USA > West Virginia > Monroe County > A history of Monroe county, West Virginia > Part 13
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Courthouse formally accepted in August.
Stephen Hensley sent to state prison for five years and six months. His counterfeit notes to the sum of $5175 filed with county clerk, and burned in presence of court, except one note on each of the banks, which was filed with the prosecution papers. One note of $20 supposed to be good. Stove for courthouse ordered.
1822
For working on roads, 50 cents a day allowed; for putting up a guide board, 50 cents; for blasting rocks, one dollar a day. Levy, $829.48; rate, 50 cents.
John Peters given ordinary license.
1823
William Clark has ordinary license. Levy, 989.35; rate, 52 cents. Old office of county clerk to be rented out.
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A HISTORY OF MONROE COUNTY, WEST VIRGINIA
1824
John Hank allowed to teach singing school in grand jury room. Road surveyors get 25 cents a day.
Levy, $1041.60; rate, 60 cents.
1825
Andrew Summers given ordinary license. Levy, $937.70; rate, 52 cents. William Connell, jailor.
Appropriated for roads (including $50 for a bridge), $606.01; accounts allowed, $76.30; state's attorney, $75; jailor, $80; sheriff, $60; firewood for courthouse, $10; patrolling, $25.39.
1826
Levy, $892; rate, 50 cents. Order for bridge over Indian at William Vass's.
Rather frequent felonies, especially breaking into barns.
1827
Levy, $743.77; rate, 50 cents.
1828
Levy, $1917.77; rate, $1.021/2. For poorhouse, $600 appropriated; total cost not to exceed $2000. 1829
Levy, $1600; rate, 85 cents. John W. Kelly recommended as escheator.
1830
Ordinary license, $18. Jame's Dunlap ordered to build porch to courthouse. Robert Williamson charged with stabbing William Derieux.
Levy, $2296.80; rate, $1.20.
1831
Levy, $1166; rate, 621/2 cents.
1832
Madison McDaniel given ordinary license. Levy, $1306.25; rate, 683/4 cents.
1833
Charles Houchins, John Peters, and Joel Stodghill keep houses for private entertainment. James Handley, Nathaniel B. Kelly, and Philip Rodgers given ordinary license.
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RECORDS OF SEVENTY YEARS
254 men delinquent in tax. Levy, 656.48; rate, 31 cents.
1834
Robert Coalter, William Nelson, and Henry Kelly keep houses of pri- vate entertainment.
Several persons pass counterfeit money.
Levy, $1353; rate, 621/2 cents.
1835
James Trucks given ordinary license. John and Conrad Peters keep houses of private entertainment, the former at Peterstown.
Levy, $998.35; rate, 461/2 cents.
1836
Randolph Stalnaker given ordinary license. George W. Shawver and Andrew Miller have houses of private entertainment.
1837
Levy, $2493; rate, $1.121/2.
1838
Levy, $1333.88 ; rate, 761/2 cents.
1839
Voting places are the courthouse, Jacob Wickline's, Andrew Gwinn's, and Red Sulphur.
Religious services to be allowed in courthouse.
John Hinton to open a ferry.
Levy, $1456.57; rate, 721/2 cents.
1840
Courthouse to be painted. Several fights and forgeries.
Levy, $1939.29; rate, 471/2 cents.
County expenditures embrace 178 items, the largest number yet. Fox bounties are $86, the rates being $1.50 and 75 cents. State's attorney is paid $100, the county clerk, $100, the sheriff, $75, the jailor, $50, the janitor of courthouse, $30.
Allowed for surveying roads, 50 cents a day: for putting up a sign- board, $1.25.
1841
Levy, $1612.50; rate, 50 cents. Elliott Vawter has ordinary license.
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1842
Alexander Humphreys and Jacob C. Humphreys keep houses of private entertainment.
Levy, $1055.01; rate, 621/2 cents.
1843
Levy, $1173.76.
William Bolinger and Franklin F. Neel keep houses of private enter- tainment, the license being $3.
1844
Moses Mann has a mill on Indian.
Levy, $1163.59; rate, 50 cents.
1845
John Dickson has ordinary license.
Eleven constables appointed.
William Hole has sawmill on Laurel.
Levy, $1408.98; rate, 621/2 cents.
1846
Levy, $1369.71; rate, 57 cents. 1847
William Hinchman, Robert Gwinn, Jacob Wickline, and Daniel Wick- line keep houses of private entertainment.
Clock peddlers's license is $50.
Samuel C. Humphreys has ordinary license.
1849
Smallpox at James S. Ballard's causes county expense of $57.62.
