USA > West Virginia > Monroe County > A history of Monroe county, West Virginia > Part 2
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A HISTORY OF MONROE COUNTY, WEST VIRGINIA
As to birds the list is more numerous. Of those that nest here the birds of prey are the buzzard, the squirrel hawk, the blue chicken hawk, the striped chicken hawk, the bird hawk, the hoot owl, and the barn owl. Of others the larger species are the turkey, the duck, the dove, the pheasant, the bobwhite, the rain crow, and the carrion crow. Of smaller birds are the following kinds: whipporwill, flax- bird, catbird, bluebird, white-winged woodpecker, chimney-bird, woodsparrow, groundsparrow, blue warbler, common blackbird, red- winged blackbird, hummingbird, indigo bird, kingbird, swampbird, bobolink, yellowhammer, bullfinch, goldfinch, sapsucker, meadow- lark, brown thrush, bluejay, robin, wren, tomtit, swallow, snipe, mar- tin, and peewee. The monarch of the air is the gray eagle. In 1901 an eagle was killed in this county that measured 36 inches from the tip of the beak to the end of the tail, and the spread of the wings was seven feet.
The rainfall is well distributed and the soils take naturally to a forest covering. When the woodland is cleared away, especially from the limestone belts, there comes in a carpet of grass, the foun- dation of Monroe's importance as a grazing county.
The following is a list of native forest trees : white pine, spruce pine, yew pine, arbor vitae, black walnut, white walnut, sugar maple; hard maple, cutleaf maple, white poplar, yellow poplar, spanish oak, black oak, ash, black gum, white linn, yellow linn, yellow locust, yel- low willow, weeping willow, horse chestnut, sassafras, sourwood, red cedar, birch, holly, and dogwood. Fruit and nut trees other than those mentioned are the chestnut, mulberry, cherry, crabapple, plum, persimmon, and pawpaw. Of shrubs there are the rhododendron, the hazelbush, the redbud, the Hercules club, the chinkapin, the buf- falo nut, the black haw, the service berry, and the witchhazel. Still more humble plants are the trailing arbutis, which is to America what the heather is to Scotland, and the goldenrod, the floral emblem of several states. The wild grapes are the fox grape, the parent of the Concord and most of the other domestic American grapes ; the pigeon, or bunch grape, the parent stock of Norton's Virginia and other va- rieties; and the chicken, or frost grape. Other wild fruit occuring in more or less natural abundance are strawberries, common and
15
LOCAL GEOGRAPHY
mountain raspberries, prickly gooseberries, dewberries, blackberries, elderberries, ground cherries, buckberries, juniper berries, the su- mach, the wintergreen, or mountain tea, and four varieties of huckle- berries. Non-edible berries are the white cherry, the cedar berry, the hackberry, the white and black thorn, the pokeberry, the black gum, and the spiceberry. Poisonous kinds are the fishberry, the greenbrier, and the deadly nightshade. Herbs, wild flowers, and weeds of both native and imported stocks are of course present in much variety.
For the following list of native medicinal plants and for much of his data on the animal and vegetable life of Monroe the author is indebted to the kindness of Cornelius S. Scott.
White oak
ivy
elder
black oak
witch hazel
jimson weed
red oak
wild grape root
angelica
white pine
ground ivy
spikenard
pitch or black pine
dandelion
rattleweed
spruce pine or hemlock red cedar
silkweed
May apple or mandrake
yellow poplar
dewberry
sourroot
yellow locust
comfrey
ginseng
wild cherry
teaberry
goldenseal
lungbark
wild ginger
red percoon
white walnut
pipsissiway
pennyroyal
white ash
lobelia
red pennyroyal
shellbark hickory
yellow barbary
horsemint
slippery elm
everlasting
colt'sfoot
sassafras
bittersweet
crow'sfoot
black haw
sarsaparilla
black snakeroot
dogwood
deadly sumach
Seneca snakeroot
white dogwood
belladonna
Solomon seal
prickly ash
pokeroot
calamus
The following have been used as teas for table use :
chestnut soft maple
black oak
shellbark hickory
chestnut oak black walnut
sourwood leaves
Appalachian America is a highly favored part of the Western Continent, and in beauty of scenery as well as in several other char-
boneset
Indian turnip
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A HISTORY OF MONROE COUNTY, WEST VIRGINIA
acteristics, Monroe is one of its most attractive counties. The first of the following opinions of Appalachia is by the late Nathaniel S. Shaler, a very eminent authority on the natural sciences. The sec- ond is by William D. Kelly, a jurist of Pennsylvania.
We find a climate resembling in its range of temperature those which characterize the most favored regions of the world. and it is there, perhaps, we may look for the preservation of our race's best characteristics.
It has a finer climate, better water, and a higher condition of health than any other region of which I have any knowledge, and is, withal, one of the most beautiful regions of the world.
The political divisions of Monroe are the magisterial districts of Red Sulphur, Second Creek, Springfield, Sweet Springs, Wolf Creek, and Union. Union lies in the center, Red Sulphur is in the extreme south, and Springfield is between. Second Creek lies in the middle north, Sweet Springs in the east, and Wolf Creek in the northwest. Red sulphur is subdivided into the precincts of Lindside, Peterstown, Cashmere, and Red Sulphur; Second Creek into Rocky Point and Highland Green; Springfield into Greenville, Lillydale, Milton Hall, and Rock Camp; Sweet Springs into Sweet Springs, Gap Mills, and Potts Creek; Wolf Creek into Alderson, Pleasant Valley, and Johnson's Crossroads; and Union into One and Two.
