USA > West Virginia > Lewis County > A history of Lewis County, West Virginia > Part 4
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The war did not continue long. The Indians had little time in which to organize attacks against the set- tlements in the Monongahela valley before two Virginia armies reached the Ohio river. General Andrew Lewis with the southern army met the main army of the In- dians under Cornstalk at Point Pleasant. After an all day battle he retained possession of the field at great cost. The Indians, being unable to sustain heavy losses, retired in disorder to the western side of the river. Lord Dunmore, with the northern army, advanced to within a few miles of their principal villages, and could have easily destroyed them. He refrained from attacking them, however, because he wished to secure peace, al- though the Virginia soldiers clamored for a further prosecution of the war.
The peace negotiated by Lord Dunmore was ex- ceedingly advantageous to the settlers. His moderate conduct in not destroying the Indian villages was cal- culated to win their admiration; and the prowess of the Virginians at Point Pleasant gave the Indians a whole- some respect for the "Long Knives," as they were called. The Indians agreed to give up all their lands south of the Ohio river. In order to prevent further trouble which would follow settlement of the frontiers- men north of the Ohio, the British Parliament passed an act the same year which added all the territory north of the Ohio river to the province of Quebec.
The horrors of Indian warfare were not visited upon the Hacker's creek settlements in 1774, although other settlements in the vicinity suffered. The settlers in northwestern Virginia at first took no precautions of any kind, believing that they were too far from the In- dian country to be molested. An attack led by the Cayuga chief Logan on the settlement at the mouth of
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Simpson's creek disillusioned them. Following the raid, the settlers in the vicinity of Clarksburg immediately erected Nutter's fort, which afforded protection as well to the Hacker's creek and Buckhannon settlements.
Local tradition, not well substantiated, says that Jesse Hughes and Elias Hughes, who afterwards be- came famous as scouts, were members of General Lewis's army at Point Pleasant, and Elias Hughes was reputed long afterwards to be the last survivor of the battle.
The effects of Dunmore's war upon the settlements in Lewis County were more deeply felt than is indicated in chronicles of raids and reprisals. In the first place the westward movement received a decided setback. At the first outbreak of hostilities some of the settlers left their cabins and took refuge in the settlements on the South Branch. Some of them even sold their claims intending never to return. After the close of the war most of the former residents returned and with them were a few new homeseekers who took up their abode in the older settlements or made new settlements in lo- cations which had been neglected before.
Among the new comers were John Schoolcraft, who built his cabin on Stone Coal creek at the mouth of Smith's run; Robert Burkett, who claimed land on Sand fork of West Fork; Elijah Williams and Lewis Duvall, who lived on Freeman's creek; Charles Washburn on Stone Coal creek; and Henry Flesher on the present site of Weston. The last named settlement was made in 1776. Tradition states that his home was built near the present site of Whelan's store, a few yards from the corner of First and Main ; his barn stood near the corner of Center avenue and Second street; and his threshing floor later occupied the site of the court house. The
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A HISTORY OF LEWIS COUNTY
settlement of John Schoolcraft on lands adjoining those of Henry Flesher, was made a year earlier. The lands farther up Stone Coal creek were more desirable than those at the mouth on account of the swampy nature of the latter location. An old river channel and a deep hollow about where Bank street now is must have fur- ther decreased the desirability of the lands for farming purposes.
CHAPTER V.
LEWIS COUNTY DURING THE REVOLUTION
Before the effects of Dunmore's war in retarding emigration to the west had ceased to be felt, the set- tlements were profoundly influenced by events which were taking place along the Atlantic seaboard. "The shot heard 'round the world" was distinctly audible in northwestern Virginia. Just how great an influence the American Revolution had upon the course of develop- ment of the region can only be surmised. Certain it is that if there had been no Indian wars after the battle of Point Pleasant the whole of northwestern Virginia would have reached a mature development much earlier than it did. One of the first results of the commence- ment of hostilities between the colony of Virginia and the mother country was the legal recognition of the ex- istence of settlements west of the Alleghanies. Under the royal government no settlements were allowed there, hence it was not deemed necessary to provide any form of civil government for the district. For several years prior to the Revolution the Trans-Alleghany region was known as the District of West Augusta. It was a shadowy geographical division with no very definite boundaries or political status. There were no courts in the settlements, 110 justices of the peace, no recognized officers of the law. With the exceptions of the garrisons at Fort Redstone and Fort Pitt, both of which are now in Pennsylvania, there was no form of governmental authority until the very beginning of the Revolution when a court was held at Little Washington.