1850
J. and J. Zoll and George Alstadt have ordinary license, and Robert Shanklin, William Early, John Dickson, George Moss, Henry Gilmer, and William Hinchman keep private entertainment.
Only one wolf bounty.
1851
James and George A. Mann keep private entertainment, and Edward White and Company have ordinary license.
1852
John A. Hull keeps private entertainment. The justices under the new constitution meet and organize, July 19.
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RECORDS OF SEVENTY YEARS
1853
Floyd Crawford has ordinary license at $27.50.
Lewis A. Shanklin and James Keatly keep private entertainment.
1854
State election, Thursday, May 25. Voting places: courthouse, Dickson's, Miller's store, Haynes', Rollinsburg, Red Sulphur, Centerville, Mrs. Peck's. Tax delinquents in First District 123; in Second, 175. Grand jurors allowed one dollar each.
Rates at Pack's ferry: 61/4 cents per person, horse, ox, wagon, or wheel (of light vehicle) ; 121/2 cents per 20 sheep or hogs; 25 cents per 20 cattle.
1855
D. Watts and Brother (merchants) remove from Pickaway to Salt Sulphur.
1856
Smallpox prevalent and regulations ordered.
1857
Private entertainment by John L. McCorkle and Thomas Johnson. Wolf bounties are $8 and $4. Fox bounties are reduced to $1 and 50 cents.
1858
Edward White has ordinary license; John Symms, Rufus Pack, Good- all Garten, and Lewis A. Shanklin keep private entertainment.
1859
John P. Ross, Samuel C. Humphreys keep private entertainment. Levy, $2730.37; rate, $1.25.
1860
Over 200 persons subject to jury service.
Levy, $2588.73. Itemized expenditures cover eight large pages. Roads cost $635.78, fox bounties, $59, wolf bounty, $8.
Thomas Johnson, A. M. Hawkins, Samuel Kincaid, James Vawter, An- derson Brown, G. C. Landcraft, James Keatly keep private entertainment. Henry Steele has sawmill.
William Connell still jailor.
XV WAR AND RECONSTRUCTION
Early Events-Local Occurrences-Disruption of Virginia- Reconstruction Period.
HE war of 1861 is the most striking event in Ameri- can history. Both the contending parties were entirely honest and sincere, even if they could not see alike. The points of view between North and South were very unlike, and the time has not yet come for a history of that con- flict which will meet with as general approval in the one section as in the other. Hundreds of volumes have been written upon the subject, and it is among these that the general reader must look. The topic is much too large to be treated briefly and at the same time comprehensively.
Virginia was rent in two as an effect of the war, and this county is on the dividing line. Such facts are of peculiar interest to a county situated like Monroe. Yet our space does not permit us to go much outside of those events which were of local importance.
Although Southern in position and sentiment, the mass of the Virginians were reluctant to take sides with the cotton states that seceded just after the November election of 1860. [The statesmen of the Old Dominion tried hard to secure a peaceful settlement of the matters in dispute, but the times "were full of passion and rash- ness." The governor called an extra session of the legislature to determine "calmly and wisely what ought to be done." That body met January 7, 1861, and as it decided to call a state convention, an election of delegates to the same took place February 4. Vir- ginia had never yet had a convention not authorized by popular vote, and by a vote of more than two to one she now reserved the right to pass upon the doings of the present one. The convention met February 13. Little more than one-fifth of the delegates came
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to Richmond as avowed secessionists. But the popular excitement was intense and the secession element was very aggressive. The line was finally drawn when President Lincoln called for troops to put down the secession of the cotton states. A majority of the Virginia people were unwilling to indorse coercion, and an ordi- nance of secession was finally adopted by a vote of 88 to 55. Allen T. Caperton and John Echols, the delegates from Monroe, voted with the majority.
An election set for May 23 was to approve or disapprove the adoption of the ordinance. But neither secessionists nor anti-seces- sionists waited for this. The state government entered into an ar- rangement with the Confederacy April 24, and was formally ad- mitted May 7. By this time the northwestern counties were or- ganizing in opposition to this step.
The people of Monroe very generally upheld the Confederate cause, sent their young men into its armies, and made great sacri- fices in its behalf. Excepting the few occasions when the county was occupied by Federal armies it lay within the Confederate lines.
There were, however, a number of people who at heart were unsympathetic toward the Southern cause. But sometimes this feel- ing appeared to take the form of opposition to military service on either side.
