USA > West Virginia > Preston County > A History of Preston County, West Virginia, V.1 > Part 15
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The day for the election of delegates was February 4. Meanwhile, meetings were held at Brandonville, Reedsville, and other places, the resolutions adopted declaring in favor of upholding the Union, yet de- ploring the ill-feeling which was a feature of the sectional quarrel. In- tense interest in the critical situation was shown throughout the county. On January 25 a pole 105 feet high was set up at the courthouse. It carried a streamer with the word UNION, in large letters. The next day, which was that of the county convention for nominating delegates, a beautiful flag was presented to the meeting by the ladies of King- wood. The words of presentation were responded to in a patriotic and eloquent speech by John J. Brown. William G. Brown and James C. McGrew were nominated as delegates, and they ably expressed their views as to the situation within the state and the relation of the state to the Union.
During the few remaining days of the campaign, other meetings were held at Aurora, Gladesville, and elsewhere, and the effect was to emphasize the Union sentiment of the county. Brown and McGrew were elected without opposition on February 4.
Nine days later, the "People's Convention" met at the state capital, and was presided over by the venerable John Janney of Loudoun County. One of the delegates was ex-President Tyler, the weakest man who ever occupied the White House. In the assembly were 85 supporters of Bell, 35 of Douglas, and 32 of Breckenridge. The session was marked by great excitement, and by fervid appeals for disunion on the part of representatives from South Carolina, Georgia, and Mis- sissippi.
The report of the Committee on Federal Relations declared for the sovereignty of the state, the friendly settlement of the existing troubles, and the rebuking of sectionalism in politics. It declared that the terri- tories were the property of all the states, that forts and arsenals within a state should not be used against that state in the event of domestic war, that a state had the right to secede, that Virginia would resist its forcible subjection to Federal authority, and that the Federal gov- ernment should deal peaceably with the seceding states, even to the recognition of their independence. The report also asked that no war- like operations be conducted while peace measures were pending.
A close look into these resolutions shows a formal pronouncement for the Union, hedged about by conditions which would leave only a semblance of authority to the national government. It was like a
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fabric which, though outwardly showy, is yet too weak to bear any serious strain.
A resolution in favor of secession was rejected April 4 by a vote of 89 noes against 45 ayes. Yet the minority redoubled their efforts. The people of the city were generally on their side, and they were aided by the visiting representatives of the sceded states. Fervid appeals were iterated and reiterated. The slave states which had not yet seceded had nearly twice the white population of the group that had gone out. The whites of the seven seceded states were outnumbered ten to one by those of the other twnty-six, and could be crushed if the united weight of the latter were thrown against them. But if all the slave states made common cause, it was represented that they would possess the national capitol, that being within slave territory, and that Euro- pean intervention wiuld bring the North to terms. As a member of the Southern Confederacy, a most roseate future was pictured for the Old Dominion.
Richmond filled with an inflammable throng of secessionists. The news of the firing on Sumter put the crowd into a frenzy. It was alto- gether too impatient to wait and see what the national government would do. The Stars and Stripes were torn from the Capitol, the Con- federate banner was flung to the breeze, bonfires, band playing, and illuminations were the order of the day, the Union members of the con- vention were hissed when speaking, and threats of personal violence were made against them. On the 17th of April, two days after the fall of Sumter, the Union majority had so far crumbled under the terrific pressure that an ordinance of secession now passed by a vote of 88 to 55.
The delegates from Preston not only voted against the ordinance, but gave notice that the measure would never be upheld by the west of the state. Their words were declared trasonable, they were insulted on the street, threatened with hanging, and remained in imminent peril until they were beyond Harper's Ferry on their way home.
Three days after the passing of the ordinance, a meeting of citizens was held in front of the courthouse in Kingwood. Union speeches were made, and the Kingwood Chronicle came out with the motto, "The Union, right or wrong-we'll defend her when right; when wrong we'll right her." Late in April there came a report that the governor had sent a force to seize the arms stored in the courthouse. More than 100 men gathered in Kingwood under command of Captain Isaiah Kirk, Jacob G. Cobun, D. B. Jeffers, and others, and carried away the 200 muskets kept for the use of the militia.