The settlements on Hacker's creek and on the West Fork river at first were examples of pure anarchies.
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A HISTORY OF LEWIS COUNTY
When the Indians at Bulltown were murdered, the set- tlers prepared a remonstrance. If there had been a horse stolen or a white man murdered and the crime had been fixed upon one of the settlers, it may be imagined that the whole neighborhood would have risen as one man and applied lynch law. Doubtless the knowledge that some such action would be taken, coupled with the necessity of uniting to combat the common danger from the Indians, prevented much disorder.
One of the first acts of the Commonwealth of Vir- ginia was that defining the boundaries of the District of West Augusta and providing for the creation of three counties from it. One of these counties was Mononga- lia, including all the region drained by the Mononga- hela and its tributaries nearly as far north as Pittsburgh. Justices were appointed for the new county, among them being William Lowther, who had saved the settlers from starvation in the "starving year" of 1772. A county gov- ernment was immediately set up with the county seat at Fort Redstone, far over the present boundary in Pennsylvania. Notwithstanding the distance of the Hacker's creek settlers from the seat of government there was an advantage in being in the new county. It meant that the people were to receive such help in solving their problems as the government of the state could give them. The settlers were also given the right to name their own officials and to take a part in the gov- ernment of the state as a whole. One of the first acts of the county court was to designate Morgantown and Bush's fort (on the present site of Buckhannon) as voting places.
There were responsibilities as well as advantages connected with membership in the Commonwealth of Virginia. When it became apparent to the British gov- ernment that the people of the colonies meant to fight, they sent their agents among the people of the frontier trying to induce them to take the side of the king and promising to protect them from the Indians in case of
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LEWIS COUNTY DURING THE REVOLUTION
war. How much they underestimated the character of the Virginia backwoodsmen-the "shirt men", as they contemptuously called them-can be seen in a study of the history of the time. Practically all the frontiers- men were staunch patriots. Some of them were Tories but they soon moved to the vicinity of Detroit where they could be under the shelter of the British guns.
Failing in their efforts to induce the frontiersmen to side with them, the British officials in Canada sent their agents among the western Indians to urge them to break their treaties with the Virginians and again fall upon their settlements with tomahawk and scalping- knife, and to drive them completely out of the Indian domain. It was the idea of the English king and his ad- visors not only to send civilized armies against the sea- coast districts of the colonies but to take them in the rear, compel a division of their forces and make easier the task of subduing them.
The English agents were not at first successful in inducing the Indians to lay aside the pipe of peace and make war upon the Virginians. The memory of the prowess of the "Long Knives" at the battle of Point Pleasant and in a dozen smaller encounters was a potent influence in causing the Indians to hesitate before again going on the warpath. Although the Tories, who had been compelled to flee from the settlements through fear of their neighbors, went among the Indians adding their appeals to those of the British agents, they se- cured only a lukewarm promise from some of the tribes to fight the settlers. Two years after the outbreak of the Revolution the British agents lacked the acquies- cence of the Shawnees, the ablest warriors of the north- west, when two unfortunate circumstances led that tribe into the field. The first was the murder of their sachem, Cornstalk, who had been held as a hostage by the whites; the other was the arrival of Burgoyne in Canada with a large British force designed to march against the col- onies in the vicinity of the Hudson river. Here was
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A HISTORY OF LEWIS COUNTY
proof positive of British assistance; and the Shawnees and all the other Indians northwest of the Ohio, as well as the Iroquois farther north sent war parties against the frontiers.
The frontier line of defense in western Virginia proved a strong one. It stretched from Fort Pitt, at the confluence of the Monongahela and Allegheny rivers, along the Ohio to Wheeling and Moundsville, and then turned inland from the river forming a great semi-circle which passed through Morgantown, Clarksburg, the Hacker's creek settlements and Charleston, and again reached the Ohio river at Fort Randolph on the battle- ground at Point Pleasant. From there the line of de- fense included the few settlements which had been made in Kentucky.
