USA > West Virginia > Preston County > A History of Preston County, West Virginia, V.1 > Part 30
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The growth of population would have impelled all these elements to people the Appalachians and the West, yet the process would have been slower by several decades than it actually was.
But during the half-century preceding the Revolution, 200,000 of the Ulster-Scotch and a host of Germans came to Philadelphia. - To find room for themselves they had to push through at once to the frontier. The Ulster-Scotch, or Scotch-Irish as they are generally called, were the more numerous and took the lead in the westward advance. They were peculiarly adapted to the part they were now to play in American development. They were tall and sinewy, hardy and enduring, clear- eyed and level-headed. They were not outwardly affectionate and were not given to display of emotion. The Scotch-Irishman was neigh- borly, yet would quarrel over trifles and be at outs with a person for years. He was much inclined to practical jokes, and his vein of humor was coarse in its make-up and rough on the edges. He would treat an enemy well, provided the enemy would give up. He had much re- spect for solid learning but was lacking in the graces of culture. Yet he was an overcomer by nature, and he proceeded to subdue the forest, the savage, the French, and the British.
These Scotch-Irish on the frontier were joined by many of the Ger- mans and by some of the people from the lowland South, from the coast districts of the Middle colonies, and from New England. The wilderness environment caused all these elements to fuse quite speedily into a common model, the traits of the Scotch-Irish being in the ascendant. Thus was formed an American of a new type, and for this period in our national history we may call him the American High- lander. By the time the war of the Revolution came on he constituted perhaps a fourth of the white population of America.
Two striking facts are true of this people. The Americans of the lowlands lived on or near navigable waters. They faced toward Europe, trade ! with Europe, and were in touch with European life. they lived in good homes and many of them were cultured people. Their civilization in the aggregate was an improvement over that of the British Isles. They had a deep love of liberty, yet they had imperfectly divested themselves of the aristocratic feeling which ther fore-parents had brought from Europe.
On the contrary, the Amercan Highlander faced westward and not eastward. By plunging far into the wilderness he not only lost easy touch with Europe but with the seaboard itself. He spoke of the latter as the "back country." He adapted himself to the frontier by
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living in a log cabin and wearing a coonskin cap and a hunting shirt. He supported himself from what the frontier itself could afford him, and very little by turning a surplus into goods imported from Europe. Furthermore, while his love of liberty could scarcely have been more intense than that of the lowland American, he far surpassed the latter in the depth of his democratic impulse. By nature, by the influence of his Presbyterian creed, and by his experience with British oppression, he had acquired for all that is implied in aristocracy a strong aversion.
Again, because lowland America was a modified Europe, there were very many of its people to uphold the claims of the king in the quarrel with Britain. These tories, as they are called, were particularly numer- ous among the wealthier people; the officials, the merchants, and the large landowners. Such persons are inclined to be conservative, and in siding with the king the tories thought they were letting well enough alone, or at least were not making a bad matter worse. But the Scotch- Irish were American in spirit as soon as they set foor on American soil. They had known persistent oppression, and they threw them- selves into the cause of independence with great ardor. The people of the Old Frontier were therefore ahead of the men of the coast in advocating American independence.
The man of the Old Frontier was a type much more peculiar to the soil than the types found on the coast. The American Highlander had to be practical because almost every need that came to him had to be supplied from the resources near at hand. He had to be self- reliant, quick to think, and strong to act, because of the struggle with wild nature and wild men. A common danger felt by the people of a settlement produced a community of feeling and placed them on an equality. The inhabitant of the Old Frontier was more or less at outs with the dwellers in the "back country." This trait has proved very persistent. In the Revolution he was all the more a patriot, because so many of the people on the coast were tories. In 1861 he was generally opposed to secession, and in large degree the Appalachian region was a source of weakness to the Confederate cause. His antag- onism to the Tuckahoe caused the Cohee of transalleghany Virginia to desire statehood for himself.
By dwelling on the threshold of the West, the American Highlander led in the settlement of that section and contributed heavily to the make-up of its population. To this degree he became an American Lowlander, but a Lowlander of the Great Interior. The type of Ameri- canism he did so much to fashion was soon so strong as to infuse a more
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democratic spirit into the laws and usages of the Atlantic communities. An instance of this will be found in the history of the Virginia Con -- stitutions of 1829 and 1851.
