USA > West Virginia > Lewis County > A history of Lewis County, West Virginia > Part 12
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
In those days wealth was estimated principally in terms of land. The value of land was determined prin- cipally by the improvements which had been made upon it. The amount of land which a farmer was able to have cleared depended mainly upon the number of sons, nearly grown, which he had in his family. All the families of that day were large, but if there was an undue proportion of daughters too much emphasis was likely to be placed upon raising corn instead of upon clearing more land. The farmers did not understand the simplest laws gov- erning soil fertility, and they continued to till a field as long as it would produce a crop.
The growing of wheat which was made practicable by the construction of the Edward Jackson mill and the later improvements on the mill of Henry McWhorter, soon attained considerable proportions. Biscuits and salt-rising bread soon relieved the settler from the mo-
157
PROGRESS IN THE OLDER SETTLEMENTS
notony of a steady diet of corn pone and johnny-cake. The growing of wheat, as practiced on the upper West Fork in the earliest period was an exceedingly primitive industry, hardly advanced at all from the methods in use five thousand years before. The grain was cut with a sickle and threshed with a flail. The equipment of the early mills was also exceedingly primitive. Instead of bolting cloths, deerskins, pierced full of holes with a red- hot needle, were in use.
The citizens of Hacker's creek had a share in the war of 1812. John McWhorter had been commissioned a captain of the Harrison County regiment of Virginia militia a year or so before the war. When the war broke out he raised a company of volunteers which was mus- tered on the wide bottom of Hacker's creek just below the mouth of Life's run. The company was marched to Parkersburg, where they took boat for Point Pleasant. There they were mustered into the federal service and sent to the Maumee river to join the forces of General Harrison. They remained at Fort Meigs until their terms expired, 13 April 1813, when they returned home on foot. Captain McWhorter continued in the service until the close of the war and was promoted to the rank of colonel. The war had little effect upon the upper West Fork. Aside from the number of young men withdrawn from farm work, it was hardly noticed. De- velopment continued quietly.
About the year 1815 the beginnings of towns in the southern portion of Harrison County could be discerned. A few settlers had continued to live near West's fort after the Indian attacks ceased. McWhorter's mill later proved to be a good nucleus for a village. Daniel Har- pole, who owned the land now occupied by the town at that time, is said to have started a tannery about 1815; but he soon became discouraged and sold out to Jacob Bonnett, a farmer.
Three or four miles west of McWhorter's mill and about the same distance from Colonel Edward Jackson's
158
A HISTORY OF LEWIS COUNTY
mill, a small settlement grew up about William Newlon's store under the name of Westfield. It seems to have been the outgrowth of the movement to form Lewis County, and the promoters doubtless expected to secure the designation of the village as the county seat. It was expected that industries, such as mills, tanyards, etc., would follow. There was a population of five or six fam- ilies in 1816, the year the county was formed. An act creating the town on land belonging to the heirs of William Newland (Newlon )was passed shortly after the act for the formation of the county. John Bailey, Elijah Newland, Jacob Minter, Minter Bailey and Wil- liam Powers were designated in the act as the trustees of the town, and it was provided that vacancies in the board should be filled by the other trustees. According to the act, "whenever any purchaser of a lot build a dwelling house thereon equal to twelve feet square with a brick or stone chimney, such purchaser shall enjoy the same privileges which the freeholders of other towns not incorporated hold and enjoy." A year or two later West- field had attained to considerable importance for that time. Besides several new dwellings a school house had been erected in which at least one term of school was taught by Weeden Hoffman. The schoolmaster turned storekeeper in the town within a year or so.
Buckhannon was also established as a town by the legislature in 1816. Aspirations of the people to obtain the seat of justice of the new county were partly respon- sible, but there was a small settlement there which would perhaps justify the creation of a town. A ferry had been established across the Buckhannon river near the mouth of Jawbone run some years before, and a small settlement had grown up around it. Weston was then an improved farm.
