USA > West Virginia > Lewis County > A history of Lewis County, West Virginia > Part 9
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Coffee and tea were unknown, and were not re- garded with favor for many years. They were con- sidered at first as slops which did not "stick to the ribs." Tea made from wintergreen or pennyroyal leaves, sassafras roots, and spicewood twigs was generally to be found on the tables. In the early spring when the sap in the maple trees was running, the settlers drank prac- tically nothing but sugar water, which could be had within a few feet of the door of every cabin by boring a hole in a sugar maple tree, inserting a short length of sumac bush hollowed out for a spile, and setting a wooden trough under it.
Cane sugar was unknown in western Virginia for many years. The substitute was maple sugar. Many of the farmers left regular sugar groves where they built a temporary shack and made sugar during the nights of early spring. Candles were made from tallow either by dipping a string several times in melted fat or by pouring the fat in candle moulds which one settler in every community generally brought from the east. Soft soap was made from waste pieces of fat which were thrown into the "soap-grease barrel", and later re- duced with the aid of crude potash leached from wood ashes. Matches were unknown anywhere, and fire was made by striking steel against flint and catching the sparks on a piece of "punk" or half-burned rag. When the housewife was in a hurry for a fire she usually sent
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one of the children to the nearest neighbor's to borrow a few blazing chunks. The family medicine chest was pre- pared from the products of the forest, and consisted of a great variety of herbs and roots. Poultices for gun- shot wounds and burns were made from scraped pota- toes, elm bark and the leaves of various plants. Snake bites were treated with a decoction of white plantain boiled in milk taken internally, and by applying salt and gunpowder and binding a portion of the snake to the wound.
The dress of the pioneers was extremely simple. The characteristic part was the loose hunting shirt, of linsey-woolsey, coarse linen or dressed deerskins. So universally was the hunting shirt worn by the settlers that the British called the Virginia bordermen "Shirt Men." Breeches were worn by the first comers, but the conditions of life in the woods caused a change in the costumes of the rangers not altogether to the liking of the female population. This was nothing more nor less than the adoption of the most characteristic portions of the Indian dress.
They early discarded breeches and lengthened the leggings until they reached far up the thigh and fas- tened to the belt by means of strings. The Indian breech clout, a piece of cloth a yard or more long and eight inches wide passed around the waist, one end passing under the belt in front, the other behind. The ends, which stuck out as flaps, were sometimes orna- mented with a crude sort of embroidery. When the belt to which the clout was attached passed over the hunting shirt, the thighs and part of the hips were bare. A coonskin cap and moccasins of deerskin completed the costume. As a whole it was well adapted to life on the frontier, especially in summer. The leggings fit- tino closely did not impede the legs in running, and the shirt of wool or linen was as comfortable as can well be imagined. Jesse Hughes is said to have always worn a costume colored with bark of chestnut-oak. Attired in it
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he was as inconspicuous as he could possibly make him- self against the forest background. In summer the set- tlers frequently appeared without their leggings, because they deemed them unnecessary. Long afterwards men working on farms wore only a very long shirt, claiming that it was the most comfortable garment that could be worn.
Shoes were very scarce, and they were a subject of comment whenever worn. Deerskin moccasins, which were universally worn by the pioneers, were perhaps the most comfortable covering ever devised for the feet in the summer. In winter they were very cold, on ac- count of the absence of thick soles as well as the porous character of the skin. They were frequently lined with fur or dried leaves to keep the feet warm. In wet weather the pioneers claimed that the wearing of moc- casins was "only a decent way of going barefooted." The spongy leather was no protection from rain or heavy dews no matter how heavily they had been greased with bear fat or mutton tallow. When the snow was melting few of the settlers cared to go outside their houses. The pioneers suffered much from rheu- matism, which they believed was caused by wearing moccasins.
The dress of the women was simple and unadorned linsey-woolsey dresses with short skirts and numerous petticoats. Store dresses were practically unknown and calico could be had nowhere in the west. Very few jewels were worn for years after the first settlements, and the commonest toilet articles of milady's boudoir today were unknown to the women of a century and a half ago.
