USA > West Virginia > Preston County > A History of Preston County, West Virginia, V.1 > Part 16
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51
An even more pervading horror took place at Newburg, January 21, 1886. Through an explosion in a coal shaft, 39 men were instantly killed, none of those in the mine escaping. The victims were citizens of the county, and many if not all were of native birth.
During the 46 years of the Transition Period, the population of Preston nearly doubled, though not quite. Throughout the first decade there was a large immigration. The coming of the railroad brought in many people, especially from the Shenandoah Valley, in search of low- priced land. It also brought in a foreign element, particularly of the Celtic Irish, who came as workmen and many of whom settled in and about the towns which sprang up along the iron highway. So many of the Scotch came to work the newly opened mine near Newburg as to give the locality the name of Scotch Hill. But after the closing of the mine, these Scotch generally drifted out of the county.
With the opening of the great war, the volume of immigration be- came very light, though still varied in character. More than ever be- fore, the Great West was drawing the attention of the American home- seeker, and the progressive industrialization of the Eastern cities caused them to grow far more rapidly than the Eastern rural districts. Both these causes stimulated an emigration from Preston, especially to the prairie states and the nearby industrial towns in Pennsylvania.
The local agriculture was undergoing a marked change. The raising of flax became of less importance and it was not long before it wholly ceased. The chaff-piler, the improved thresher, the reaper, the mower, the steel plow, and other improved implements came into use, but owing to the rugged and rocky nature of the Preston hills, hand labor can never be displaced to the degree possible in level agricultural regions.
.
156
PRESTON COUNTY, WEST VIRGINIA
The decay of the National and Northwestern pikes had destroyed one valuable home market, yet the railroad towns had created another. But while the farmers continued in a large measure to live within their resources, the influence of the vast acreage of corn and grain in the West was such as finally to bring an almost entire pause in the clearing of new land, and even to return some of the open ground to the condition of woodland.
In the small industries, particularly those of the home, the changing conditions were even more pronounced. Weaving and other adjunct activities of the farmhouse came to almost total extinction, and there followed an increasing dependence on the supplies furnished by the village merchant. One by one the small water mills fell into disuse. Some gristmills are yet at work, but on the whole there has been a losing fight in the competition with the steam mill of the railroad town. In a still greater degree has the portable steam sawmill displaced the up and down blade driven by the waterwheel. The shook industry, once of much importance, went down in 1874. But the demand for sawed lumber, telegraph poles, ties, tanbark, and other timber products, has continued in full vigor.
In the larger industries, the Transition Period witnessed some decay. Iron was made at Muddy Creek, at Gladesville, and on a still larger scale at Irondale, yet all these furnaces went out of blast and have never resumed. The tanning industry, once so prominent, is equally extinct. But at Newburg, Austin, West End, Tunnelton, and Cornith there was a very considerable output of coal and coke.
. In a quiet, steady, and somewhat unobtrusive manner, there was a steady advance in the conveniences of our modern civilization. The public roads were made wider and rather better, and the numerous streams were spanned with the wagon bridge, or in the absence of it by the footlog. The building of log houses came to an end, because their construction was now economically wasteful. A majority of them gradually went out of use in favor of the white-painted frame dwelling. Within doors the stove became universal, and except to a partial extent in the southeast of the county, where coal does not exist, the use of wood gave place to coal, taken so far as the rural supply was concerned from the private coal bank. The former barrenness of the house interiors was now relieved by modern furniture, and by wall-paper, pictures, and oc- casionally an organ. Churches and schoolhouses increased in number, the small, antiquated building of either class steadily giving way to one larger and better.
ยท
157
PRESTON COUNTY, WEST VIRGINIA
When the Sub-Pioneer Period came to and end, the county had vil- lages rather than towns. The few there were did not contain a tenth of the entire population, nor was even all the village element divorced from active farming. The incoming period was one of town building. The village along the old pikes or within their spheres of influence in- deed fell into an arrested development, yet this was far more than com- pensated by the larger places called into being by the railroad.