The first church building erected within the pres- ent limits of Lewis County was the Harmony Methodist Episcopal church in 1800. The building was the out- growth of the society formed in 1786 at the home of
159
PROGRESS IN THE OLDER SETTLEMENTS
John Hacker. It stood on a slight rise above the mouth of Jesse's run. For its day it was a pretentious struct- ure, being constructed of hewn logs with a gallery. From this church there went out later a number of prominent ministers of the gospel like the Rev. John Mitchell and the Rev. David Smith who sowed the seeds of other or- ganizations in outlying parts of the county and made class leaders out of mob leaders. The second church to be built on the creek was at the forks of Hacker's creek, near the present site of Berlin, under the leadership of the Rev. John Mitchell. Both became Methodist Prot- estant churches when that church was split off from the Methodist Episcopal church in 1829. It is said that Harmony church was the first Methodist Protestant church in existence west of the Alleghanies.
One of the most important churches ever established in the county from the standpoint of its influence over the future development of the religious life of the peo- ple of northwestern Virginia was the Broad Run Baptist church which began its existence in 1805. Elder John Carney, an itinerant Baptist preacher from the Buck- hannon valley, came to Duck creek, now in Harrison county, about four miles north of Broad run, in 1804, and began a series of meetings among the New Jersey settlers who had lately emigrated there. As his monthly visits continued considerable interest was awakened in religion. Settlers who had been good Baptists in New Jersey again felt the impulses of faith. A meeting was called for the purpose of considering the wisdom of forming a Baptist church. On February 5, 1805, the people of the community met in a private home in the presence of an advisory council. The meeting is said to have been "one of great solemnity and glorified by the conscious presence of the Holy Spirit." An opportunity was offered for those who wished to become members of the Baptist church, and while the congregation sang,
"Am I a soldier of the Cross A follower of the Lamb-"
160
A HISTORY OF LEWIS COUNTY
eight persons presented themselves for membership. The charter members of the church were Walter Smith and wife, Job West and wife, Samuel Romine and wife, and Solomon Wires and wife. They were declared to be the Good Hope Baptist church. Elder Carney continued his monthly visits to the church for some years.
The Baileys and Minters and others, Baptists from Fauquier County, Virginia, who had come to Whiteoak Flat run in the latter part of the eighteenth century, also formed a congregation under the guidance of the Rev. John Carney, in 1806. The pioneer members of this church were Jacob Minter and wife, Alexander West, Edmund West, James Bailey and wife, and Elizabeth, wife of Captain James Bailey. Because of the fact that most of the members had belonged to the Broad Run Baptist church in Fauquier County, they chose the same name for the new congregation.
Meanwhile some of the New Jersey settlers moved from Duck creek to land in the West Fork valley about the mouth of Whiteoak Flat run. The church at Duck creek became divided geographically but not in a relig- ious sense. Meetings of the Good Hope church were held in private homes both on Duck creek and on the West Fork farther south. The membership of the two Baptist congregations increased rapidly. In 1808 the congregations had outgrown the accommodations to be found in the cabins of the pioneers, and a movement was begun to erect a church building. John Brown donated a few acres of land for a church and a cemetery about two hundred yards from the location of the old Mongue fort. A building of hewn logs, twenty-four by thirty feet, was constructed in the same year, and here the united churches worshipped for many years, until the log structure became inadequate for the purpose. A frame church, "low and squatty," took its place, followed by another frame church and finally by an imposing brick edifice.
THE JACKSON HOMESTEAD AND MILL
161
PROGRESS IN THE OLDER SETTLEMENTS
The second pastor of the church was Elder John Goss, of Georgia, an evangelist in the employ of the Southern Board of Missions. He is described as being tall, of angular build and of quick, nervous movement. His sermons were interspersed with humorous anecdotes. and quaint illustrations. Elder John J. Waldo succeeded him after some years. Benjamin Holden, one of three- brothers who did much to extend the Baptist faith in Northwestern Virginia, came next, and he was followed by Elder Carr Bailey, one of the pioneers of the Free- man's creek country and the leader of the church there. Anthony Garrett, one of the earliest converts of the church, whose ministerial labors are said to have been more abundant than those of any of his co-laborers, fol- lowed Elder Bailey in the ministry.