The Indians fell upon the settlements in 1777, mur- dering alike the fighting men and the defenseless women and children, leading some into captivity to suffer the tortures of the gauntlet and the stake, and destroying all the property of the settlers they could find. The frontier was lurid with the flames of burning crops and houses during all the remaining years of the Revolution and for long afterwards. In the bloody "year of the three sev- ens", they besieged Wheeling fort, killing many of its defenders in ambuscades, they plundered homes and murdered settlers on Rooting creek in Harrison County, near Coon's fort on the borders of Harrison and Marion, on the Little Kanawha river, and very late in the year in the Tygart's Valley. Fortunately the Lewis County settlements escaped being attacked during the whole season.
The exposed position of the Hacker's creek settle- ment on the very edge of the Virginia frontier, and on the route from the Indian towns to the Tygart's Valley region made it impossible for the attack to be long de- layed. Beginning in 1778 and continuing almost every year thereafter there were one or more Indian attacks against the Hacker's creek pioneers. An examination
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LEWIS COUNTY DURING THE REVOLUTION
of the history of the period of the Indian wars shows that more attacks were directed against the Hacker's creek settlement than against any other settlement in northwestern Virginia.
It is apparent from an examination of the records of the period that most of the settlements in what is now Lewis County except those on Hacker's creek, the Flesher settlement at Weston, and some of the clear- ings farther down the West Fork were abandoned. Some of the settlers returned to their former homes east of the mountains and others gathered around some of the numerous forts which were built at centrally lo- cated points in the Trans-Alleghany region. The only large fort anywhere on the West Fork until the outbreak of the Revolution was Nutter's fort at Clarksburg; as soon, however, as it became apparent that the western Indians would attack the exposed settlements others were built. Powers' fort stood on the present site of Bridgeport; Richards' fort was about two miles below the present site of West Milford at the mouth of Sassa- fras run ; Bush's fort stood near the present site of Buck- hannon; and West's fort was within the present cor- porate limits of Jane Lew on the slight rise where Minor Hall now lives.
West's fort was probably a small stockade of logs enclosing a large log building constructed to protect from the elements those who had taken refuge within the stockade. The builders probably set the logs on end deep into the ground and then tamped loose earth around them to make the stockade substantial. Loop- holes between the logs afforded opportunity for the gar- rison to command all approaches to the walls and all the cleared space around the fort within range of their rifles. At the same time they were protected from the fire of their besiegers by the logs composing the walls. None of the rifles at that time could pierce the heavy wall of logs, though artillery would soon have sent them splintering down. Since none of the Indian parties had
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A HISTORY OF LEWIS COUNTY
cannon, and would have been unable to transport them without building roads if they had, the settlers were safe within the walls. Few of the frontier forts succumbed to the attacks of the savages. There was danger that the food supply might not hold out, or that the powder might be exhausted, but, if these were suffi- cient, the only danger was that the savages might set fire to the fort.
The stockade was called West's fort because built by Edmund West and his two sons, Edmund and Alex- ander, assisted probably by some of the neighbors. The Wests had come to Hacker's creek from Accomack County, Virginia, in 1773, and the senior West had set- tled at the old Straley farm about one mile above Jane Lew. Alexander West later became one of the greatest scouts on the border, and saw service in one or more attempts to carry the war into the Indian country. He has been described by McWhorter as being "a tall, spare-built man, very erect, strong, lithe and active; dark-skinned, prominent Roman nose, black hair, very keen eyes; not handsome, rather raw-boned, but with an air and mien that commanded the attention and respect of those with whom he associated." Beyond the fact that he took the lead in building the fort, little is known of the character of Edmund West, Sr. By a peculiar turn of fortune, the builder of the fort was later taken by surprise outside its walls and put to death by a body of Indians under circumstances of the most shocking brutality.
The settlers on Hacker's creek and vicinity were not terrified by the prospect of another Indian war. A large number stayed on the frontier, and many others made new settlements in the time of the worst savage fury.