The settlers also adopted the arms of the Indian. The tomahawk and the scalping knife hung from the belt of every ranger, who understood thoroughly the use of both weapons in combat with the savages. The chief reliance of course, was on the rifle, with which every pioneer had had long practice, both in the hunt and
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in fighting Indians. The guns of the pioneers were principally smoothbore firelocks of rather large caliber, the bullets weighing about forty to the pound. Some, however, were of smaller caliber, like those sometimes found now among the old hunters who have become ac- customed to the muzzle-loader and refuse to give it up for the breech loading rifle or shot gun. Most of the Indians were owners of guns, these having been fur- nished by traders, by the French at the time of the French and Indian wars, or by the English throughout the Revolution, from the time of the bloody year of the three sevens onward. The guns in the hands of the settlers were more accurate than those of the sav- ages on account of the fact that the settlers regularly cleaned and oiled them, and the Indians only cleaned theirs by discharging them every few days. The firing arrangement of all flintlock guns was imperfect. Many on both sides met death because of the failure of their guns to discharge when the enemy was almost upon them. Sometimes the guns would "flash in the pan," and whenever there was a rain or a thick fog the prim- ing was likely to be dampened, in which case the guns refused to work.
In carrying on warfare with the Indians the fron- tiersmen took scalps, just as the savages did, partly to show their prowess and partly because they knew that the red man without his scalp had no hope of entering the happy hunting-ground. They not only cut off his life but they doomed his soul. Some of the scouts also killed women and even children as well as the war- riors. The old Indian fighters never forgot their early hatred for the Indian race. It is related of John Cut- right, that long after the close of the Indian wars, when he was so old and infirm that he could walk only with the aid of his cane, he attempted to get his gun and shoot a friendly Indian whom he saw passing through the settlements. He had to be guarded closely by his fam- ily until after the Indian had left the vicinity.
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The pioneers who braved the dangers of the for- ests and the Indians were men of the hardiest stamp. They were rude and ignorant for the most part, caring nothing for the finer sentiments and having little re- gard for anything which did not add to their physical well-being. Ability to draw a fine bead along the bar- rel of a gun was more highly regarded than any other accomplishment. "The people, many of them," said Francis Asbury, pioneer bishop of Methodism, "are of the boldest cast of adverturers, and with some the de- cencies of civilized society are scarcely regarded." They were a jhard-fighting, hard-drinking, quarrelsome set for the most part.
The conditions of the wilderness did not suit the institution of negro slavery, which flourished east of the mountains. All the settlers were obliged to labor in clearing the fields, raising their crops, and making all the improvements on their farms. There was little other work the slaves could do. The settlers naturally object- ed to having slaves working in the fields, because their own work was the same, and they did not wish to be considered to be on the same level with them. The in- stitution of slavery could not be profitable unless it were possible to export great quantities of agricultural produce; and this was impossible both because of the lack of adequate transportation facilities and the ab- sence of large tracts of comparatively level land for tillage. Only a few slaves were brought with the first settlers. Colonel Lowther owned two, who worked in the fields and produced grain enough for himself and some of the neighbors. The Colonel was thus released from the necessity of working in the fields and could de- vote all his energies to the defense of the settlements leading parties of rangers against the Indians and in- specting the posts throughout the frontier of north- western Virginia. No slaves were brought to the dis- trict now included in Lewis County until later. The
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system of indenture was also in vogue as shown by a record of the court, 1785; "On motion of Richard Hocklin, servant of John P. Duvall, complaining against his master, in regard to wearing an iron collar its the opinion of the Court sd. collar be taken off by his mas- ter." There was a sort of system of apprenticeship from the earliest times. All the orphans were deemed to be wards of the state whom the county court ordered to be bound out by the overseers of the poor until they reached the legal age. The laws required that they should be "found" in return for the work they did, and they were usually allowed a sum of money when their term of service ended. There were many of these wards of the state among the scattered settlements of north- western Virginia.
