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THE NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY
ATT , L'V. X AND
Just Miller
190
HISTORY OF SUMMERS COUNTY
F ROM THE EARLIEST SETTLEMENT TO THE PRESENT TIME
1
1908
By JAMES H. MILLER HINTON, WEST VIRGINIA
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THE NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY
ASTOR, LENOX AND TILDEN FOUNDATIONS. 1912 L
COPYRIGHT, 1908, BY
JAMES H. MILLER
HINTON, W. VA.
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This book is dedicated to the people of Summers County, who have, for thirty years, so loyally showed their faith in a penniless youth of their own soil, and to whom he is indebted for whatever of success or honor he has attained in their midst.
-THE AUTHOR.
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PREFACE
The people of this county have not heretofore taken the interest in their past ancestry to which that ancestry was entitled, or the interest that should exist in all men of the present for the past.
Local history and tradition is to many of the greatest interest- and value, and no man should fail to feel some pride in the place of his nativity, or the ancestor from whom he sprang, however humble they may have been. All helped to build up and create this nation and its civilization, now becoming more populous than are the stars in the heavens, and whose people are as numerous as the sand of the sea. Those pioneers who spent their lives in clearing the forests, preparing and laying the foundations for the happiness of myriads to follow, deserve not oblivion, although many of the incidents and facts of a local value are lost to history, and no history of a local community can be complete without them ; it is to be hoped this imperfect chronicle may at least create a greater interest for the future.
Each citizen should remember that he is not the beginning nor the end of his family. He only counts one in the census. As he reveres his father, so will his children revere him; as he honors his father, so will his children honor him, and so sure as he forgets his ancestry, so sure will posterity forget him, and his name will pass from this world into the same oblivion that forever enshrouds the Hottentot, the Hindoo and the heathen. People will look for- ward to posterity who never look backward to their ancestry, and in a crude way we have undertaken to preserve to posterity some of those events which have not yet passed into oblivion.
The leading incidents of the life of a small and weak munic- ipality will be chronicled, of one only, which goes to make up a small integral part, and influences of the destinies of the great
vii
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PREFACE.
republic (it will be simply, "the short and simple annals of the poor"), which may be thus preserved to future posterity, chronicled at a time "whereof the memory of man runneth not to the con- trary"-at a time when the Republic is on the high road to greater achievements and glory, and at a time when we are proud that we are the direct descendants of the hardy pioneers, one of whose chief glories was in his priceless honor and patriotism and in his aiding in making this land the land of the "free and the home of the brave."
Our readers will appreciate that this book is aimed to be and is exclusively a chronicle of our own and of prescribed territory, and not of adjoining and contiguous territory, and also that it is fragmentary, prepared at odd moments.
I am under obligations to numerous friends for aid rendered in providing me data in regard to family history, especially to Prof. George W. Lilly, relating to the Lilly, Farley and Cook fami- lies; J. Lee Barker as to the Barker ancestry; David Graham in re the Graham family and ancient incidents; Reverends W. F. Hank, G. W. Hollandsworth and L. L. Lloyd, and G. W. Leftwich, James Gwinn, Harrison Gwinn, Esqrs., in regard to church history; to W. W. Jones, Evan B. Neely, I. G. Carden, J. E. C. L. Hatcher for information as to the enlisted Confederate soldiers; Hon. B. P. Shumate, Hon. S. W. Willey and Andrew L. Campbell, Esq., J. M. Meador and W. H. Boude for court records and other courtesies. The lineage of numerous families would have been more complete had I received the response and aid of those from whom informa- tion was requested.
JAMES H. MILLER.
December 1, 1907.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
CHAPTER I. PAGE
Territorial Lineage 1 Lord Fairfax. 4
CHAPTER II.
Fragments of Ancient History. 15
First Declaration of Independence 25
CHAPTER III.
Aboriginal and Ancient. 31 Diagram of Fort. 42
CHAPTER IV.
In the Early Days. 47
CHAPTER V.
Topography, Geography, etc. 66
CHAPTER VI.