The mode of living, though influenced more and more by the advent of new conditions in American activity, was yet staid and it continued to display a deep impress of the early pioneer usages. We notice an active desire to keep well abreast of the larger American life without, and it is accompanied by an occasional note of impatience with habits or practices deemed out of date or prejudicial. In the early 70's we hear complaint of a tendency to drive away the intending purchaser by asking too high a price for farm land. One critic asserts "it is the general cry in this county that it is not a fit place to live in." Another, in calling attention to the economic truth that a community must buy no more than it sells, declares that $150,000 went out of Preston in 1875 for flour, grain, and bacon, and that the county was poorer by $500,000 through the diversion of labor to the shook industry. It is claimed that the wants of the people were becoming unreasonable, and that the farms were deteriorating through the lack of a sufficient amount of "fist-phate." Still another observer, in speaking of the sheep industry, frees himself in this manner: "People keep dogs just as they chew tobacco-from force of habit. Does one dog in fifty do a useful thing, unless it is considered useful to lie under the stove and bite at fleas, cover the floor with mud, chase cats, coons, and sheep, bark at passers-by, and occa- sionally take a choice morsel from a person's shin?"
But these strictures were a healthful sign. The community was really moving forward about as rapidly as could reasonably be asked, and that it possessed the spirit of progress, is apparent in the very im- patience of the criticisms. It was a time when the old was tumbling into ruin, and before the new had assumed a definite form. It was a time of transition, and until the realignment was more clearly seen, it was but natural that a note of pessimism should now and then be struck.
158
PRESTON COUNTY, WEST VIRGINIA
CHAPTER XVII
INDUSTRIAL PERIOD.
The Early and the Later America - Development of Our Coal and Timber - Progress During the Period - Social Changes - The Maryland Boundary Dispute.
The Industrial Period of Preston history opens with the renewal of business activity after the depression following the panic of 1893. The year 1897 is a fairly accurate threshold for the new era.
To appreciate the signficance of this epoch, we may profitably com- pare the America of 1789 with the America of 1913.
At the former date the United States had only 4,000,000 people. It was a loosely knit aggregation of former colonies starting out on an independent career full of promise, but under a form of government which was new, of untried strength, and in the eyes of other nations of uncertain future. The infant nation was viewed with haughty insolence by England and with no cordial sympathy by the other monarchies of Europe. Compared with the leading nations of that continent, it was, weak as well as poor. Those countries knew this very well and they treated us accordingly. Again, the United States was agricultural. Its industries were emphatically "infant industries." The roads were bad. A little inland from the coast was a well-nigh illimitable wilderness. The wealth of the nation was not quite one billion dollars, or an average per capita of about $250. Washington himself was one of the very wealthiest men of that age, and he was not quite worth $600,000. It is not clear that there was a single millionaire in the United States.
The United States of 1913 has with its outlying dependencies more than 100,000,000 inhabitants. It is now a nation in fact, and no longer a nation in assertion. In agriculture, in manufactures, and in mining it is the foremost country in the world. In intellectual achievements it is the peer of any other. The former wilderness and its tenants are subdued. There are many more miles of railroad than in any other country whatsoever. In physical power, America now stands before any individual nation of Europe, and those nations know it. They may not like us any better than they did a century ago, yet they treat us with careful respect, because they respect force, and that is the only power which nations ordinarily do respect. The wealth of the United States has grown to more than one hundred and twenty billions of dollars, or
159
PRESTON COUNTY, WEST VIRGINIA
an average per capita of about $1,450. Millionaires are now to be counted by the thousand, and the pendulum of wealth has swung so far in the direction of individual accumulation as to make it a national and social menace.
The American nation of 1789 might be personified in a lusty young frontiersman on a very large woodland farm. He owns a log cabin and has a very few acres cleared. He must live very largely within his own resources, and is confronted with the possibility that at any moment he may be compelled to defend his title.
The nation of 1913 may be personified in a very prosperous man in the prime of life. The huge farm is now mostly cleared, and the open area is covered with great meadows and pastures and with broad fields of the staple crops. The woodland paths have given placed to graded roadways, and the cabin to a commodious mansion. The farm is well stocked with machinery. And last but not least, the title is no longer in jeopardy.