While there were thirteen battles and skirmishes in Greenbrier, there is chronicled for Monroe only the very insignificant affair at Wolf Creek, May 15, 1862, and the slight skirmish at Second Creek bridge the succeeding May. Yet certain events in the adjoining counties are closely associated with the war history of Monroe.
The first of these occurred very early in June, 1861. The war was yet a new and strange thing, and it was a time of tense excite- ment. The superstitious saw battle-flags in the heavens. They would have it that fowls were laying strange eggs with signs and letters on them, and that the locusts had a W on their wings. On the third day of the month, a greatly excited courier dashed up to J. W. Johnson's store on Wolf Creek, and reported that 3000 Fed- erals were on their way from Nicholas Courthouse to Meadow Bluff, and that they were killing men, women, and children, burning
.
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A HISTORY OF MONROE COUNTY, WEST VIRGINIA
houses, and committing all manner of depredation. The news spread like wildfire. The crazy raid of John Brown at Harper's Ferry was called to mind, and it intensified the excitement. Men left their work and women cried. John G. Stevens mounted a horse and rode away to learn the truth. Near Blue Sulphur a friend told him that the enemy, 1500 strong, would reach Meadow Bluff that night, that one column would then proceed to Lewisburg and another to Union, and burn both towns. He was also told that citizens were felling trees across the road.
Stevens returned and was that night ordered by General A. A. Chapman to muster his company at Union. It was understood that Lewisburg had sent for aid. So in the morning Stevens used his own discretion and marched his company toward Alderson's Ferry. On the hill just south of the present town he was met by Colonel Ellis and his men. It was now learned that no Federals were be- lieved to be nearer than the Ohio River. The men were ordered into a hollow square, and were complimented for their promptness by "Uncle" James Miller. On their return to their homes, the men under Stevens encountered a host streaming northward. These people were armed with flintlock muskets, squirrel rifles, shotguns, rusty horse pistols, pitchforks, and corncutters. Among the crowd was the militia company of Captain Green Lively. All were as intent on giving the supposed invader a hot reception as were the farmers of Massachusetts who came so near annihilating Pitcairn's redcoats 86 years earlier. Chapman had said he would put his men in Monroe Draft, occupy both sides of the road, and wipe out the enemy. He was not taking into account the probability that the foe would send his scouts in advance. It is said, however, that one Monroe man, when he was told that invaders were coming, picked out a hollow tree, but when he got to it another man had crawled inside.
The next approach of war was in May, 1862. Early that month Lewisburg was occupied by the Greenbrier Riflemen under Captain Eakle, and by Company E of Edgar's Battalion under Cap- tain Hefner. On the 12th, the town was entered and held by 300 Federals under Colonel Elliott of Crook's Brigade. Other troops
SARAH (THOMAS) JOHNSON
Bern March 15, 1799-Died March 20, 1876
BARNABAS JOHNSON
Born July 15 1796-Died February 27, 1880
Lived all of their lives near Johnson's Cross Roads
GENERAL JOHN ECHOLS Major General in the Confederate Army
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WAR AND RECONSTRUCTION
of the brigade soon arrived and went into camp on the hill just west of town. General Heth with a column of Confederates re- ported by Crook as 2500 strong advanced from the Narrows of New River. He entered the town from the east and gave battle at 5:15 on the morning of the 22d. The Federals were nearly taken by surprise but behaved well. So did the Confederates until flanked and enfiladed, when they fell back to the hill east of town and then recrossed the swollen Greenbrier, burning the bridge behind them. The action had lasted about an hour and was fought mostly in the streets. General Crook states that he had 2500 men and six guns. He reported his loss as 11 killed, 55 wounded, and 7 missing, a total of 72 men. He claims that his foe left 38 dead and 66 wound- ed on the field, and that 100 prisoners and four guns were taken. General Heth gives his own strength as 2000 infantry, 100 cavalry, and three batteries. He supposed he had not more than 1500 in- fantry and 150 cavalry to fight, and complains that a senseless panic seized his men when victory was in sight. But he was blamed for unskilful conduct, particularly in ordering the artillery to join in the charge. When the battery that lost the four guns was about to have them replaced, they asked that the cannon be provided with bayonets. The Confederate dead were buried in one trench about fifty feet long. Crook states that while some of his wounded were going to the rear they were fired on from the houses and one of them killed. He threatened to hang the snipers in the open street and to burn their houses.
Near this time there were some very minor operations along New River, below the Narrows. One of these was by Colonel Wharton, who with 900 Confederates and two guns marched by night from Peterstown, and at sunrise, August 6th, shelled Colonel Scammon's brigade at Pack's Ferry. Each side claimed the ad- vantage.