Unless a pioneer lived at a great distance from all other human habitations-something which occurred rarely-it cannot be said that he was lonely. There was always a community of interest in warding off Indian attacks, in helping to perform labor on different farms which could not be done by one man, and in countless other matters. The settlers of a neighborhood were con- tinually being thrown together, and the neighborhood then included all the settled portions of what is now Lewis and Upshur counties and half of Harrison. When the dangers of an Indian attack or house-raisings did not throw the settlers together often enough, other social diversions were arranged. In the spring some popular, but lazy, farmer might hold a grubbing bee to which all the neighbors were invited for a day. Large numbers came, because they knew that the mistress of the house would have a fine dinner for the occasion and that there would be games and a dance after the day's work and play were over. In the fall there were corn huskings, which were always occasions of great gayety. Neigh- bors came for miles around, particularly young men and women. Preparations had previously been made for the husking by pulling off all the ears of corn from the
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stalks and hauling them to the appointed place where they were piled in a long row. Husking usually began just after dark by the light of the full moon and the huskers managed to make the job last until nearly morning. Sometimes a contest was arranged in which two good huskers chose sides and divided the pile in half. Then followed a good-natured race to see which side could finish first. The work was likely to be inter . rupted whenever a young man found a red ear, because immemorial custom of the frontier gave him the right to kiss the prettiest girl present.
There were also many informal gatherings of neighbors. Occasionally there was a traveler who wanted to stay all night. The settlers were most hos- pitable and gave him his food and a place to sleep in return for gossip of the frontier or of the regions east of the mountains whence all had come.
The greatest social occasions among the settlers were the weddings. There was no labor of log-rolling or house-raising or other hard work in connection with them, and they attracted universal interest. On the morning of the day set for the ceremony all the friends of the groom met at his father's house to escort him to the home of the bride's parents. They formed a pro- cession in double file along the trail, all attired in their best and riding their best horses. Frequently their pro- gress would be interrupted by grapevines tied across the path as a joke or through the ill will of some neighbor who had not been invited to the wedding. The time was taken up with good-natured banter and songs and yells and perhaps a race for "Black Betty," a bottle of whiskey or rum.
The marriage ceremony was performed by a preacher, if there were one in the settlement, if not, ar- rangements were made to call in someone who had been designated by the county court to officiate. After the ceremony the guests were seated at the table to eat the most sumptuous meal which it was possible for the
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housewife of the frontier to prepare. Meats and vegeta- bles were cooked in every known way, and crowded upon the table until it would hold no more. The dearth of pewterware made no difference to the guests. They were accustomed to eat with their hunting knives.
After the dinner the festivities commenced. It was not long until dancing commenced, and the couples were soon engaged in three or four-handed reels or in square sets and jigs to the tune of "The West Fork River." The dancing continued until morning, and if any couple be- came tired and attempted to hide from the others they were hunted up and compelled to dance while the fiddler played "Hold on Till Tomorrow Morning." During the night the spirits of the party were kept up by the fre- quent passing of "Black Betty." The feasting and danc- ing frequently continued for several days until all con- cerned were too exhausted to continue further.
The earliest settlers were without schools. The children had to depend for an education upon what their parents or older brothers and sisters could teach them. There are traditions that William Powers, after his com- ing to the West Fork valley in 1785, taught a term of school at West's fort. The Rev. John Mitchell also gave the children instruction in the rudiments of the three R's while he was engaged in the double duty of preaching the Gospel in the wilderness and helping to keep the Indians from the gates of West's fort. Both these schools were irregular and the term was short. Teachers could not always be found nor could the set- tlers always be induced to subscribe enough to employ a teacher. The result was that many years later the records of Lewis County show the signatures of many of the largest landholders and most important citizens made with a cross and witnessed.