First Settlers and Pioneers 85
CHAPTER VII.
First Settlers of Hinton
103
CHAPTER VIII.
Formation of Summers County. 114
Act establishing Summers County 116
ix
x
TABLE OF CONTENTS. -
CHAPTER IX. PAGE.
First County Officials and Organization.
124
Elections-1871
134
1872
139
1874.
163
1875
166
1876
169
1877
166
1878
177
1880
178
1882
184
1883.
191
1884.
194-197
Capitol Election.
171
Miscellaneous information, 1871-1890, see Chapter IX ..
CHAPTER X.
Some Chronological Data 150
Ayers, Jas. M.
. facing 184
Breen, M. N facing 184
CHAPTER XI.
Changes
198
CHAPTER XII.
In War Times. 202
Camp Allen Woodrum
217
Harrison, Nathaniel. 228
Prices During the War.
226
Rebellion, Last Fight of
228
Results of War
226
Soldiers
210
Soldiers, Federal.
218
Soldiers, Spanish-American War
219
Session Acts of West Virginia Legislature, 1866. 227
Woodrum, Allen, Death of.
208
CHAPTER XIII.
Bank of Hinton. 245
Hinton, Distances from 246
Hinton Hardware Co .. 247
National Bank of Summers. 244
TABLE OF CONTENTS.
×1
CHAPTER XIV. PAGE.
-
Land Titles.
249
West, Jolın, Lands.
264
CHAPTER XV.
Elections
266
1884.
272
1888.
272
1890
273
1892
273
1894
274
1896
275
1898
277
1900
278
1902.
281
1904.
281
Elections, prior, see Chapter IX.
CHAPTER XVI.
Schools
290
Graded Schools.
300
History of Education in Summers County
295
CHAPTER XVII.
Churches
Baptist, Bluestone.
323
Baptist, Central.
321
Baptist, Fairview.
316
Baptist, Indian Mills
304
Baptist, Lick Creek.
308
Baptist, Rollinsburg.
306 Christian, Indian Mills. 320
Methodist Episcopal South, Forest Hill 319
Methodist Episcopal South, Hinton
303
Methodist Episcopal South, Talcott 318
Oak Grove Church. 322
Presbyterian, Green Sulphur. 315
Presbyterian, Hinton 305
Presbyterian, Keller.
312
Saint Patrick's Church
317
CHAPTER XVIII.
Hotels
325
Hotel McCreery
327
A
302
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TABLE OF CONTENTS.
CHAPTER XIX. PAGE.
Political
329
Graham, C. H.
344
CHAPTER XX.
Roads
34
CHAPTER XXI.
Names
351
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
FACING PAGE
Adams, Hon. W. W
684
Alley, W. S. 724
Ayres, James M. 184
Bowling, Walter P. 496
Baber, C. A ..
512
Bolton, Jas. D .. 534
Brightwell, W. J. 418
Bolton, H. A ..
423
Bolton, Rev. A. D.
280
Bacon, Nathaniel
672
Barker, J. Lee.
678
Boude, Walter H.
702
Breen, Captain M. N.
184
Barksdale, Wm. Leigh. 572
Ballangee, David Graham 710
Campbell, A. N. 624
Campbell, Jas. P.
624
Campbell, A. L. 654
Clark, Chas. 478
Compton Family 490
Capeller, John.
452
Codle, James E.
434
Daly, A. D. 488
Dunn, Hon. E. L 576
Dunn, L. M. 604
Ewart, F.
568
Ewart-Miller Building
832
Ford, Hon. A. 592
Flanagan, A. G. 612
Flanagan, Robt. R. 618
Foss Bridge.
738
Fowler, Elbert 460
Fox, Dr. J. A.
712
xiii
xiv
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
FACING PAGE
Gallagher, F. M.
654
Gwinn, M ..
660
Gwinn, Andrew
660
Garnett, W. H.
734
George, Jas. H.
518
Graham, Chas. H.
344
Garden, Chas., Sr
526
Graham, David.
364
Graham, R. Hunter
364
Graham, John
370
Graham, J. A.