There was some dross in the composition of the American High- lander. His manners and morals deteriorated in the more isolated set- tlements amid the mountains. His love of liberty ran to an extreme. He was impatient of restraint in matters of law and religion. He could fight as a bushwhacker, but was insubordinate as a soldier in an organized command. His cabins and his villages were untidy, and his children grew up in ignorance of schools. Being thrown back on the elemental resources of human nature, whisky was his ready resource for producing that excitement of the nervous system which in refined communities is afforded in less objectionable ways. Yet all this has proved to be only a passing phase. It has lingered longest in the most secluded settlements. Even there the inherent vigor of the stock reasserts itself by responding quickly to the ameliorating in- fluence of a freer contact with what is best in modern progress.
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CHAPTER IV
OUR VARIED IMMIGRATION
In an early chapter of this book we remarked that Preston county is a meeting point of those influences whose interplay nas produced the America of the present. It follows as a perfectly natural result that almost without exception every one of the immigrant European types we have sketched is represented here. and likewise every one of the American types that took form along the Atlantic seaboard. It is not with this county as with some of the out-of-the-way counties of the Appalachians, where the present population is almost wholly the progeny of the original Scotch-Irish. or possibly German, settlers, and where there has been little subsequent immigration or emigration.
On the contrary, there has been a constant and varied inflow into Preston and a constant outflow out of it. Families of English, Low- land and Highland Scotch, Ulster-Scotch, Welsh, Celtic and Saxon Irish, German, Dutch, Swiss, and even Spanish origin have come here, sometimes direct from Europe, and sometimes after a long or brief tarry on the seaboard. Of the English-American types, the Cavalier has come from east of the Blue Ridge, the Quaker from Pennsylvania, the Puritan from New England, and the less differentiated English of the Middle Colonies. All the Atlantic states above North Carolina and excepting Rhode Island, appear to have contributed to the settle- ment of this county.
To cap all this initial diversity, we find that the county was settled not from one direction only, but from four directions; and that within the limits of Preston are several distinct provinces of set- tlement. ,
The very earliest route was the Indian path used by the Eckerlins and Pringles and by hunters from the South Branch. It would seem to have been used by the Butlers, the Ashbys and the others who set- tled about the Dunkard Bottom, on the upper Youghiogheny, and on Snowy Creek.
But a more important inlet was the Braddock Road and the trail which branched out from it to follow the lane in the forest opened by the Mason and Dixon surveying party. By this route came settlers to the Sandy Creek glades in 1769 and the years following.
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Meanwhile a still larger stream was pushing through on the main thoroughfare to the Monongahela below the state line. The fertile valley and its navigable river caused land hunters to scatter south- ward as well as northward. Settlements were thus made around Mor- gantown, and so from the west there was an upward drift into the glades of Valley and into the basins of the Three Fork and the Sandy of Reno.
At a very early day, people had gone direct from the South Branch to the bottom lands of Tucker. Some of these settlers, like the Goffs and Carricos, crept down the Cheat into the southwest of Union.
The Revolution was over in 1783, settlement was moving westward more rapidly, and a direct path was opened from the Potomac to the Cheat by way of the Terra Alta gap. There was a stream of newcomers from this direction, some of whom settled on the Cheat and about Kingwood, while others went beyond. A branch of this inflow was the German colony at Carmel.
Thus far, immigration had been by bridle-path and packsaddle. The new path became a state road and was practicable for wagons. Preston was now definitely bisected by a through highway, and immigration became easier. Wagons could also get into the Sandy Creek glades by way of Pennsylvania.
The magnificent National Road, passing quite close to our northern boundary was like a trunk-line railroad. It brought still more people to the northern end of Preston. The Northwestern Pike, about twenty years later, had a like effect in the southern districts.
The Baltimore and Ohio railroad, arriving in 1851, made travel still more expeditious and caused new inducements to immigration. Men who came to help build or to operate the railroad remained as residents. Other men came to dig coal at Scotch Hill, to gather and ship timber products, or were attracted by the low price of land.
After a time of ebb, there was the industrial development which set in at the very close of the last century. A new railroad was built and new coal mines were opened. There was in consequence a fresh influx, partly temporary in its nature, and largely consisting of Italians and other foreign laborers.
The general stream of immigration may be classified in the follow- ing branches: 1. The earliest pioneers, chiefly Ulster-Scotch and English; 2. The Germans of Union; 3. The Germans of the northern districts, largely American-born and from the counties of Somerset,
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Bedford, and Fayette; 4. The Quakers from the southwest of Penn- sylvania; 5. The colonial British elements arriving by way of the South Branch, the Winchester and Clarkesburg road, and the Monon- gahela River; 6. The planter element from east of the Blue Ridge; 7. Ulster-Scotch and German families from the Valley of Virginia; 8. Scotch and Irish drawn here by railroad building and coal mining ; 9. German Catholics coming direct from Europe; 10. Men from New England interested in the timber business; II. Virginians wishing to evade Confederate service; 12. Recent comers from Pennsylvania and Ohio in search of low-priced land; 13. Italian and other foreign laborers.