The state government early took action to light the torch of learning in the hills and dales west of the mountains. The General Assembly in 1787 chartered the Randolph academy, which should in a sense take the
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place of William and Mary college for the youth of the counties of Ohio, Monongalia, Harrison and Randolph. John P. Duvall, George Jackson, John Powers, Robert Maxwell and John Jackson were appointed trustees of the institution with power to select the most eligible site within the counties, to make contracts for the erec- tion of buildings, and to employ teachers and act as the general board of management.
The General Assembly provided for the support of the academy one-sixth of the surveyor's fees of the four counties, which had formerly been paid for the support of William and Mary college in Virginia. The trustees designated Clarksburg as the most eligible location for the academy, and in 1793 they let the contract for the first building. A short time afterward the work of con- struction started. Many students took advantage of the opportunity to secure an education within the walls of Randolph academy, among whom were many young men who later were numbered among the most promi- nent citizens of Lewis County.
The religious interests of the pioneers were not overlooked. Hardly were the first settlements made until Baptist and Methodist itinerant preachers followed the trails that had been made and attempted to estab- lish churches in the virgin soil of the new settlements. The founding of churches in some places antedated the establishment of that other influence of civilization, or- derly government. Baptist preachers and Methodist circuit riders braved all the perils of the wilderness to bring their message to the benighted people on the frontier. Before the close of the Revolution the Meth- odists had established classes at various places in the Trans-Alleghany district. Classes were in existence by 1781 in the West Fork Valley. There was a flourishing class near Richards' fort under the leadership of Moses Ellsworth. A society was organized at John Hacker's on Hacker's creek as early as 1786, probably by Rev. John Mitchell, but no church was erected for several
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years afterwards. The Rev. Henry Smith, who visited the region in 1794, found a good society there. The Rev. Joseph Cheuvront, a Frenchman, took up his res- idence near the mouth of Hacker's creek shortly after- ward and was licensed to celebrate the rites of matri- mony in 1790. He was regarded as a very eloquent preacher by the people of the community, and even the circuit rider confessed that he "could preach all around him." Henry McWhorter, who came to Mckinney's run in 1790, soon became one of the leading members of the Hacker's creek Methodist society. It is said that he was a member of the Methodist church for sixty years and a class leader for fifty. Under his leadership the class grew and prospered. Regular preaching ser- vices were begun early in the last decade of the eight- eenth century and have been continued without serious interruption until the present time. The number of Methodist societies in the upper West Fork valley was so great that in 1788 Bishop Asbury came to Clarksburg to hold a quarterly meeting, where he preached to an audience of about seven hundred people. In the letters and journals of some of the old circuit riders are to be found interesting glimpses of the pioneer settlements. The Rev. Henry Smith came to the Clarksburg circuit in 1784 and held a meeting at the house of Joseph Bon- nett. Of his congregation he says: "The people came to this meeting from four or five miles around.
They were all backwoods people and came to the meet- ing in backwoods style, all on foot, a considerable con- gregation. I looked around and saw an old man who had shoes on his feet. The preacher wore Indian moc- casins. Every man, woman and child besides was bare- footed. The old women had on what we called then short gowns, and the rest had neither short nor long gowns. This was a novel sight for me for a Sunday con .. gregation. I soon found if there were no shoes and fine dresses in the congregation there were attentive hearers and feeling hearts. In meeting the class I heard the
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same humble loving religious experience that I had often heard in better dressed societies. If this scene did not make a backwoods man of me outright, it at least reconciled me to the problem and I felt happy among them." At "Brother Stortze's" not far from the West's fort, the new preacher saw "men coming to meet- ing with rifles on their shoulders, guarding their fami- lies, then setting their guns in a corner of the house until after the meeting, and returning in the same order." At West's fort, "before I had got to sleep the dogs raved at a terrific rate. I did not know that I was in any danger; but the Indians having but a little while before this been through the country and done mischief, and this being a frontier house, I did not feel myself secure in my exposed situation."
Not all the people of northwestern Virginia received the preachers as kindly as these earlier settlers of Hacker's creek. Bishop Asbury says that after he and a companion had ridden all day "near midnight we stopped at A's, who hissed his dogs on us."