When the present epoch of Preston history began, the industrial development of the United States had become so enormous as to draw heavily upon all its material resources and upon its whole supply of labor. No portion of the vast domain could escape the contact of these activities and the sharing to some extent in the material results. The strategic position of Preston, and in particular its nearness to the in- dustrial centers of America, made it inevitable that the stores of coal lying within her hills would be in request, because of the swift advance in the demand for this mineral fuel. It was also inevitable that her residue of timber would also be in request, and that the surplus of her farms would not need to look far to find a purchaser. It was also ap- parent that the labor of the county would find employment abroad even if it did not always find it at home. And furthermore, in the general lubrication of the wheels of trade throughout America, and in the inti- mate commercial links with which all portions of the land are knit together, it necessarily followed that Preston must needs share in this lubrication, both directly and indirectly.
When after the depression of 1893 the industries of America were again under full headway, their dimensions and their momentum had become startling.
West Virginia was no longer to be a neglected and backward corner of the Union. Its poverty of railway mileage was no longer to make the state conspicuous on the railway map. "The peasantry of the west" were now to come to the front with the prospective result of putting it
160
PRESTON COUNTY, WEST VIRGINIA
in doubt whether the mother or the daughter, whether Virginia or West Virginia would finally win in the race for prominence.
Of the millions of external capital now poured into the Mountain State, no small portion was sprinkled over the hills of Preston, the coal deposits being the chief magnet to attract the golden stream. Purchases of coal rights were made to the extent of at least $1,500,000, and with the further investments in mining and other industrial plants and in the purchase of timber, there has been brought into the county a sum that would average more than $100 to every inhabitant, whether man, wo- man, or child.
But this of course was not all. There was a demand for labor at wages never before known. Farm animals and farm products were now selling at good prices. The hotels even of the smaller villages became thronged with guests. New banks were opened, and men became pos- sessed of bank accounts who one or two decades before had had meager acquaintance with ready money.
The reflex influence of this speedy access of financial ease was very apparent. Still better dwellings appeared, and there was a still higher standard of domestic comfort. Even in the remaining log houses, there were more cozy interiors than formerly were to be seen in the better homes, and there was very often an organ, even if there were no inmate to play upon it.
The number of postoffices, after passing sixty, reached its highwater mark and then began to decline, owing to the appearance of rural free delivery routes. Telephone service is quite general. Increased atten- tion is given to the highways and bridges, and municipal improvement in the way of churches, schoolhouses, sidewalks, and street lighting has registered a very decided advance since the new century came in.
There is still some emigration from Preston, but rather more immi- gration. There is also an internal readjustment of population, as wit- nessed in the rapid growth of certain towns and industrial localities. At these points there is a floating element of laboring people, especially Italians and negroes. Industrial interests are in fact now in the lead.
Very pervading have been the social results. Allured by the abund- ant employment at good wages, young men and young women forsook the farmhouse, and flocked into the towns of this and other counties. The schools began to suffer, not merely from a want of trained teachers, but from a want of a sufficient supply of teachers of any sort. Farmers had much trouble in finding help, either for the field or the house. They too became restless. Estates lying in the family for perhaps a
.
1
161
PRESTON COUNTY, WEST VIRGINIA
hundred years were now sold, and the new home was sometimes sought in another county or another state. The well known characteristics of town life began to color deeply the social life of the entire community. Isolation was measureably abolished.
Even if the price of from $10 to $20 an acre was insignificant as com- pared with the potential value of the underlying coal, the aggregate sum paid to the landholder was a very considerable accession to his available wealth, and it came with little or no effort on his part. That it was always used with wisdom would be contrary to human nature. It therefore transpired that the money buzzard, scenting his prey from afar, should hover over the Preston hills, tell of his seductive gold brick schemes, and insert his foul beak into the purses of men who were more confiding than wise.
The new period is as yet one of readjustment, and the impulses of the period it has supplanted have necessarily projected themselves into the one in which we are living.