The Hacker's creek bordermen did not supinely trust to the walls of West's fort to keep away the In- dians, but went out into the open, stalked the Indians on nearly equal terms, formed parties in pursuit of them
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LEWIS COUNTY DURING THE REVOLUTION
and oft-times inflicted greater damage upon them than they themselves had suffered. Among the settlers were many whose names are written large upon the tablets of history of northwestern Virginia. John P. Duvall, Jesse Hughes, Elias Hughes, Thomas Hughes, Alexan- der West, George Jackson, William Lowther, William White and John Cutright are all men who achieved more than local prominence as scouts or military lead- ers in the wars against the Indians in northwestern Vir- ginia. Greatest of all without the shadow of a doubt was Jesse Hughes.
Jesse Hughes was born probably on Jackson river in what is now western Virginia, about the year 1750. With his parents he moved to the South Branch of the Potomac, where he lived until he joined the party which followed Samuel Pringle to examine the land in the vicinity of the sycamore in the Buckhannon valley. He became a hunter at first and roamed the wilds, becom- ing acquainted with every feature of the geography of the section. In 1771, he married and settled on a clear- ing at the mouth of Jesse's run. It will be remembered that he was one of the men connected with the massa- cres at Bulltown and the Indian camp. He first became prominent on the border in the year 1778, from which time he was one of the mainstays in the protection of the settlements. His pony was constantly kept tied in the lean-to adjoining his house ready for instant use in warning settlers of the near approach of Indians. His vigilance saved many lives.
Jesse Hughes is described by McWhorter as being rather tall and slender. He could not have weighed more than 145 pounds at any time in his life. His coun- tenance was hard, stern and unfeeling; his eyes were cold, cruel and vicious-"like a rattlesnake's", accord- ing to the statement of a contemporary. "No Indian, no matter how peaceful, nor how good his record, was safe in his presence." He murdered young and old alike, under circumstances which would hardly be equalled
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A HISTORY OF LEWIS COUNTY
in bloodthirsty ferocity by the worst savage. An old woman who knew him said he was desperately wicked, superstitious, cruel and vindictive. He is said often to have given way to abuse of his family. So uncontrolled were his passions, and so bad his reputation among his own people that he never attained leadership in the com- munity.
He is said on one occasion to have decoyed an In- dian almost to his own door by promising to go hunting with him, and then shot the unsuspecting savage from ambush. At another time, while he was on his way down the Monongahela in a canoe he saw an Indian boy playing with some white children. Only the interfer- ence of his companion kept him from taking the Indian boy into the canoe and then drowning him in the river. He was one of the most terrible enemies of the Indians to be found anywhere on the frontier.
He could trail with any Indian that lived on the border, and, though not a dead shot like some of the other settlers, his skill in stalking Indians and game caused him to have a better record at the end of the day than any of his fellows. Though he was by far the best trailer on the frontier, though he was more than a match for the Indian in cunning, though he seemed to have an intuition as to the plans of the Indians, and though his plans for following them were nearly al- ways adopted, he was never placed in command of any important expedition. He served for a short time as ensign of a company of scouts, but seemed never to have had any of the men under him. The ability to command men is not usually possessed by men of his tempera- ment. His temper was too fiery, his passions too fierce for him to retain the respect which was necessary to keep frontiersmen attached to a leader. Yet it is said that he had many friends, and that he was generous to those who had gained his confidence.
During the year 1778, the settlers collected within the forts early in the spring, and only went out in large
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groups to work the fields of the different farms in turn. At least two Indian attacks were made on West's fort during the year. Early in May the male population were working in a field near the fort, when the report of firearms at the edge of the clearing broke the still- ness. Jonathan Lowther, a brother of William Lowther, and Thomas Hughes, father of Jesse and Elias Hughes, fell at the first volley. The other men of the party, all of whom had incautiously come to the field without their arms, ran to the fort for safety, with the exception of two, who were cut off by the Indians. They escaped by running to Richards' fort, where they gave the alarm. The Indians had already been in that community and had murdered one of the settlers on his way home from Hacker's creek. The settlers were too weak to pursue the Indians, who left Hacker's creek at once after taking the scalps of the men they had killed.