As to the character of the people, he says: "On the one hand savage warfare teaches them to be cruel, and on the other the teaching of Antinomians poisons them with errors in doctrine. Good moralists they are not, and good Christians they can not be unless they are better taught."
The Baptists were on the field about the same time as the Methodists and their preachers likewise travelled through the wilderness and organized churches. There was a Baptist congregation at Buckhannon in 1786, and other societies were soon organized throughout the Trans-Alleghany. Bishop Asbury's quarterly confer- ence at Clarksburg was held in "a long close room be- longing to the Baptists." In 1790 a deed is recorded by which the Baptists of Hopewell meeting-house se- cured possession of a lot in Clarksburg for a burial
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ground. There was no Baptist church established in what is now Lewis County until 1805, but their preach- ers came frequently to the neighborhood. Jacob Cozad, who lived not far from the present site of Berlin, was licensed as a preacher of the Baptist church in 1797.
CHAPTER X. THE EXTENSION OF SETTLEMENT SKIN CREEK
The treaty of Greenville, 1795, removed the last barrier to the coming of settlers in large numbers. It was evident that the treaty must make the Ohio river barrier permanent. Settlers had gone into the North- west Territory in large numbers before the close of the Indian wars, and a tremendous emigration was bound to follow the conclusion of peace. A wide barrier of set- tlements had been interposed between northwestern Vir- ginia and the Indians. For a half century thereafter the current of life on the West Fork was to be as calm and unruffled as the current of that sluggish stream.
There was an almost immediate shifting of popu- lation. The old Indian hunters found the unaccustomed life of quiet too monotonous. Jesse Hughes disposed of his farm at the mouth of Jesse's run and moved far to the west, locating among the miasmatic swamps of the Wabash, so that he could maintain contact with the Indians. His health was affected by the change, and after wandering about uncertainly for some time he finally returned to the hills of western Virginia. He built his cabin in what is now Jackson County. By a strange freak of fortune he who had done so much to wrest the land from the savages and to make conditions of life endurable, found himself in his old age without an acre to call his own, the tract on which he had set- tled having been included in a large survey before he left Hacker's creek. John Radcliff and Elias Hughes followed close upon the footsteps of the Indians, and became the first settlers in Licking County, in central Ohio. "They lived mainly by hunting," says the his-
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torian of Licking County, "raising, however, a little corn, the cultivation of which was left, in great meas- ure, to their wives."
The lands of the scouts and the Indian hunters were quickly filled with permanent settlers who had come to western Virginia seeking new homes. The new settlers were different in many ways from the pioneer hunter-scout-farmer. If they were less expert with the rifle, they were more skilled with the ax ; if they procured less venison for their families, they furnished a greater variety of domestic meat and vegetables; and if they were less bold in trailing Indians, they were at least unafraid of the task of clearing their lands, tending their crops and caring for their live stock. Many of the new comers had been men of property in the east, who did not wish to risk their all by coming to the Trans-Alle- ghany country while the Indians endangered the very existence of the settlements. The stake was too great. Men with property usually waited until conditions be- came tranquil before moving west.
Beginning about 1797 there was a rush of settlers to the hills of the upper West Fork. Hacker's creek and Stone Coal creek received most of them, but others took up their abodes on Freeman's creek, Little Skin creek, Sand fork of the West Fork, and the valley of the river all the way from the mouth of Hacker's creek to the forks of the river. The movement was profoundly in- fluenced by conditions across the Ohio river. There the national government owned the land, and was selling it to the settlers with a clear title and at lower cost than they could buy the lands in Virginia from speculators. The lands of Ohio were considered superior in fer- tility, and settlers went there. That part of the North- west Territory now included in the state of Ohio was far more quickly settled than Virginia. The compara- tively poor bottom lands on the Ohio side of the river were settled long before the more fertile lands just across the river in Virginia. Perhaps it was because many of
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