We have remarked that there are several provinces of settlement. These are quite distinguishable and may be thus described : first, the Northern, including Grant and Pleasant, the north of Portland, especi- ally the Craborchard, and that portion of Valley which borders the Cheat; second, the Central, including the east of Kingwood and the center and west of Portland; third, the Western, covering the basins of Decker's Creek and the Three Fork; fourth, the Southwestern, covering Reno, the south of Lyon, and the western edge - Union; fifth, the Southeastern, covering the rest of Union and the southern bor- der of Portland. To these may be added a sixth, which might be called the Railroad Zone, inasmuch as it follows the course of the Baltimore and Ohio railway through the county and throws out a northward wedge from Tunnelton.
It is not of course to be imagined that all these distinctions are everywhere clear and obvious, or that the boundary lines indicated are clearly defined. Nevertheless, a broad acquaintance with the people of the county will disclose enough points of variation to warrant the generalizations we have made.
To illustrate, the Northern Province was settled very generally by a direct immigration from Pennsylvania. The German blood now pre- dominates there, although there were few Germans among the earliest comers. The Southeastern is still more dominantly German, yet springs from families which for the most part came direct from Germany and are not related to those of the Northern. They also arrived by a more southern route. The Central shows a very mixed origin, the British strains dominating. Its avenue of arrival was mainly by the central highway. The Southwestern is likewise of quite mixed origin, both as to derivation and direction of arrival. In part, it was largely
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settled by a sub-migration from the Northern Province. The Western shows a greater dominance of British blood than any other. In part, its pioneers came upward from the immediate valley of the Monon- gahela. With respect to the given names in general use, a difference between the Northern and Western provinces is very discernible. The Western and Central attracted the whole of the planter element, and with them came almost all the slaves that Preston has ever known. To this very planter element is due the atmosphere of Old Virginia which lingers about the county seat. On the other hand, the northern border of the county is in every attribute except political connection a part of Pennsylvania. As to the Railroad Zone, which is superimposed upon others, it is at once conspicuous because of its German, Irish, and Scotch families of direct foreign extraction.
Preston itself was by no means the predetermined choice of all the early settlers. Circumstances suggestive of chance halted the man intending to go farther or brought him back after he had gone farther. Sometimes it was an accident to a wagon; sometimes it was the fear of Indians; sometimes it was the urging of a friend; and sometimes it was a shaft from Cupid's bow, as in the case of the Elliot and Fawcett families.
With respect to the provinces of settlement, we now proceed to a classification of the earlier names among the pioneer families.
In the Northern Province, we find an unusual variety. Among them are the following: Albright, Barb, Beerbower, Benson, Bower, Boylan, Brandon, Bryte, Cale, Casteel, Chidester, Christopher, Clark, Connor. (A*), Core, Cramer, Crane. Crawford. Cress, Cupp, Cuppett, Darby, Deal, DeBerry, Dennis, Devall, Dewitt, Engle, Ervin, Everly, Falken- stine. Feather, Fike, Forman, Forquer, Frankhouser, Frazee, Galloway, Gibson, Glover, Godwin, Goodwin, Graham, Greathouse, Gribble, Gross, Groves, Guseman, Guthrie, Hagans, Haines. Harader, Harned, Harsh- berger, Hartman, Hartsell, Hauger, Herring, Hileman, Hill, Jeffers, Jefferys, Jenkins, Jennings, Johns, Kantner, Kelley, King (A), Lenhart, Lewis, Liston, Livengood, Martin (C). Matlick, McCollum, McGrew, McNair, Michael, Miller, Morton, Mosser, Moyers, Myers (A), Nedrow, Reckard, Ringer, Roberts, Rodeheaver, Scott (A), Shaw (A), Sisler, Spahr, Spiker, Spindler. Spurgeon, Sterling, Strawser, Stuck, Sypolt.
*See genealogic chapter. In case of unrelated group-families bearing the same surname, we distinguish them by the letters of the alphabet.
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Teets, Thomas (B), Titchnell, Trembly, Vansickle, Walls, Welch, Wheeler (B), Wilhelm, Willett, Wolfe, and Zweyer.