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Pursuant to a call for a county convention, a very large assemblage gathered in Kingwood on the 4th of May. Captain Kirk, heading a large delegation from Valley, led a procession through the streets, the national banner flying, and a band playing patriotic airs. Samuel R. Trowbridge was chosen president of the meeting, and William G. Brown and James C. McGrew made speeches on the state of the coun- try. The resolutions then adopted condemned the measures taken by the recent state convention, affirmed an antagonism in interest between the two sections of the state, and declared in favor of their separation. There was also a declaration of loyalty to the Federal government, and of fraternity toward the people of the adjacent free states. There were now chosen four delegates from each district to the convention of the western counties called to meet at Wheeling on the 13th of the same month.
In that city was formally launched the movement which led to what was termed the "Reorganized Government of Virginia," and was then followed by the organization and establishment of the new state of West Virginia. Since the details of these procedures are given at some length in the school and other histories of the state, it is not thought necessary to repeat them here.
On the 22d of May occurred the death of T. Bailey Brown, who is said to have been the first soldier killed in the civil war. Colonel Por- terfield had been sent by Governor Letcher to organize the companies being raised in the northwest of the state under the call for state troops. Four companies made rendezvous at Fetterman. A Union com- pany formed at Grafton sent Brown and another man to reconnoiter. They met two sentries near Fetterman, were ordered to halt, but kept forward, and some rough words were used. Brown shot one of the men through the ear. The sentry, whose name was Knight, and who was a former acquaintance, returned the fire, killing Brown instantly. Brown's action in keeping onward was unmilitary, but the time was yet too early for the seriousness of real war to be taken much to heart.
May 23, the people of Virginia voted upon the ordinance of seces- sion. In Preston the affirmative ballots were 63, the negative 2,256. A comparison of these figures with the total population shows that few voters failed to go to the polls. In all the western counties the yeas were 4,000 and the nays 40,000. In the eastern counties the relative figures were 92,000 and 25,000. As that section had already thrown it- self into the Confederacy, and was dominated by the same feeling that
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had shown itself in the closing days of the state convention, the voting test was not an accurate gage of public sentiment. On the same day, William G. Brown of Kingwood was chosen to the lower house of Con- gress, notwithstanding that the secession convention had canceled any election of Federal congressmen.
Very near this date, great alarm was caused by a report that 1,500 Confederates were about to march from Grafton to Kingwood to ar- rest and hang the Union leaders. It was soon learned that this was a false report, but the village being defenseless, several of the threatened men went to Uniontown. From the latter place a small force marched forward to Brandonville, where it was joined by some Maryland mili- tia, and by the 104th regiment of the Virginia militia. Later in the same week this militia regiment assembled at its training ground, a wooded hill in the east of Kingwood, formed a hollow square, and in a kneeling posture took the oath of allegiance to the United States. The scene was impressive, and has never been forgotten by those who wit- nessed it.
In June, a detachment of 40 men from the force at Rowlesburg was guided by William Hall in an expedition to St. George. It met no re- sistance, but returned with two Confederate flags. On the 22d of the same month, the volunteers under Captain Kirk paraded in front of the Pleasant Valley church, between Masontown and Reedsville, and were there presented with a flag by Miss Mattie W. Miles. Her words of presentation were responded to by the Reverend J. H. Flanagan. The companies under Captains Kirk, Hagans, and Litzinger were mustered into the Federal service at Baltimore a few days later.
The number of Prestonians who enlisted in the Union army was 1,594. The 3d, 4th, 6th. 7th, 14th, 15th, and 17th regiments of West Virginia Infantry, and the 3d West Virginia Cavalry, were in part com- posed of Preston volunteers, as was also the 3d Maryland Infantry.
The 3d Infantry made a good record. and was a part of the force under General Averill when that commander made his raid to Salem, in the Valley of Virginia. The Sixth was employed in the important duty of guarding the Baltimore and Ohio railroad. The Seventh saw very active service in the Army of the Potomac, and was the only regiment of West Virginia infantry at Gettysburg. Its losses were severe. As a compliment to its gallantry at Ream's Station, it was supplied with the Henry repeating rifle. The Fourteenth was a part of the brigade which routed a superior force at Carter's Farm, capturing 200 prisoners, 4 guns, and 1,000 small arms. The Fifteenth also experienced hard
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service, losing 285 men in the campaign of 1864. The service of the Seventeenth was short, and it was stationed in the interior counties of West Virginia. The Third Cavalry campaigned in the Shenandoah Valley, and the division of which it was composed was thus compli- mented by General Custer : "You have never lost a gun, never have lost a color, and have never been defeated."