370
Gooch, Benjamin P
418
Gwinn, H.
508
Gerow, Henry S.
234
Harrison, J. C ..
592
Heflin, Archie Roy
606
Harvey, John E
618
Hoge, B. L.
724
Hutchinson, A. M.
508
Hobbs, Jas. A
526
Hinton, John.
534
Haynes, Wm.
560
Hutchinson, Michael, and Wife.
560
Higginbotham, Upshur
428
Hatfield, Captain
444
Hinton, Joseph.
408
Hinton, Mrs. Avis. 664
Hedrick, Wm. C.
544
Johnston, Albert Sydney 606
James, J. C .. 502
.
Jones, W. W. 423
280
Keatley, A. J 496
Kesler, O. T
568
Keadle, J. E. 435
Lilly, Geo. W. 464
Lilly, Greenlee. 464
Lilly, T. H .. 472
472
Lavender, J. B.
Lilly, G. L .. 390
Litsinger, P. K. 794
McCreery, Jas. T 580
Manning, M. A
604
Jordan, G. L. and J. H. 380
Jones, W. W.
XV
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
FACING PAGE
Mann, Thos. G.
672
McLaughlin, Nannie B.
478
Miller, Four Generations 386
Miller, Geo. A.
390
Miller, Wm. E.
394
Miller, James H
Frontispiece
Miller, James H.
400
Miller, C. L.
394
Meador, Joe M .. 404
Meador, D. M.
404
Meadows, A. G. 408
Maxwell, Robert H. 434
Neeley, L. M., Sr. 696
Neeley, L. M., Jr 696
Noell, N. W. 512
Pack, Rebecca 448
Pack, Josephus 452
Pence, A. P. 720
Peck, Shannon P. 484
Read, Thos. Nash. 484
Ryan, W. G .. 550
Richmond, John A. 412
Smith, Jas. F. 670
Shumate, B. P.
460
Sawyers, Wm. H. 488
Swope, J. J. 444
Taylor, S. F. 656
Thompson, Benj. S. 702
Thompson, Hon. Wm. R. 634
Woodrum, Major Richard. 656
West Virginia Colony 812
Withrow, C. Wran
412
Warren, M. M. 416
Warren, W. H. 416
Wiseman, John W 550
Willey, S. W. 502
Walsh, Father David. 576
Walker, Lee
794
History of Summers County
CHAPTER I.
TERRITORIAL LINEAGE.
This continent was claimed to have been discovered by the Icelanders, by the Welsh and the Norwegians, and no doubts exist but that there are reasons and foundations for these claims ; but the discoveries, whatever were made, were accidental, and were not from a preconceived effort to discover a new world by the applica- tion of scientific principles, and the discoveries were useless to civili- zation or mankind. The merit of all is due to the native of Genoa, and it has for ages, by universal consent, been properly conceded to him. Of the existence of this world Columbus only knew from his science, and his adventurous daring led him to seek for it and to find it. He it is to whom we are entitled to give all the undivided glory for an exploit, and for which he only received the ignoring of his sovereign and of his contemporaries; and to Italy the glory of being the birthplace of this illustrious man, from whose great and brilliant achievements a new world has arisen from the wil- derness inhabited by a savage people, and on whose soil great nations have grown, as well as the most splendid civilization, as well as an example of the glorious liberties intended by the Creator. This discovery was on the 14th day of October, 1492, nearly 300 years before any white settlements were made permanent west of the Allegheny Mountains.
The first attempt to settle the Virginia country was made by Sir Walter Raleigh in 1584, but this settlement failed. The settlers became discouraged, and, on being visited by the famous Sir Fran- cis Drake, pulled up and sailed back for England, just as supplies and aid were coming to their relief. Later, Raleigh sent other sup- plies, never forgetting his colonists, but all met with disaster, and thus failed the first attempt at a settlement, which was on the island
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HISTORY OF SUMMERS COUNTY, WEST VIRGINIA.
of Roanoke, North Carolina, but then known as Virginia. These settlers had fatal experiences with the Indians, who were savage and barbarous towards their enemies, but kind and helpful towards their friends. Raleigh was a gallant nobleman, imprisoned and beheaded by his sovereign, Queen Elizabeth.