Of the above, the following families acquired a foothold on the western river-hill of the Cheat: Albright, Bower, Cale, Christopher, Cupp, DeBerry, Everly, Feather, Forman, Gibson, Graham, Greathouse, Groves, Herring, Jenkins, Liston, Martin, McNair, Spiker, Spurgeon, Stuck, Sypolt, Titchnell and Wolfe.
The following names became represented in the Southwestern Province : Cress, Deal, Devall, Guthrie, Hagans, Harshberger, Jefferys, Lewis, Matlick, Michael, Myers, Shaw, Teets, and Wolfe.
Other pioneer names in the last mentioned province are these: Beavers, Bell, Bolyard, Carrico, Danser, Dennison, Elliason, Ford, Glenn, Goff, Hanway, Hebb, Hershman, Hunt,; Jaco, Knotts, Larew, Loughridge, Marquess, Mathew, Nose, Orr, Pierce, Plum, Poulson, Ridgway, Rosier, Runner, Shaver, Shahan, Shay, Sidwell, Sigley, Simp- son, Sinclair, Snider (B), Stafford, Walter, and Wilkins.
In the Southeastern we have the names: Bishoff, Deets, Foglesong, Fraish, Fries, Grimes, Hauser, Hechert, Henline, Harsh, Lantz, Nine, Nordeck, Rinehart, Sanders, Shaffer, Slaubough, Snider (C), Stariz- man, Stemple, Wagner, Werner, Wheeler (A), Whitehair, Wile, Wiles, and Wotring.
In the Central we find these: Ashby, Beatty, Braham, Brown (A), Bucklew, Butler, Calhoun, Calvert, Carroll, Chiles, Connor (B), Cresap, Darling, Dodge, Elliot, Elsey, Fawcett, Felton, Freeland, Funk, Gar- ner, Gibbs, Green, Hanshaw, Hardesty, Hays, Herndon, Hooton, Jack- son (A), Johnson, Knisell, Lee, Mason, McGinnis, Merrill, Messenger, Miller, Morgan, Murdock, Paugh, Potter, Price, Rhodes, Royse, Scott, Sheets, Snider (A), Stone, Taylor, Trowbridge, White (A), Whetsell.
In the Western, the following names are conspicuous: Brain, Brit- ton, Brown (B), Byrne, Cassidy, Cobun, Conley, Cozad, Emerson, Everts, Fairfax, Field, Fortney, Gandy, Gregg, Grim, Gull, Harrington, Hartley, Hawley, Helms, Howard, Jackson, Martin (A and B), McGee, McKinney, McMillen, Menear, Patton. Pell, Posten, Powell, Pratt, Pyles, Radabaugh, Reed, Richards, Riley, Scott, Shuttlesworth, Smith, Smoot, Squiers, Swindler, Taylor (A), Turner, Walls (B), Watson, Weaver, and Zinn.
In the Railroad Zone appear: Barlow, Borgman, Crogan, Cruise, Duffey, Ellis, Flynn, Fretwell, Geldbach, Gocke, Greaser, Gustkey, Heiskell, Holmes, Horchler, Hunt (B), Mattingly, Montgomery, Myers (B), Rechtine, Shoch, and Turnley.
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In the migration from east of the Blue Ridge in Virginia occur these names : Beavers, Brown (B), Byrne, Elsey, Fairfax, Flynn, Garner. Gribble, Hawley, Herndon, Hilleary, Martin (C), Menefee, Pell, Pul- liam, Pyles, Smith (C), Squires, Stone, Turnley.
The following families appear to have a New England origin : Butler, Davis (C), Dodge, Dolliver, Hagans, Merrill, Peaslee, Purinton, and Trowbridge.
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CHAPTER V
OUR GIVEN NAMES AND SURNAMES
That each person in a community must bear some particular name has of course always been very necessary But until not many cen- turies ago, it was not usual for our forefathers in Western Europe to carry anything more than a given name,: As for middle names, which now are almost universal with us, they did not come into general use until within the last one hundred years.
A study of the names of people is very interesting. It throws a flood of light on customs, modes of thought, and phases of religious belief. In the primitive age when our ancestors used but a single name, the designation was not at first arbitrary but had a perfectly plain meaning. A word or phrase in common use was applied to a per- son to distinguish him from his fellows, and that was all there was to it. The practice was substantially the same as when we nickname a boy Shorty or Towhead, or call a domestic animal Spot, Blackie, or Teaser. But with the changes which in a long course of years creep into the spoken language, the transparent meaning becomes lost sight of more or less. And if a name is taken from another tongue it becomes at once an arbitrary term to the person unacquainted with that speech.