The Confederate troops of General Garnett, in their retreat from the battlefields of Rich Mountain and Corrick's Ford in the summer of 1861, marched through the southeast of Union. The only other ap- pearance of armed Confederates was in the April of 1863.
General William Jones advanced from the Shenandoah Valley by way of Moorefield, his purpose being to capture horses and cattle, burn the bridge at Rowlesburg, blow up the Kingwood tunnel, and do other damage to the Baltimore and Ohio railway, a line highly important to the Union cause. His force comprised the 6th, 7th, 11th, and 12th Vir- ginia Cavalry, Brown's Maryland Battalion, and Chew's Battery, a total of about 3,000 men. At Gormania he detached Colonel A. W. Harman with 1,000 men to strike the road at Oakland. With the re- mainder of his force he reached Aurora, on Sunday, April 26, coming into the village by the Northwestern pike. A brief halt was made, and some goods were taken from a store. Here he found a resident of Rowlesburg named Morris, whom he had known before the war as a reliable man. He questioned Morris about the Union force at Rowles- burg, and was told with a great showing of earnestness that 1,600 sol- diers were in the place, and more arriving by every train. The actual number was 450.
Jones moved down the pike to the river, and then sent two companies to attack the east end of the railroad bridge, while 250 men advanced on the left side of the river. These scouting parties were seen, and an alarm was given at Rowlesburg, causing the morning congregations to disperse in a hurry. The garrison consisted of companies F and K, and parts of L and O of the Sixth West Virginia Infantry, and were under the command of Major John H. Showalter. A detachment of 20 soldiers joined by some citizens took a strong position east of the river, and re- pulsed the Confederates advancing on that side, although the town was fired upon from the high summit of the river hill. The remainder of the Union force took position behind piles of railroad ties and opened such a stiff fire on the other scouting party that Jones withdrew his men, thinking he might have been told the truth.
That night Jones went into camp at the Drover's Rest. The next
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day he passed through Fellowsville and Evansville, and struck the railroad at Newburg and Independence. Here the track was torn up and the bridges burned. His next camp was near Gladesville, whence he pushed on to Morgantown, his scouting parties gathering all the horses they could find.
At Evansville the Southern soldiers were permitted to help them- selves to the goods in the stores. One man with a hazy idea of what he really wanted thought he would return to Dixie with some hoop- skirts. Accordingly he tied a large bundle of this item of feminine apparel to his saddle. Seeing the performance, Jones made the man dismount, put on one of the skirts, and march up and down the street in it. He also reproved him for loading his beast with merchandise that could do him no service.
In passing through Preston the raiders were repeatedly fired upon by the citizens, but so far as known without effect. A citizen a little over the Monongalia line and thought to have been bushwhacking was se- verely wounded in the shoulder.
Meanwhile the other Confederate column made an unexpected ap- pearance at Oakland on Sunday morning. It took prisoners 18 men of Company O of the Sixth Infantry and moved upon Terra Alta, doing much damage to the railroad track and bridges. Near the Youghio- gheny River, the raiders captured Captain J. M. Godwin and Lieutenant Sancer, commanders of the aforesaid squad, who were inspecting bridges. The 20 soldiers were paroled. At Terra Alta about a dozen of Godwin's company under command of a sergeant took position at a sawmill east of town and were joined by some citizens. As the Con- federates came into sight they bravely opened fire, but were entirely too few for successful resistance, and most of them were captured.