The month of June in 1910 witnessed the settlement of a boundary dispute between Maryland and the Virginias, which had been vexing the people on the eastern border of Preston for almost a century. The difference of opinion centered on the proper starting point at the south of the line separating the counties of Preston and Garrett. The Yough- iogheny River would have made a good natural boundary between the states. Its source is close to the southern end of the interstate line. It courses a few miles on Preston soil, and then passes into Garrett, flowing nearly northward to the Pennsylvania border. However, the width of Preston would have been increased by an average of at least two miles.
In 1787, the state of Maryland ordered a survey of its vacant lands on the plateau of Garrett county. Francis Deakins was appointed for this purpose, and the next year he laid off more than four thousand military lots of fifty acres each. The western line of his survey, which ever since has been known as the "Deakins line," begins at the Fairfax Stone, but instead of holding a due north course it veers eastward to the extent of a little more than one degree. Westward of this line, with slight exception, the lands have ever since been held by citizens of the Virginias.
By the wording of his charter, the western limit of the grant to Lord Baltimore is the meridian passing through the "fountain of the Poto- mac." Virginia and afterward West Virginia have regarded that foun- tain as definitely located by the Fairfax Stone. Maryland has not con- sidered herself a party in this proceeding, although her entire territory
162
PRESTON COUNTY, WEST VIRGINIA
was taken from the chartered limits of Virginia without the consent of that colony. Her title was made clear by the voluntary act of Virginia in 1776. Yet Maryland afterward put up the claim that the South Branch of the Potomac is the main stream and that something near a million acres to the eastward of its source should belong to her. This claim was dismissed by the Supreme Court of the United States.
In the report of his survey of the military lots, Deakins designated his line as "the Meredian Line and the head of the North Branch of Potowmack." Yet in December of the same year-1788 the following section appears in an act of the legislature of Maryland :
"And be it enacted, that the line to which the said Francis Deakins has laid out the said lots is, in the opinion of the general assembly, far within that which this state may rightfully claim as its western boundary; and that at a time of more leisure the consideration of the legislature ought to be drawn to the western boundaries of the state, as objects of very great importance."
In 1819, Maryland authorized commissioners to meet others ap- pointed by Virginia, and settle the boundary by a line "to commence at the most western source of the North Branch of the Potomac and run a due north course." Three years later, Virginia passed an act of like nature, except that it instructed its commissioners to begin at the Fair- fax Stone. These directions being deemed irreconcilable, nothing was accomplished then, nor by the new commissioners appointed by the two states between 1825 and 1833.
In 1852 and 1854, commissioners were appointed by Maryland and Virginia, respectively, the instructions of the Maryland act providing that a boundary line "be accurately surveyed, traced, and marked with suitable monuments, beginning at the Fairfax Stone and running thence due north." This time there was a partial result, inasmuch as Lieu- tenant Michler of the Coast Survey ran in 1859 a line due north from the Fairfax Stone. Between the Deakins and Michler lines there was thus a thin wedge, its point resting on the Fairfax Stone, and its base, about three-quarters of a mile, resting on the Pennsylvania boundary. Yet the Deakins line is not uninterruptedly direct. It includes one or two abrupt offsets pointing eastward, these being made necessary by land grants of earlier date.
The Michler line was not approved by Virginia, and the disagreement continued. Virginia and afterward West Virginia claimed the Deakins line as the boundary, and Maryland held to the Michler line. Both Preston and Garrett claimed jurisdiction over the strip lying between,
163
PRESTON COUNTY, WEST VIRGINIA
and this disagreement was a source of annoyance to the people of the disputed area.
In 1891, Maryland brought suit before the Supreme Court of the United States, her bill of complaint alleging that the true boundary should lie several miles to the west and south of the Deakins line, thus coinciding with what is known as the Brown line. The court rendered its decision in favor of West Virginia, basing it on the fact of long continued possession, and on the ignorance of local topography at the time the colonial grants were given. Mr. Julius K. Monroe was one of the surveyors appointed by the Supreme Court to survey the adjudicated line and mark it at half-mile intervals with granite sl ts.
164
PRESTON COUNTY, WEST VIRGINIA
CHAPTER XVIII
JUDICIAL AND POLITICAL.
Judges and Circuits - Political Parties in Preston - Present Political Complexion of County - Preston Congressmen.