The influence of Broad Run church in the religious development of northwestern Virginia was tremendous. From Broad run as a center Baptist preachers went forth over the whole northwest, from the mountains to the Ohio river, riding on horseback through trackless forests, preaching to small groups collected in the homes of the settlers, baptizing converts, forming new churches and carrying the seeds of a higher civilization with them all the while. The Broad Run Baptist association, which was formed as a result of their labors, embraced at its in- ception about half the territory now included in the state of West Virginia. The great number of Baptist churches scattered over the northern part of the state attests the success of their endeavors.
CHAPTER XIV. THE FORMATION OF LEWIS COUNTY
The system of local government in Virginia before the Civil war demanded small counties. The judicial and administrative work was so centralized in a small body of men that it was practically impossible for the justices to look after the interests of a great number of people scattered over a wide expanse of territory. The business of the county court was usually transacted with four jus- tices present unless there was a levy to be made or offi- cers to be elected, when all the justices were summoned by the sheriff. The presiding justice and three others who lived near the county seat usually made up the court, and the same ones were not necessarily present on two consecutive days. Under such conditions the public business was more or less neglected, especially that in which the people who lived at a distance from the county seat were concerned. For some time prior to 1816 there had been much complaint among the people residing along the upper West Fork, the Buckhannon and the Little Kanawha rivers that their interests were being neglected by the county court, which seemed intent upon developing Clarksburg and the country round about it. It was the age-old complaint of the communities on the frontier-of western Virginia against that part of the Old Dominion east of the mountains, and later of the frontier sections of Lewis County as they began to reach their full development.
The progress of settlement in the southern part of Harrison County, though not quite so rapid as around Clarksburg, was very swift. Three or four thousand people were living on the Buckhannon, the upper West
-
163
THE FORMATION OF LEWIS COUNTY
Fork and the Little Kanawha by 1816. They demanded a new community center where they could attend court and vote at the general elections without having to travel for long distances from their homes to Clarksburg over the narrow trails which the Harrison County court called roads. The agitation came to a head in the election of 1815 for members of the General Assembly. The leaders of the movement for the division of the county deter- mined if possible to elect members of the House of Del- egates from Harrison County who would see that an act was passed creating a new county from the southern part of Harrison. They therefore requested Colonel John Mc Whorter, a rising young attorney of Clarksburg and a native of Hacker's creek, and Col. Edward Jackson, who had served in the preceding legislature, to be their can- didates. Col. Jackson had no opposition, but some of the residents of the northern part of Harrison County, who were opposed to the proposed bill, concentrated their opposition on Colonel John McWhorter, knowing that if they were successful the county could not be divided.
The contest was a very unequal one, for all the vot- ing was done at the county seat. It was necessary for Colonel McWhorter, if he expected to be elected, to get out the vote; and for the people of the southern part of the county to come to the polls at some time within the three days that they were open. The Colonel stumped the county, assisted by Joseph Johnson, a prominent lo- cal politician, who afterwards became governor of Vir- ginia. The settlers in the outlying parts of the county responded in great numbers to the call. Dressed in their best homespun and carrying their rifles on their shoul- ders and some jerked venison and johnny cake in their hunting shirts, they made their way to Clarksburg over trails blazed through the forests.
The election was made a gala occasion by the voters. Many of them hunted on their way to the polls, and car- ried their game as presents to their hosts at the county seat. The candidates were expected to provide meals and
164
A HISTORY OF LEWIS COUNTY
sleeping quarters for the voters. The opposition had engaged all the available room in the hotels, but the head- quarters of the "new-county" party were opened at the home of Dr. Williams. So great was the crowd during the three days of the election that Mrs. Williams was frequently compelled to step across the bodies of sleeping men with scarcely room to place her feet, and many could not be accommodated in the house at all. They found more commodious quarters in the nearby woods, where they built huge fires, roasted their venison and slept in the open. Each candidate had a barrel of whiskey sit- ting beside the polling place, and when a voter announced the name of the candidate of his choice he was entitled to help himself. The barrel provided by Colonel Mc- Whorter was emptied first. The farmers from the south- ern part of the county had won.
In the following term of the General Assembly Mc- Whorter and Jackson introduced a bill for the creation of a new county from the southern part of Harrison, to be called Lewis, in honor of Colonel Charles Lewis, who was killed at the battle of Point Pleasant. The bill was amended in the Senate, substituting the name of General Andrew Lewis, but the delegates from Harrison stood their ground and when the measure was finally passed, 18 December 1816, that part of the act providing that the county should be named for Colonel Charles Lewis was left unchanged.
