First Offieers Appointed and Elected, County Roads, Early Marriage Lieences, etc.
CHAPTER VII.
Virginia in the Revolutionary War; General Averill's Great Raid to Salem ; Morgan's Raid; Confederate Raids in the State; Cronology of Military Event; Roster of Soldiers of Braxton County, both Union and Confederate; Civil War Ineidents and Tragedies.
8
SUTTON'S HISTORY.
CHAPTER VIII.
Early Commerce; West Virginia's Great Wealth in Native Genseng; Its Value to the Early Settlers; Old Mills; Lumbering on Elk; Great Floods.
CHAPTER IX.
Prominent Men of Central West Virginia ; Men of Great Strength; Church Organizations and a History of Each Church.
CHAPTER X.
Miscellaneous, including Animals, Game and Fish, Large and Wonderful Trees, Meteorology, Incidents, etc .; Generals of the U. S. Army; Burial Place of our Presidents, etc.
CHAPTER XI.
Tragedies; Early Habits of the Citizens; Stock Raising; Anecdotes.
CHAPTER XII.
Personal Writings; Pisgah Mountain, by Dr. A. B. Riker; Henry G. Davis at Mount Bayard; Lists of Old Persons; Fifth Generations, and Large Families ; Biographical Sketches and Family History; The Nation's Fifth Foreign War, with Lists of Volunteers and Drafted Men from this County.
BUTTON'S HISTORY.
Give me a subject for my pen, And let me write in haste; And give me wisdom for my task That I may write with taste.
If the pen should glide too fast, And brain should work too slow, Not all I'd say nor all I'd do, The world need ever know.
If brain should be the masterpiece, And pen should traee the lines, Then what the pen or brain might do, They'd teach to other minds.
11
SUTTON'S HISTORY.
PREFACE
A LL nations have history, and the combined histories of nations compose the world history. It is in keeping with this universal desire of the human family to know more of the happenings of the past, and to preserve a record of this knowledge for those coming after them. For that reason we dig down into the ruins of aneient and hidden cities, and read the record which they have kept so long concealed.
The history that interests us which transpired fifty years ago, is not so important as the history of things that had their existance one hundred or five hundred years in the past. The further advanced by time, from events which have transpired, the more interesting they become. It is said that America is a history-making nation, not only of events of interest to be kept and read by other nations to come, but that she is foremost in trying to diseover the things of the past.
Braxton County, the very eentral county of the state of West Virginia, has never recorded a line of her history. Her citizens have not been ignorant of their duty, neither have they wilfully neglected it, but they have been too busy in digging from her soil a living for their families, felling forests and bringing to use some of her valuable resourees, to thus write.
Braxton County, one hundred and twenty-two years after her settlement and seventy-eight years after her organization as a county, together with central West Virginia, wishes in this humble way to join in this great aggregation of historieal matter that is being thrown to the publie in almost limitless variety, covering a period of over twelve decades, and embracing a semi-wilderness without historieal data, the first half century without any eertain eredential history. The deeayed eabin of the wilderness, the flint loek rifle and the toma- hawk are the unwritten works that form the basis of a record which must of necessity require a work of labor and patience that, even by a skilled historian, would be difficult to approach.
We believe that from the gleanings at our disposal, we eannot produce as full a shock as might have been gathered in the past while the harvest was full ; but if from a past that is rapidly disappearing by the passing of the early settlers in the county, we shall be able to collect a few notes of interest, and preserve a brief historical sketel of the ineidents and early eustoms relating to central West Virginia, with biographieal sketehes of some of her early citizens, it may be of interest to some in future years.
-
12
SUTTON'S HISTORY.
In this history of Braxton County, embracing some of the incidents and leading characters of central West Virginia, we deem it unnecessary to go extensively into the early history of Virginia or of publishing minutely the various causes leading up to the separation of West Virginia from the mother state or of giving in detail the movements of the armies during the Civil War. These have been so often put into print and made a study in the public schools of the state that a repetition here would seem unnecessary; neither is it con- sidered advisable to record many of the bloody and atrocious murders com- mitted by the Indians. A few incidents and a reproduction of a series of letters written by Wm. Haymond and recorded in Colonel Haymond's history of Harrison County, covering a period of the greatest activities of the Indian war-fare against the white settlers in central West Virginia, will give the reader an idea of the cruelty, the persistent activity and relentless warfare be- tween the savages of the forests as well as the patriotic devotion and sacrifices, deprivations and dangers of a border warfare endured by our fathers.