In August, 1863, General Averill with his Federal cavalry started from Winchester and raided up Dunlap Creek as far as Callaghan's. All the saltpeter works within reach were destroyed. He reconnoitered toward Sweet Springs, but at 4 A. M., the morn- ing of the 26th, he moved toward White Sulphur, intending to
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A HISTORY OF MONROE COUNTY, WEST VIRGINIA
seize the law library belonging to the Court of Appeals at Lewis- burg, so that it might be used in the river counties of the state. When 12 miles out, he met the Confederates in force at Dry Creek, or Rocky Gap, and fought them ten hours with varying result. Scam- mon not coming up with reinforcements, Averill fell back next morning, fighting and felling trees to cover his retreat. One of his cannon burst from being struck in the muzzle by a ball. He says he did not have 1300 men in the battle, and gives his loss during the whole raid as 218. General Patton, commanding the Confed- erates at Dry Creek, says he himself had about 1900 men and Chap- man's Battery of four guns. He gives his loss as 20 killed, 129 wounded, and 13 missing, a total of 162, and reports taking 117 wounded and unwounded prisoners. Chapman, who is compli- mented in Patton's report, says his enemy fired rapidly and accur- ately, disabling one of his guns.
The battle of Droop Mountain was fought November 6, 1863, near the line between Greenbrier and Pocahontas. There were seven organizations on each side, General Echols commanding the Confederate column of 1700 men and six guns. After an engage- ment of six hours the Confederates were flanked on both wings and pursued to Lewisburg. They lost 275 men, one gun, and one flag. General Averill, in command of the Federals, reported a loss of 119. Duffie advanced from Meadow Bluff to his support, and finding his enemy had passed through Lewisburg, pursued him to the burning bridge over Second Creek, where he lost three men in a skirmish and took a few prisoners. He also took 110 cattle dur- ing his pursuit. Echols fell back to Sinking Creek in Giles county, and in his first report General Jones considered the defeat a serious matter. But it was later claimed that to the Federals there was little material advantage.
Echols soon reoccupied Lewisburg. A few weeks later he made a hurried march by way of Sweet Springs to the top of Peters Mountain to intercept Averill on his return from a raid into South- west Virginia. Other troops were hemming the Federals on the other flank, but they escaped the trap set for them. While at New-
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castle, Averill sent for a physician named Wylie, shrewdly knowing that a country doctor could not fail to be well acquainted with the roads in his territory. Wylie at first refused to pilot the Federals to Covington, but yielded to the threat of being shot, and led Aver- ill's troops to the desired point. Wylie was given a reward for the very unwilling service, and was regarded by his own people as a traitor. The smoke of the burning bridge over Jackson's River at Covington apprised Echols that his prey had eluded him.
Near the middle of January, 1864, General Crook with a large force entered Monroe and lay a while at Union. An incident of this occupation was when Nelson Nickell and a few daredevil com- panions dashed into the south end of the village, captured the picket at Chapman's corner, and made their escape amid a shower of bul- lets.
Later in the same year, General Hunter marched through the Blue Ridge to capture Lynchburg, but found it too strongly de- fended, General Lee having sent a large force under Early to its relief. Hunter fell back to Salem, and was so vigorously pursued that he fled through the mountains to the Ohio River, leaving the way open for General Early to pursue his famous campaign in the lower Shenandoah Valley. Hunter passed through Sweet Springs, Union, and Lewisburg, resting two days at the last named place. Being cut off from his supply train, he had to subsist his army off a thinly peopled mountain region. Provisions and forage were scarce and his men nearly starved.
The final skirmish in this region took place a few days after the surrender of Lee. It was at Big Rock, seven miles east of Hinton, and Thurmond's Rangers were the Confederate force. No one was hurt on either side.
During the four years of war, farming and other home indus- tries and the public business were kept going, but only after a fash- ion. Nearly all the able-bodied men were absent in military service. Some of the slaves had fled or were kidnapped, and others had been sent away. Only one span of horses was allowed to each farm, any surplus being impressed. The roads were almost wholly neg- lected. The markets being cut off or demoralized, there was no
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free movement into the county of the commodities it had been cus- tomary to purchase abroad. The armies, whether of friend or foe, made heavy drafts on the limited amount of the foodstuffs and forage produced. During one of the four years the wheat crop was almost a failure. Rye and corn had to make good the shortage after a manner. Real coffee was displaced by parched rye and chestnuts; real tea by a drink made of birch or raspberry. Cotton became worth $60 a pound in Confederate money. There was nec- essarily much privation and hardship. But fortunately there was no widespread depredation, such as took place in the zones marched over by the great armies. Yet an undated petition by A. T. Caper- ton and 17 others complains "that many of the citizens as well as soldiers have become so lawless that it is almost impossible to pro- tect our growing crops or any inclosure upon our lands."