The boundaries of the county as set forth in the act were as follows: "Beginning at the mouth of the Buckhannon river; thence a straight line to the head of the left hand fork of Jesse's run; thence a straight line to the mouth of Kincheloe Creek; thence up the said Creek with the meanders thereof to the dividing ridge between the Waters of the West Fork river and Middle Island Creek; thence a west course to the Wood County line, to include all the south part of Harrison down to the mouth of the Buckhannon River."
HARRISON
R I
DODDRIDGE 1845
1784
BARBOUR 1843
TCHIE 1843
1
Westfield-
.Weston
Stebbins ville Buck' hannon
N
U
GILMER 1845
UPSHUR
- Collins Settlement
1851
Hay mond's Salt Works.
ROANE
BRAXTO N
18 36
LEWIS COUNTY 1818
WEBSTER
1787
Showing boundaries of present Counties 'By E.C Smith
CLAY
1856,-
NICHOLASY
18 60
RANDOLPH
1818
18-
CALHO 1855
1856
WIRT
48
166
A HISTORY OF LEWIS COUNTY
By an act passed, 4 February 1818, Lewis County received an accession of territory east of the Buckhannon river from Randolph County. The boundaries were as follows: "Beginning at the dividing ridge near the head of the Buckhannon river, thence a straight line to the head of Grand Camp River; thence a straight line to the head of the Left Hand Fork of Big Sand Run ; thence with the dividing ridge between Buckhannon and Middle Fork Rivers."
Lewis County as thus constituted was bounded on the north by Harrison, on the east by Randolph, on the south by Greenbrier and Kanawha, and on the west by Wood. It had an area of 1,754 square miles. Besides the present territory of Lewis County it included nearly all of the present counties of Upshur, Gilmer and Brax- ton, and parts of Barbour, Webster, Doddridge, Ritchie and Calhoun.
As customary in acts providing for the creation of new counties, no town was designated as the county seat. Instead the act named a commission, to consist of Ed- ward Jackson, Elias Lowther, John McCoy, Lewis Max- well and Daniel Stringer, to "ascertain the proper place for holding courts, erection of public buildings, etc." The act provided further that the justices of the peace ap- pointed for the new county should meet at Westfield upon the first court day and appoint such place for hold- ing court as the commissioners named in the act might think proper. The second Monday in every month was designated as the time for the meeting of the justices of the peace. The act also contained the usual provision that the Governor of the Commonwealth should appoint the first sheriff.
The county government was organized pursuant to the act of the legislature on March 10, 1817. Philip Re- ger, Thomas Cunningham, John Hacker, William Pow- ers, John Bozarth, Daniel Stringer, John Jackson, John Mitchell, William Hacker, William Simms, William Peterson, Abner Abbott, John Hardman, George Bozarth,
167
THE FORMATION OF LEWIS COUNTY
Elijah Newlon,Peyton Byrne, Jacob Lowrentz, (Lorentz), Samuel L. Jones and James Keith, all of whom had been appointed justices of the peace by Governor James P. Preston, met at the house of the Rev. Peter Davis, at Westfield, and resolved themselves into the county court of Lewis County. Philip Reger produced a commission from the governor as high sheriff of the county, and after taking the oath of office, the oath of fidelity to the Com- monwealth and the anti-duelling oath, and giving bond, he entered upon the duties of the office.
The first work of the court was to fill the remainder of the county offices. Several applicants presented them- selves for each of the places, and the disappointments were many when the results were announced. Daniel Stringer was appointed clerk of the court, Edwin S. Duncan, attorney for the Commonwealth, and John Mitchell commissioner of the revenue. The following named citizens of various sections of the county were ap- pointed constables: Joseph Davis, Henry Reger, George Duvall, Adam Alkire, Isaac Collins, Jeremiah Howell, David W. Sleeth, Walter McWhorter, Walter Wilson and John Peterson. George Bush was recommended to His Excellency James P. Preston, Governor of the Com- monwealth, as a suitable person to fill the office of prin- cipal surveyor of the county. On motion of Philip Reger, high sheriff, it was ordered that William Martin and Thomas S. Hacker be and are appointed deputies for the said Reger. They came into court and qualified ac- cording to law. The following named attorneys, most of whom resided at Clarksburg, were licensed to practice in the court of Lewis County: Lemuel E. Davisson, James Pindell and George I. Davisson. It will be seen from the bare enumeration of the acts placed upon the record books that the court transacted a great amount of important business on the first day of the session.