In order to preserve more fully the historical features of the present, we have added as a supplementary addition to this work the portraits of many of the topographical features of the more important points of interest, also those of many of the citizens of the county and the state. While the pen might fully describe the rainbow or the waterfall, paint in brightest colors the sunflower, yet the most perfect information and best impressions come, from seeing the objects themselves, as it is through the vision that the mind photographs the impressions.
13
SUTTON'S HISTORY.
-
-
HON. FELIX SUTTON
Assisted in the organization of the new State of West Virginia, and represented his county in the 1st and 2nd sessions of the Legislature
THE GREAT STATE OF VIRGINIA
Its humble and tragic beginning --
Its magnificence and its grandeur --
Nothing comparable to Virginia has ever brightened the pages of history or crowned the world with such splendor; the first to give to mankind the forms of civil government, a constitution and the spirit of universal liberty and independence.
15
SUTTON'S HISTORY,
CHAPTER I.
The Value and Purpose of History, Virginia, Its Governors and Officials, Its Early Settlement, Its Name and Origin, The Great Range of Mountains Separating the Old State from the New, The Bison Range.
VIRGINIA
The vast section of America between 34° and 45°, originally bore the name of Virginia. In 1608, King James divided this empire into three districts. That granted to the London Company sent out in 1607, one hundred fifty colonists under Newport Gosnold and John Smith, and they settled Jamestown on the James river. In 1609, the London Company was granted the territory for two hundred miles north and two hundred miles south of old Point Comfort, and westward to the Pacific. In 1634, the London Company was arbitrarily dissolved, and Virginia became a Crown Colony, remaining so for nearly one hundred and fifty years. The King appointed the Governors and Counsel, and the people elected the House of Burgesses. The first constitution was dated 1621, and the laws were codified in 1632, after the vast and rich domain northwest of the Ohio river to the Pacific Ocean was added. The Governors of Virginia, from 1606 to 1776, included fifty-two nobles, knights and gentlemen of Great Britain and the province. They were followed from 1776 by such illustrious men as Patrick Henry, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Harrison, Thomas Nelson, James Monroe and many others of note.
In 1584, Queen Elizabeth of England, hearing of a rich and pleasant country in the new world, was so delighted therewith that she was induced to name the country Virginia in honor of her virgin state. In 1586, the first white child born on the continent of North America was named Virginia Dare. Her mother was Eleanor Dare, thic daughter of Captain White, and wife of one of the Assistant Governors of the Colony. After several fruitless attempts to establish a colony on the James river and elsewhere, and after great suffering and privation, famine and pestilence, Indian massacres, separated from friends, kindred and native land, by a deep sea, in 1606, a colony which was destined to become a great state with a citizenship unequaled by any other state or nation of which history gives an account, established itself on a firm footing.
The vessel, bearing this charter and colony, sailed up the James river about fifty miles when a settlement was made. The name was given the beau- tiful smooth stream in honor of their sovereign. The southern cape of the Chesapeake received the name of Henry, and the northern that of Charles, the two sons of James, and they called the town Jamestown.
Virginia, the mother of states and the home of illustrious men and women,
+
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SUTTON'S HISTORY.
has been the pride of every American citizen born and reared within her borders. Her shores were the landing place of the first settlers, and within her borders have occurred the most striking events of any land. She furnished the General whose genius and sublimity led our armies to victory, and who served as the nation's first president. Men of learning and eloquenee prepared the American people for independence. Her own sons prepared the Articles of Confederation, the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, the Bill of Rights and they promulgated the Monroe Doctrine. Upon her soil was fought some of the greatest battles of modern history. Her sons pushed back from the Atlantic Ocean and the James river to the mountain barriers west- ward, fighting the savages eoneealed behind bush and boulder, and at last ascending to the summit, these noble heroes stood with gun and tomahawk between savagery and civilization, while the boldest and those of the fleetest limbs looked westward to her impenetrable forests and riehest valleys. They heard the scream of the panther, the grumbling of the bear, the howling of the wolf and the war whoop of the savage, and with powder and flint, they dashed forth in the mighty forests and became western pioneers with the sublimity of character and heroism that has had no equal. Such was the character of our fathers. These men lived in a period of the world's history when patriotism was the crowning shield of American manhood; the travail period before the birth of a great nation. They blazed the way to a great country and a greater civilization. They opened up a new world, and baptized the waters of the western slope with their own blood.