The next effort for a settlement was that at Jamestown, on the James River, in 1606, under a charter granted by King James the First. This charter included the present territory of West Vir- ginia, and this settlement was to be a permanent one, and was the first on the new continent and world discovered by Columbus. Capt. John Smith was appointed governor, but his associates were jealous, and deposed him before his investment; but he was the leading spirit, and soon all matters concerning the government of the colonists were referred to him. The settlements were confined to the region east of the Blue Ridge for the first one hundred years after the Smith settlement at Jamstown, when Alex. Spottswood, in 1710, was made governor, and soon after, with a troop of thirty horse, explored the valley beyond the top of the Blue Ridge, for which notable, daring event he was knighted by the King of Eng- land, and these adventurers were known to history as the Horseshoe Knights by reason of the gift of the king to Spottswood of a minia- ture golden horseshoe, with the motto inscribed, "Sic jurat trans cen- dere montes," after the Smith settlement at Jamestown, when Alex. Spottswood was succeeded by Gooch as governor. a general of the British army, who has descendants now in this and Mercer Coun ties; Dr. Carl Gooch and Mr. Thomas Gooch. After this notable event the valley was settled, and a lunatic ventured across the Al- leghenies, and wandered into the Greenbrier region, and, on wan- dering back to his old habitations, he reported in the country quanti- ties of game, after which the adventurer, the hunter and the trapper came and went, reporting the country, and finally came the pioneer and the settler. The government of the country was altogether under the British Crown until 1776, when the Declaration of Independence was written, and after that glorious event the juris- diction passed to the Commonwealth of Virginia, under which it continued until the twenty-third day of June, 1863, at which date West Virginia was admitted into the Union, and since that date under the jurisdiction of that Commonwealth.
This territory was a part of the original thirteen States named in honor of Elizabeth, the virgin Queen of England, and comprised all of the territory north of Florida extending from ocean to ocean across this continent from the Atlantic to the Pacific, and when the
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HISTORY OF SUMMERS COUNTY, WEST VIRGINIA.
charter was granted by the Crown of England creating the South Virginia Company, usually known as the London Company, prac- tically the whole of North America was called Virginia, and in- cluded the territory between thirty-four degrees and forty-five de- grees north latitude, and the London Company's charter in Vir- ginia was between thirty-four and forty-one degrees north latitude. it being conceded that south of what was known as Florida belonged to Spain, and that the northern region was conceded to France, but much of the territory within the London Company's charter, or Virginia territory, was claimed as within the dominion of the French Kings. The session of territory from the State of Vir- ginia to the United States was made March 1. 1784, and the gift from Virginia to the general government was 195,431,680 acres, the · most valuable gift to the nation ever bestowed upon it. The ter- ritory of Virginia now, after all its sessions and mutilations, is about 40,000 square miles, after the last slice was taken therefrom of 23,000 square miles and formed into West Virginia.
Virginia was divided into eight original counties in 1634, the first division of the kind recorded in history, and in one of these eight counties our territory was included as a part of Accomack County, later Northampton, after the Earl of North- umberland. To show the recklessness with which the British Kings gave away their dominions in Virginia, and what little value they attached thereto, we mention the grant by Charles II. in 1661 to Lord Hopton, which included all of the territory lying in Amer- ica, bounded by and within the headwaters of the Rappahannock, the Potomac and the Chesapeake Bay. It was sold by the patentee to Lord Culpepper in 1683, and was confirmed by further patents from James II., and is known as the famous Fairfax Domin- ions. The elder Lord Fairfax, who was the fifth of the line, married the only daughter of Lord Culpepper. These lands. descended to the son of this marriage, Lord Thomas Fairfax, the sixth Baron of Cambridge. He came to Virginia in 1739 to look after his estate. This estate included the territory comprised within the counties of Fincastle, Northumberland, Richmond, Westmore- land, King George, Stafford, Prince William, Fauquier, Fairfax. Louden, Culpepper, Clark, Madison, Page, Shenandoah and Fred- erick, which were within the present limits of Virginia, and Hardy. Hampshire, Morgan, Berkeley and Jefferson within the State of West Virginia, in all aggregating 6,000,000 acres: and it was this Fairfax that discovered that the Potomac River headed in the Al- legheny Mountains, and the innumerable law suits growing out of
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HISTORY OF SUMMERS COUNTY, WEST VIRGINIA.