Until 1831, Preston county was included in a superior court presided over by Daniel Smith of Harrisonburg. Under the constitution of that year, Preston became a part of the 20th Circuit, Ioth Judicial District. The constitution of 1851 placed the county in the 21st Judicial Circuit, and the first constitution of West Virginia made it the 4th of the new state, the other counties of the circuit being Monongalia, Taylor, and Tucker. The constitution of 1872 threw it into the 6th Judicial District, containing also Barbour, Gilmer, Lewis, Randolph, Tucker, Upshur, and Webster.
The following judges have followed Daniel Smith :
Gideon D. Camden, 1852-1861. William H. Harrison, 1861-1863.
John A. Dille, 1863-1873. John Brannon, 1873-1881. William T. Ice, 1881-1891.
Joseph T. Hoke, 1891-1897. John H. Holt, 1897 -.
The following persons have served as clerks of the court :
Eugenus M. Wilson, 1818. Charles Byrne, 1818-1843. John P. Byrne, 1843-1852. Smith Crane, 1852-1888. John M. Crane, 1888. John W. Watson, 1888-
Until 1851, the county court was composed of the justices of the county, and these officials were appointed by the governor. The oldest justice by commission acted as president of the court. The sheriffalty was filled by a senior justice, he being recommended by the court and commissioned by the governor. He did not always serve, however, and in such event sold out his commission to another person. The first sheriff was John Fairfax, who sold his commission to Joseph D. Suit.
165
PRESTON COUNTY, WEST VIRGINIA
The first county court was composed of John Fairfax of Valley, Frederick Hersh of Union, Hugh Evans of Reno, Nathan Metheny of Pleasant, Jonathan Mathew of Lyon, Nathan Ashby of Portland, John Scott of Grant, and Benjamin Shaw of Kingwood. John Fairfax by seniority of commission acted as president. The first place of meeting of the board was the upper east room of the ancient building then owned by William Price and recently owned and occupied by Mrs. Catharine Kemble.
The magistrates received no compensation. Their commissions were for life or good behavior, but every two years the member with the oldest commission temporarily retired to become sheriff.
The constitution of 1851 created a county court of 32 justices, four being chosen from each district. They were elected by the voters of their respective districts and were commissioned by the governor. The president of the court was chosen by the board. The members now received a per diem compensation, but no fees or emoluments.
The following citizens composed the first court under the new regime :
Grant-Harrison Hagans, William McKee, Henry Smith, James Hill.
Pleasant-Joseph N. Miller, David Graham, Samuel DeBerry, Jacob F. Martin.
Portland-Buckner Fairfax, Abraham Jeffers, David O. White, William T. Kelley.
Union-William H. Grimes, John A. Wotring, John D. Stemple, .... Shaffer. Reno-John J. Hamilton, Job Jaco, Joseph G. Baker, Moses Royse.
Lyon-John Howard, David H. Fortney, George D. Zinn, William J. Kelley. . Kingwood-John S. Murdock (president), Israel Baldwin, Hezekiah Pell, Elisha M. Hagans.
Valley-Peter M. Hartley, David C. Miles, Isaiah Kirk, Barton Hawley.
In 1863, a county board of supervisors took the place of the county court, and was composed of one member from each district. Each year the board chose one of its members to serve as president and it also appointed a clerk. During the 10 years the system of supervisors was in force, the clerks were John J. Brown, William Sigler, Henry Startz- man, and Alfred T. Holt.
Prior to the constitution of 1851, the circuit clerk was also county clerk. It does not appear that the incumbent became excessively rich, since so late as 1857 the salary for the office of county clerk was $100, the prosecuting attorney being paid the same amount.
166
PRESTON COUNTY, WEST VIRGINIA
The clerks of the county court have been as follows :
Charles Byrne, 1818-1843.
John P. Byrne, 1843-1852.
James H. Carroll, 1852-1863.
Henry Startzman, 1873-1876.
J. Ami Martin, 1876-1903.
George A. Walls, 1903-1909.
Edward C. Everly, 1909-
The constitution of 1863 provided for the office of recorder. This was filled by William Sigler until his death in the fall of 1864, and after- ward by Henry Startzman.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.