The Indians probably lost more by the attack than they gained; for the murder of the elder Hughes intens- ified, if possible, the hatred of the Hughes brothers for the Indians, and caused them to take an oath "to fight Injuns as long as they lived and could see to fight them"-an oath which was only too well carried out.
The Indians made a bolder assault on West's fort early in the next month. Three women who had gone out from the fort for the purpose of gathering greens in the field adjoining, were fired upon by one of a party of four Indians who were lying in ambush. The shot failed to take effect, and the women ran screaming toward the fort closely pursued by one warrior. He overtook a Mrs. Freeman, and thrust a spear into her back with such force that it penetrated completely through her body. Though fired at several times from the fort, he then coolly secured the scalp and carried it away with him. Jesse Hughes and others happened to be outside the fort at the time without their guns. As Hughes and John Schoolcraft were proceeding cautiously toward the fort they noticed two Indians standing by a fence,
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A HISTORY OF LEWIS COUNTY
closely watching the fort for an opportunity to kill some of the refugees. Hughes and Schoolcraft passed on without attracting their attention. Later when a party went out of the fort for the purpose of bringing in the body of Mrs. Freeman, Hughes went to the spot where he had seen the Indians. At that moment from a point farther in the woods there came a sound like the howl- ing of a wolf. Hughes answered it. The sound was re- peated. This time the party located it, and running to a point of land they saw two Indians. Hughes fired once, but succeeded only in wounding the Indian. Others in the party wished to stop and finish him, but Hughes called to them to leave him alone and follow him in pur- suit of the unwounded warrior. By doubling on his track like a fox, the Indian succeeded in eluding his pur- suers. Meanwhile the wounded warrior had also got away, and Hughes was forced to return to the fort without a scalp hanging from his belt.
The garrison of the fort at this time had lately been strengthened by the addition of Captain Stuart and a company of Virginia militia, most of whom had come from the South Branch, but a few had volunteered from Randolph County. Some of his men pursued the war party and overtook them on Salt Lick creek, where they wounded one of them and the remainder dispersed upon the approach of Captain Stuart and the main body of his force. Stuart returned to West's fort and thence march- ed to Lowther's fort where he detached part of his men. He then returned to guard the fords of the Tygart's Valley river.
These two attacks were typical of all that followed. Without artillery the Indians could not hope to capture log forts, particularly if they were well built. It was opposed to the Indian temperament to sit down before the walls of a fortified place and wait until the garrison could be starved into surrender, while their own num- bers were constantly being diminished by the fire of the beleaguered whites. No large bodies of Indians came
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east of the Ohio river. Attacks on the settlements in the Monongahela valley were more in the nature of raids planned with the idea of capturing prisoners, cut- ting off detached families or killing small bodies of whites whom they could surprise, than large expeditions to destroy all of the settlements. Most of the attacks were made by very small bands. It was but natural that women and children should be made the objects of at- tack, and that the vengeance of the savages should be visited upon those who were innocent of any harm to them.
The number of settlers was insufficient as yet to allow the formation of a large army, which should carry the war into the villages of the Indians beyond the Ohio, and purchase peace with the lead from their rifles. They had to content themselves with defending as best they might their lonely oases of settlement in the western wilderness.
Other forays of the Indians into the West Fork valley, though they did not result in the death of any of the other members of the settlement on Hacker's creek, caused severe losses to the neighboring settlements around Richards' fort. The continual danger from the Indians kept the Hacker's creek settlers idle within their fort or engaged in distant scouting expeditions, with the result that their crops were neglected. It may have been that the crops were set fire to by the Indians in the fall, and were destroyed. At any rate there was an acute shortage of grain at the beginning of the suc- ceeding winter. Numerically the settlement at West's fort was not strong enough at that time to sustain the defense of so important a section of the frontier, exposed as it was to the first assault of every war party that came up the Little Kanawha valley. Discouraged at the prospect of another campaign like the last, and lacking requisite supplies to satisfy their wants through the coming growing season, they abandoned their homes on Hacker's creek. Some of the inhabitants went to
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