With the three Wheeling conventions in West Virginia and the war constitution of 1863, Monroe county had nothing to do. For a while it was not the intention of the Wheeling government to in- clude in the new state the counties of Pocahontas, Greenbrier, and Monroe. The boundary as finally determined took in several coun- ties which did not support the new state movement, nor did they sympathize in any large degree with the Federal cause. It would look as though this arbitrary action should subsequently have been passed upon by a popular vote in the communities thus affected.
Thus the close of hostilities found this county in West Virginia without having had any voice in the matter. For a while there was a chaotic condition of civil authority. During more than half a year there was no local government. The last session of the county court under Virginia was held May 15, 1865. Not until the last day but one of the following November was a board of supervisors organized, in accordance with the West Virginia prac- tice. Even then the county government was not truly representa- tive of the people. A large majority of the citizens were disfran- chised in consequence of the test oaths exacted by the Wheeling gov- ernment. That there was some impatience and resentment is not to be wondered at.
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Narrow, bitter prejudices and a lack of constructive statesman- ship were in the saddle in those days and were not confined to either faction. The registration laws and the test oaths enabled the gov- ernor to say who should and who should not vote. In the ex-Con- federate counties a large majority of the men of voting age had been "rebels." As a matter of course they represented the greater share of the wealth and intelligence of their communities, and yet they were disqualified as being unworthy of trust. Without their aid it was practically impossible to reorganize competent local govern- ments. For illiberality in this trying time West Virginia was conspicuous among the states.
In 1868 it was alleged that the registration boards were intim- idated in this county. The presence of the Ku Klux Klan was sus- pected, and national troops stood guard at the polls. In the elec- tion of that year only 326 men voted. 1511 were debarred. In 1870 the troops were present again, and the Democratic and Re- publican votes were respectively 454 and 303, thus indicating that only about two men out of five were able to cast ballots.
Relief came through a constitutional amendment offered by W. H. H. Flick, the representative from Pendleton. Flick was a na- tive of Ohio, and had been a Federal soldier. He was a statesman and enjoyed the respect and esteem of the men he had fought. He was one of the party in power who believed the proscription laws were neither necessary nor wise. In Monroe this amendment was indorsed by the Democrats and denounced by the Republicans. The county adopted it by a vote of 618 to 101; the state, by 23,546 votes against 6,323. It is alleged that owing sometimes to laxity in en- forcing the registration, and sometimes to intimidation, many of the disfranchised voted for the amendment, and thus legalized their own right to vote. The Flick amendment was proclaimed as a law of the state in April, 1871, and it ended the reconstruction era in West Virginia. Another result was to transfer the control of the state from the Republican party to the Democratic. A third result was the state constitution of 1872.
The war constitution of 1863 was very largely patterned by the
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men of the Northern Panhandle. They used an Ohio model, and is was too radical to suit a majority of the West Virginia people. The county court was abolished and a township system of local gov- ernment was substituted. The township chose annually a supervisor, a clerk, an overseer of the poor, and surveyors of the roads; one or more constables to serve two years, and one or more justices to serve four years. The county officers were the recorder, the sheriff, the county surveyor, the prosecuting attorney, and one or more as- sessors, all for terms of two years.
In the constitutional convention of 1872 the opposite element was overwhelmingly in control. Provisions of the war constitution were reversed, not because they were good or bad in themselves, but because they were "Yankee innovations." The old county court was restored, and the name supervisor was spitefully cast out, although retained by Virginia as one of the innovations of her own reconstruc- tion constitution.
To add to the unhappy situation of Monroe at this time, it was afflicted with a most corrupt judge. Nathaniel Harrison, a scion of the family that has given two presidents to the United States, came to Monroe in early life, married here, and entered upon the practice of law. He was a man of fine personal presence and much legal ability. At the close of the war he connected himself with the party in power, and was made judge of the Ninth District. Under the forms of law he outraged decency and oppressed and plundered the people, almost after the manner of an Oriental satrap. During several years complaints were useless because they were front "rebel" sources. But at length Harrison resigned under fire and spent his last days in Colorado. It is said he received threatening letters while judge. Almost the only good act related of him in his official capacity was his sentencing a deserter for five years and in this way abating the trouble from horse thieves.
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