Not a few of the names of our German and Norman-French ances- tors have firmly held their own. Of these are Archibald, Frederic, George, Godfrey, Henry, Martin, Richard and William; also Barbara, Edith. Gertrude, Harriet, Margaret, Matilda, and Winifred.
The Protestant Reformation the revival of classical learning, and the invention of printing, all of which appeared at near the same time- about four hundred years ago-had a very marked influence on the choice of given names.
The Reformation and the printing press gave the Bible to the mass of the people, and caused its personages to be much more familiar names than had hitherto been the case. Ever since Christianity arose, its adherents had been making some use of the names of the more promi- nent Bible characters. But after the followers of the Reformation began to read the Bible for themselves, they used its names much more extensively and in much greater variety.
The revival of learning did more than to cause the celebrities of
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the Greek and Roman world to become household words. Old names were fashioned into a Latinized form and new names were devised which wore a Latin garb. Until within a very few decades the classics were supreme in all the higher schools, and they deeply colored the thought and speech of educated people. The pedantry of the half- trained and the tendency to imitate, so strong in the general run of people, caused many of these classic and semi-classic names to come into common use.
The pioneers of Preston were from Protestant lands. In looking into their family records we very often find such Hebrew names as Amos, Abraham, Elijah, John, Jesse, and Samuel, as well as Abigail, Asenath, Keziah, Rachel, Rebecca, and Sarah; also the New Testament names, James, John, Nathaniel, Peter, Thomas, Eunice, and Phoebe. Bible names are very many, and although preference was given to a limited number of the patriarchs, prophets, and apostles, yet in the long run few escaped the whim or fancy of the Bible-reading immi- grants. Inconspicuous or unworthy personages were not overlooked, and hence we find people bearing the names, Enos, Nimrod, Salathiel, and Delilah.
The history of the early Christian Church supplied such terms as Anthony, Aquila, Christian, Christopher, Michael, Valentine, Eusebia, Christina, Laodicea, Magdalena, and Theodosia. The names of Christian virtues become concrete in Charity, Prudence, and Temperance.
People addicted to the classics brought back to life such names as Alexander, Cyrus, Jason, and Julia. They are responsible also for such appellations as Alpheus, Eugenus, Lucian, Marcellus, Sylvester, Anastasia, Clarissa, Letitia, Lovila, Lucinda, Lydia, Marcella, Melinda, Melissa, Parthena, Pamelia, Rosalie, Sabina, Serena, and Servilia.
These names of classic origin, especially the longer ones, do not adapt themselves to the Anglo-Saxon ear as readily as do those from the Bible. They become corrupted, as when Pamelia is turned into Permelia and Partheneas or Parthena into Berthena. They are also very often often clipped. Thus in common use, Alpheus, Marcellus, Anastasia, Eusebia, Julia, Laodicea, Lavina, Melinda, Melissa, Rosalie and Theodosia become Alphy, Cel, Tacy, Sabie, Julie, Dicie, Vinie, Lindy, Lissie, Alie, and Dosha.
Until rather less than a century ago, middle names were not in general use except among the German-Americans. When it did occur, the middle name was very often put on an equality with the first, and was itself usually one of the customary given names. Thus we find
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mention of John Henry Ash, rather than John H. Ash; of Eliza Jane Bee, rather than Eliza J. Bee.
But within a short time middle names had become general. One of the causes was the inclination to name a boy for some military or political hero. It was not deemed sufficient to name him George or Thomas, in honor of Washington or Jefferson, and hence we find him wearing the initials G. W., or T. J. In line with this practice was that of naming a boy for some eminent man of an earlier day, especially if connected with a denominational movement. Thus many Preston boys were named for Isaac Newton, Martin Luther, and John Calvin. Others were named for the later personages, Benjamin Frank- lin and John Wesley.
The political sympathies of parents may be read when we come upon the initials, J. M., A. J., H. C., U. G., and U. S. G., W. T. S., and R. L., or R. E. L., standing respectively for John Marshall, An- drew Jackson, Henry Clay, Ulysses S. Grant, William T. Sherman, and Robert E. Lee. Their denominational affiliations appear in such names as Asbury and Dolliver. State patriotism causes boys to bear the initials W. T. W., for Waitman T. Willey. It also accounts for the frequency of the name Virginia, of which Jennie is often an abbreviation, instead of being a diminutive for Jane. County pride in its turn gives boys the name Preston.
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