the same created the commissions and the planting of the famous Fairfax Stone. Augusta County, formed in 1738 from Orange, was named in honor of Princess Augusta. West Augusta was never a county or a political or municipal division, but was a great expanse of all the territory west of the top of the Alleghenies, and was called West Augusta, but was never recognized by legislative or other enactments.
LORD FAIRFAX.
This English lord, with all his dominion, equal to a great com- monwealth, lived and died in a single story-and-a-half house. He owned 150 negro servants, who lived in log huts scattered about in the woods. Fairfax's house was destroyed by fire in 1834. Lord Dunmore brought his forces to this place in 1784, when he was marching after the Indians toward Point Pleasant. They dug a deep well at this place and erected a magazine for war purposes. Fairfax was a dark, swarthy man, several inches over six feet, of gigantic frame and of great strength. He was a bachelor, and lived on the coarse fare of the country, the same as that of the peasantry around him. When in a humor he was generous, giving away whole farms and requiring nothing in return. He would give away a farm in exchange for the courtesy of a turkey killed for him for dinner. Fairfax County was named after him.
Our territory was within the boundaries of that Commonwealth which furnished an example to the world by adopting a perfectly independent Constitution ; the first to recommend the Declaration of Independence; the first to declare for "religious freedom"; it furnished her great son, first among the leaders of the army of the nation ; and her officers and soldiers, whether in the shock of battle or marching, half-clad, ill-fed and barefooted, amid the snows of the North, through pestilential marshes and under burning suns in the far South, evinced a bravery and fortitude unsurpassed. The War of the Revolution was practically extinguished in 1780 at the surrender at Yorktown of Lord Cornwallis, and then began the great impetus to the development and settlement of the territory to the west of the Alleghenies by the pioneers, the ancestors of the present generation in the land ; and it was within the territory which produced Jefferson, Marshall, Madison, Monroe, Masons, Nicholas, Henry, Randolph, Pendleton, Lees, Wythe, Harrison, Bland, Tay- lor, Grayson, and a host of others who met and formed the glorious Constitution of 1788, under which we live, and within the territory of the Commonwealth which so loyally supported her President.
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5
HISTORY OF SUMMERS COUNTY, WEST VIRGINIA.
Madison, in the second war with England in 1812, furnishing sol- diers whose descendants still inhabit this territory.
This territory is within the boundary of the commonwealth which first introduced religious liberty to the world. The most of the institutions of this country have grown by evolution from be- ginnings made by the early settlers and brought by the aboriginal ancestors from their homes across the seas. We have no stories of royal dynasties, or orders of nobility, or ancient castles. They are wanting in our American history, but we have much to com- pensate us for all we lack of the more ancient days-the story of marvelous development and unprecedented growth of our peoples and institutions. We have the personal story of barefoot boys, born among the lowly, but untrammeled by the iron fetters of caste, rising by the force of their own genius to the highest ranks of the political and industrial world. The greatest states- men of this land, the commanders of armies and captains of indus- try, have practically all arisen from the commonest walks, and the true stories of this country are more fascinating than any history of the ancients. It also recites the removal of an ancient race from the soil upon which has been transplanted another. We see the wild man of the forest in his native haunts, where he chases the wild animals, the deer and buffalo, or where he strives with his enemies in battle. His life was full of tragedy and wrongs-of rivalry, hatred and love. He was living in the vast solitudes of nature, in appearance content with his family and kindred who made the crude surroundings, and in a few short years you follow a stronger race coming from across the seas, and the long warfare between civilization and barbarian began. The wild man yielded or fled before the forces of a modern life, or died in the struggle with civilized forces. Then followed the pioneer with his axe, his cattle and his plow, and then began the development of a conti- nent. The new world became the home of the oppressed from every land. Towns rise where the forest waved over the wild man's home, and our hills and valleys resound with the teeming life of an industrious and ambitious people.