The next day, 11 March 1817, the constables who had been appointed on the preceding day came into court and gave bond in the amount of $500. The court ordered
168
A HISTORY OF LEWIS COUNTY
that the county should be laid off into three districts for the election of overseer of the poor. In the order passed by the court, the natural geographical divisions of the county were followed: "The settlement on the Buckhannon and its waters is to comprise one district, in which Abraham Carper is to superintend the election of overseer of the poor for the said district at the house of John Jackson ; That the settlement of the West Fork, Hacker's creek and the waters thereof, do compose the second district, and that Henry McWhorter do superin- tend the election of overseer at his own house. That the settlement on the Little Kanawha river and its waters do compose the third district and that William Hacker be appointed to superintend the election of overseer at his own house." The overseers of the poor were the only county officers elected by the people. All the others were appointed either by the county court or by the governor upon the recommendation of the court. Samuel L. Jones acknowledged his acceptance of the appointment of coroner. On motion of Daniel Stringer, clerk of the court, it was ordered that Robert W. Collins be ap- pointed as deputy clerk, and he qualified as the law di- rects. The machinery of the county was in complete running order, and after the transaction of some miscel- laneous business, the court was adjourned until "court in course."
Immediately after the adjournment of the court, the commissioners named in the act creating Lewis County to select a site for the county seat, met and organized and then began inspecting the most eligible sites in the county to find the "proper place for holding courts." There were at that time two regularly established towns in the county, Buckhannon and Westfield, both of which had been established at the preceding session of the General Assembly. The people of Buckhannon had expected that in the original bill for the creation of the county some territory would be carved from Randolph, but the meas- ure was not carried through until the next session of the
169
THE FORMATION OF LEWIS COUNTY
legislature, and Buckhannon was left on the border be- tween two counties with little hope of receiving the cov- eted designation. Westfield had a far better chance, ow- ing to its more central location. It had also a large pop- ulation-five or six families-and had been designated - by the General Assembly as the place for holding the first courts. The location of the courthouse there was no doubt an accepted fact among the people of the town. But the designation of the legislature did not always mean that the final action taken would be the same, as happened in the case of Buckhannon when Harrison county was formed.
At the following term of court, which met, 11 April 1817, at the home of Mrs. William Newlon of Westfield, the commissioners reported that "the most suitable place for the purpose aforesaid is on the farm of Henry Flesher, lying and being on the West Fork of the Monongahela River, above the mouth of Stone Coal Creek, on the east side of said river, and the particular spot of the grounds on said farm agreed upon by us is on the rising ground east of said Flesher's dwelling house, near the threshing floor of said Flesher, where his stack now stands."
Just why the commissioners should have chosen the "improved farm of Henry Flesher for the location of the courthouse in preference to the location farther down the river at Westfield is a matter of conjecture. It has been suggested that the location was made at the sug- gestion of John G. Jackson, who had formed grandiose plans to make the mouth of Stone Coal creek the head of navigation on the Monongahela. There is a possibility that the members of the commission from the western part of the county objected to a location so far from the geographical center as Westfield, and they finally acqui- esced in the selection of Flesher's farm as a compromise because it was on the natural route from the Buckhannon settlements to the Little Kanawha river as well as from the upper West Fork to Clarksburg.
170
A HISTORY OF LEWIS COUNTY
Upon the receipt of the report of the commissioners the county court passed an order to the effect that suc- ceeding sessions should meet at the point recommended. For some reason, possibly on account of the fact that Flesher's cow had not completely devoured the straw- stack on the site selected, or more probably because no houses suitable for the purpose had yet been constructed on the Flesher farm, the court continued for some time to meet in the Newlon home at Westfield.
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.