Mathias F. Stuck, deputy sheriff, was one of the citizens in the skirmish, and being captured was led into the presence of Colonel Har. man. The latter was about to have him shot, since both Federals and Confederates usually made this disposition of men in citizen's clothes found firing upon an enemy. But Stuck's defiance and his display of nerve saved him from being shot on the stump he had been ordered to mount. He was now made to accompany the Confederates, hatless and riding a horse bareback. Harman had declared he would send him to Richmond to stand a charge of treason for holding office under the government of West Virginia. But when three miles beyond the town, Harman released Stuck, telling the latter not to be caught by him again
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in the same manner. Stuck replied that he would do again as he had done this time, and the colonel replied that he could not blame him.
Meanwhile the Confederate soldiers had broken into the stores, tak- ing what goods they wanted and giving other goods to the towns- people. Harman states that Rowlesburg was his next objective, and had he gone that way he could have wrested the town from the much smaller force under Showalter. On the contrary he moved to Albright, where he camped for the night. Next morning he cut the cables of the suspension bridge in retaliation for being fired upon by citizens in the hills. At nine o'clock he reached Kingwood, from which the men of the town had fled. No depredations were here committed by the cap- tors. They molested neither the courthouse, the stores, nor the flag pole, and no soldier was permitted to enter a private house. A guard was even placed over the store of James C. McGrew. However, two or three men fired upon them as they entered the town.
From Kingwood the column moved through Reedsville toward Mor- gantown to join the main column. Mr. Heidelberg, the merchant at Reedsville, had secreted his goods in a grove, where they were found and most of them were carried away. This column like the other took all the horses within its reach.
Major Showalter was re-enforced after his repulse of the enemy, but being out of provisions and hearing that one Confederate force was at Terra Alta and another wrecking the Kingwood tunnel, he decided on a retreat and arrived at Morgantown after Jones had left. The policy of a retreat was not approved by all his subordinates, and was bitterly condemned by the public.
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CHAPTER XVI
TRANSITION PERIOD.
The Constitutions of 1862 and 1872 - Burning of the Courthouse - The Tunnel Hill Tragedy - Local Progress.
West Virginia adopted its first constitution in 1862. By this instru- ment, voting by ballot was substituted for the viva voce method. Judi- cial circuits took the place of the county courts. County subdivisions were styled townships instead of districts. Each township of not less than 400 people elected one justice of the peace, one constable, one supervisor, one clerk, and one surveyor of roads. The township of not less than 1,200 people was to choose a second justice and a second con- stable. Acting collectively, the supervisors were to constitute a county board having charge of the affairs of the county. All taxes were to be uniform and equal.
This constitution was the work of but a minority of the people whom the close of hostilities found living in West Virginia. In forming and organizing the new state, the Northern Panhandle had been exceedingly influential. This narrow tongue of land, though populous and wealthy, contains only two per cent of the area of the state. As Virginia soil it is a geographic absurdity. Econmically and socially, it is a part of either Pennsylvania or Ohio, and to this day its people do not take very seriously their connection with West Virginia. In the interest of pre- serving its unity, Virginia would have done well to cede this narrow strip to one of the states above mentioned.
The Panhandle influence followed the Ohio model in framing the constitution of 1862. But to the mass of the West Virginians, some of the changes introduced were a broader departure than they were ready to take at a single bound. The innovations were alien to their habits of thought and were displeasing.
The Flick amendment caused a political revolution in the new state. The names restored to the polling list were almost exclusively Demo- cratic. The control of the state now passed from those who had been Federal Separatists to those who had been Confederate Separatists. This element promptly exerted its strength by framing the constitution of 1872. The innovations of the war constitution were largely thrown aside in favor of the old names and usages. In their haste to get rid
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of things they detested, the framers perhaps dismissed some features which were intrinsically better than the ones they put back. But strong was the prejudice against Northern influence. For example, the names "township" and "supervisor" were spitefully cast out in favor of the old terms, although Virginia herself has retained the word "supervisor," which was put into her reconstruction constitution.
Preston county was represented in the constitutional convention of 1862 by John J. Brown, and in that of 1872 by William G. Brown and Charles Kantner.