Summers County was originally a part of the territory of Virt ginia, settled by the English in 1607, by Capt. John Smith, a sol- dier of fortune, who had in the wars between the Turks and the Austrians, as a soldier of the Austrian Army, been wounded, cap- tured and sold into slavery in the Crimea, later killing his master with a flail while threshing wheat. He wandered through Ger- many and France, and finally landed in England as a colony was
6
HISTORY OF SUMMERS COUNTY, WEST VIRGINIA.
being made up, which sailed and settled at Jamestown three hun- dred years ago. He was a man of great capacity for adventure, and his life was saved by the Indian princess Pocahontas. He was the founder of Virginia, the first commonwealth in the world to be composed of county political subdivisions, based on universal suf- frage. In 1634 Virginia was divided into eight counties. The first hundred year's settlements were in the Piedmont and Tidewater regions. The solitudes west of the Blue Ridge were not pene- trated until one hundred years after the Jamestown settlement. Alexander Spottswood, whose descendants owned twenty-eight thousand acres of land in Summers County until about 1884, led the first band of adventurers to the summit of the Blue Ridge. He was born in 1676, in Tangiers, Africa. His father had been a sol- dier under Marlborough. and was dangerously wounded by the French, at the battle of Blenheim.
He landed in Virginia June 23, 1710. As Lieutenant Governor Spottswood, with thirty cavalier horsemen, left Williamsburg June 20, 1716, passing through King William, Middlesex, thence to the Rappahannock, the Rapidan, Green County; Blue Ridge, at Swift Run Gaps, crossing the Shenandoah ten miles below Port Republic. in Rockingham County, until, on the 5th of September, 1716, they arrived at one of the loftiest peaks of the Appalachian Range, in Pendleton County, W. Va.
veyor, made the first scientific observations ever made upon the Allegheny Mountains.
Said Spottswood was born, as stated, in Tangiers, in Africa, a colony of the English Crown, in 1676, and seems to have been some- thing of a soldier of fortune. He served with the famous dissolute Duke of Marlborough, and was wounded at Blenheim. After his good fortune in becoming a ruler in Virginia, he determined to explore the territory west of the Allegheny Mountains, and learn more of the western region : and with that end in view organized a party of thirty horsemen at Williamsburg, and left that town on the 20th of June, 1716, and reached the highest peak of the Alleghenies, which is in Pendleton County. West Virginia, on the 5th day of Septem- ber. 1716; and there Robert Brook, the King's surveyor, made the first scientific observation ever made in the Allegheny Mountains. To induce western settlements. Spottswood instituted the Knights of the Golden Horseshoe, the insignia of the order being a minia- ture horseshoe, with the inscription thereon, "Sic jurat trans cen- dere montes"-"Thus he swears to cross the mountain." These were given by Spottswood to any one who would comply with the inscription, and carry out his project to secure exploration of this
1
OLD TIME TOBACCO BARN
In Talcott, Forest Hill and Pipestem Districts in the Days of Tobacco Growing.
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THE NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY
ACTOR, LENOX AND
7
HISTORY OF SUMMERS COUNTY, WEST VIRGINIA.
western country, and secure emigration thereto. The Shenandoah Valley, through which runs the Shenandoah River-"The Daugh- ter of the Stars"-had not then been settled.
The close of the Revolution, followed by the victory of Wayne at Fallen Timbers over the Indians, crushing their power, finally opened the way for the pioneer and settler west of the Alleghenies.
In 1776 Thomas Jefferson, within three days after he took his seat in the Legislature, introduced a bill for the establishment of courts of justice, and three days later a bill to convert estates-tail into fee simple. This was a blow to the aristocracy of Virginia.
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