In the course of time, the people began to see that their interest west of the great barrier which had so long divided the two sections, east and west, had no interest in common with the east, and the first great movement was heard when the Constitution of 1829 was placed before the people for ratification. The greatest and most powerful intellects of West Virginia were arrayed against its adoption. Harrison county gave less than a dozen votes for the Constitution, while the influence of Phillip Doddridge, the greatest orator perhaps who lived west of the Alleghanies, was so bitterly opposed to its adoption that he said he would rather see its contents committed to the flame; that his county of Dod- dridge didn't give a single vote for its ratification. As the breach between the two seetions, grew wider there was almost universal desire from the people west of the Alleghanies favorable to the division of the State, and they waited only for an opportunity, such as the Civil war gave them for carrying their desires into effect.
The geographical and topographical conditions of the two sections left them without homogeneity of interest. It was soon discovered that slavery would be confined to the East as its soil and climate were adapted to the eultivation of tobacco in which slave labor could be made profitable. The Shenandoah and Potomac valleys lying between the Blue Ridge and Alle- ghanies being a fertile limestone soil and well adapted to grazing, and more especially the cultivation of wheat and corn, her trade being north, the sec- tion had but little commercial interests with the tidewater interests of the State.
17
SUTTON'S HISTORY.
That vast region lying between the Alleghanies and the Ohio, comprised a very large portion of the state, and being so long wrapped in the grandeur of the forests, had no interests in which slavery could be made profitable; hence less than four per cent of the population was colored.
Before the building of the railroad, and before the hand of commercialism entered the forests with ax and saw, it presented a veritable earthly paradisc. There was no distruction of the forest except where, prior to the Civil war, small farms were cleared. The rich bottom land, the gentle slopes of the mountain ranges that had gathered its soil for untold ages from the vegetable growth, was covered with a forest of native timber that was unsurpassed by that of any other land.
The richest valley of land was found on the South branch of the Potomac. Land that could not be excelled for fertility in any part of the vast Alluvial soils of the Mississippi valley. Some of the bottom lands of that valley pro- duced one hundred consecutive crops of corn. A great deal of the mountain and rich cove land of the central part of the state has produced thirty and forty corn erops, and some of this land is now covered with a heavy blue grass sod.
The coal lands of the northern part of the state have attracted wide at- tention, and they have drawn vast wealth to that section as well as to other sections more recently developed. While the Pittsburgh coal veins are heavy and easy to mine, often their impurities render portions of that seam useless as a coking coal. The coals that are now being sought lie under the Pittsburgh vein, and crop out after that vein has vanished above the surface. The series of coal known as the Freeport, the Kittanning, the Kanawha and the New River, all crop out in the head of the streams flowing west from the Appalachian range, making a vast area of the finest coals in America. A very great per cent of this coal runs high in carbon and low in ash, making it a most valuable steam and coke coal.
If the Alleghanies were the natural divide between castern and western Virginia, it was also a friendly barrier between the early settlers of Virginia and the savagery of the West. The long and almost impenetratable mountain ranges with their lofty peaks stretching for hundreds of miles, held back the warlike tribes that infested the western world, until the white settlers of the East grew strong enough to raise formidable armies sufficient to give battle to the savage tribes of the west.
The conquest of civilization has ever been westward. The white man filled with the spirit of enterprise and goaded on by desire to acquire the valuable lands that he knew to be in his front, and stung by the cruelty which had been inflicted on his people by the warriors of the forest, made him an aggressive soldier that knew nothing but a forward march and ultimate con- quest. The Indian, strong and alert, cunning and brave, fighting for. his wigwam and his hunting grounds, was at once a Spartan of the forest.
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