During the bitterly cold night of March 6-7, 1869, the courthouse of Preston took fire and burned to the ground, together with the accumu- lated records of fifty years. One room was used as the office of the Preston County Journal, and still other rooms were the dwelling apart- ments of Hiram Vankirk and Peter Voltz. Suspicion quickly rested on Elihu Gregg, a man of quarrelsome and revengeful nature. There was on record a judgment against Gregg of $100, and from this he had no escape save through the destruction of the official papers. Gregg fled to Pennsylvania, was there arrested, brought to Kingwood for trial, found guilty through a network of circumstantial evidence, and sen- tenced to be hanged, the death penalty for such an offense being at that time permissible .* The Court of Appeals ordered a new trial, and again a sentence of death was decreed. Before it could be inflicted, Gregg and two fellow prisoners broke jail through a tunnel they had excavated. After eight years, it was found that Gregg, now an old man, was in Greene county, Pennsylvania. He was again arrested, and after some technicalities had been adjusted, he was turned over to the authorities of West Virginia, and the old sentence was reaffirmed. It was not executed, and in 1881, Gregg received an unconditional pardon from Governor Mathews and returned to Greene county. The pardon was viewed with indignation by the citizens of Preston. There was no longer a general desire for the infliction of the death penalty, but it was feit that a life imprisonment was none too much for the vindictive burning of the county records.
The incendiary act made necessary a new building, and the eastern districts made a strong and almost successful effort to remove the county seat to Terra Alta.
In the centennial year of 1876, Independence Day was observed at Kingwood on a much more imposing scale than ever before, and was
*In 1775 Virginia recognized 27 offenses as punishable by death.
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attended by a multitude of people. In an opening address, James C. McGrew dwelt on the significance of the day from a national viewpoint, and was followed by William G. Brown, who gave an interesting and valuable "Historical Sketch of Preston County and Its Towns." During the season, the Centennial Exposition at Philadelphia was- attended by 33 persons from Grant and by II from Valley.
In 1873 began a long continued depression in business, and its effects in Preston were rather severe. Tramps whose name was legion in- fested the roads. Kerosene sold at 40 cents a gallon, and sugar as high as 15 cents a pound.
During the Transition Period, as well as before, several episodes of counterfeiting lent their color to the generally even tone of the Preston chronicles. Ever since the Revolutionary days, when the British imitat- ed by the wheelbarrow load the rudely executed and already depreciated Continental paper money, various American citizens of flexible con- science, cunning brain, and dexterous fingers have insisted on defrauding their fellow-citizens by devising imitations of paper currency. With the increase of skill and with the use of complex methods in the making of the genuine article, the counterfeiter of paper money must needs be an expert of a very high order, and even then he is sure to be brought to bay by the sleuth-hounds of the national treasury. But the counter- feiting of metallic money is yet possible with a much lower exercise of skill, and in those "good old days" when honesty was less in evidence than it is now, the makers of fraudulent specie were numerous and they were everywhere. Even yet the leaden-hued dollar and other bad coins are to be guarded against. From the deliberate handling and even the producing of spurious coin, Preston has not been exempt, although suspicion has sometimes without doubt sought to fasten itself upon innocent persons.
. In 1879, a shocking accident occurred near Tunnelton. On the night of October 22, Joseph M. Ashby was passing over Tunnel Hill and was perhaps under the influence of liquor. He lost his foothold and slid into one of the three open shafts which the railroad authorities with culpable negligence had suffered to remain uninclosed. Suspicion pointed to a particular one of these man-traps, and the surface of the ground around it bore some indication that an object had slid into the opening. Elisha Thomas had so distressing a dream that Ashby had fallen into the shaft, that he got up at one o'clock and sat by the fire till daylight. Judge Shaw had an equally vivid dream. Sheriff Ford shared their conviction that the shaft would yield up the secret of Ashby's disappearance, and
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the three resolute men went ahead with an investigation, regardless of the protests of the worried railroad officials, and of those citizens who feared a "graft" on the county treasury. A scaffolding hauled from Kingwood by Mr. Thomas was built over the yawning mouth, and in the presence of 250 people, George F. Williams was lowered to a depth of 180 feet. He signalled for an overcoat and after an absence of three minutes he returned with the corpse of the ill-fated man under the overcoat. Overcome by emotion, a brother and a nephew rushed toward the scaffold, and fearing these persons would meet the fate of the man who had fallen into the pit 53 days before, the horrified spectators averted their faces. Williams found evidence that at least one other person had previously fallen into the hole, or had been thrown there.
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