The names applied to the natural features of the county have undergone very few changes indeed since the day of the pathfinder. An exception is that of Quaking Asp, or White Aspen, which has unfortunately given way to Stinking Lick, merely because an animal mired in the run and tainted the air a few weeks.
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II
DISCOVERY AND EXPLORATION
A Vacant Land-A Remarkable Relic-The Wood Expedition-The Loyal and the Greenbrier Land Companies-Walker's Visit.
HEN the country beyond the Alleghanies became known to the English-speaking whites of the seacoast, there were probably fewer than a half dozen small villages of Indians in what is now West Virginia. And yet it does not follow that this had always been a vacant land.
The great number of arrowheads, hatchets, scrapers, and other tools of stone which have casually yet frequently been picked up in Monroe are not sufficiently accounted for by assuming that they have been dropped by visiting hunters. Arrowheads are tedious to manu- acture. The quraries from which the raw material was taken were of so great consequence in the eyes of the red man that they were sometimes neutral ground, even in the case of tribes that were at war. Thus it will be seen that the arrowheads could not have been used wastefully. Again, the mound containing sekletons does not by any means signify that it is only a sepulcher of warriors slain in some battle. Indian warfare was of the guerrilla type and the losses were small. Such a mound is usually a village burial ground, the heap growing in size as interments were added. The village might leave only faint signs of its existence, because the huts were of per- ishable materials.
ยท Village sites have been found within and near the borders of Monroe, and usually on rich bottom land. Near Shanklin's Ferry is one of these. Between that point and the Narrows are two more. The choice of the left bank is seemingly on account of the westerly winds. We are not justified in assuming that all these villages were occupied by only one and the same tribe. Between the oldest and youngest of the village sites in and around this county several and
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A HISTORY OF MONROE COUNTY, WEST VIRGINIA
perhaps many centuries may have elapsed, and tribe may have suc- ceeded tribe.
A relic picked up on Scott's Branch tends to prove the antiquity of man in North America. On a piece of white sandstone, about the size and shape of a one-penny match box, some prehistoric savage drew a picture of a tree. The work was done with a sharp pointed tool, and in that crude yet strong and well-defined manner which is characteristic of no one but the savage or the child. While this etching was still clear and distinct, the stone was tossed aside and became encrusted with three successive layers of hard dark ironstone, the whole forming a spherical nodule, like those so often seen in shale formations. Lumps of this character often contain rock crystals in the center, or else a fragment of rock different from the shell and carrying the fossil imprint of a leaf. But for one of these nodules to contain an unmistakable specimen of human workmanship is rather startling. It is just possible that a few centuries would account for the gradual incrustation around the white stone. And yet the ex- pert might not like to deny that the drawing may be one of those which are known as palacolithic. If so, it was executed by one of those early people who carved on tusks very recognizable pictures of mastodons and other animals that have been extinct for ages. The stone in question may be 10,000 years old or more. At all events, the finding of the relic was under such circumstances as to preclude its being a fake.
In many localities in Monroe arrowheads and stone implements are numerously found. There was a flint quarry at the mouth of Stinking Lick and another a few miles east of Peterstown. On the Dunlap farm near the mouth of Hans Creek was once a burial mound. It was about 60 feet across and contained many relics. Among these were sheets of mica that seem to have been used to cover the faces of the dead. They must have been obtained from the mountains of North Carolina. An excavation in Union in 1889 for the foundation of the new Methodist church revealed 14 skulls and at least one complete skeleton. With the bones were found such relics as the Indians were accustomed to deposit in their graves. Many isolated graves have been observed and some of these have been dug
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DISCOVERY AND EXPLORATION
into. The Shawnee grave was customarily lined with flat stones and covered with the same. Above it was fashioned a mound of earth and stone. 1
1
Monroe is the first transalleghany county of West Virginia to be trodden by the feet of European explorers. This statement is not open to serious controversy. The visit took place only 64 years after the founding of Jamestown and at least 70 years before any white person attempted to make his home here. There were not then 40,000 people in all Virginia, and probably not three times as many in all the colonies. Even Philadelphia, for many years the largest city in the country, had not yet been established. Where now stands the city of Petersburg was Fort Henry, one of the fron- tier posts which effectually prevented another massacre like that of 1644. The person in command was Major Abraham Wood, who had come to Virginia in 1620, when only ten years old. He was a man of energy and enterprise, and it was a part of his duty to carry out the wishes of the House of Burgesses in the matter of pro- moting trade with the natives. The merchants of England were so- licitous in this matter, and traders from Wood's post had already traveled 400 miles toward the southwest on what was known as the Occoneechee path.
But it seems that even 30 years earlier the New River had been found. This was accomplished by an exploring party of four men, one of whom bore the familiar name of Johnson. The stream was given its name because it seemed very significant that so large a river should be flowing in a direction contrary to those of Tidewater Vir- ginia.
In 1671 Major Wood commissioned Thomas Batt, Robert Ful- lam, and Thomas Wood to find out about "the ebbing and flowing of the waters on the other side the mountains, in order to the dis- covery of the South Sea. There were added to the party Jack Neasom, a servant of Major Wood, and Perecute, an Appomattox Indian. A few days later the explorers were joined by seven more of the same tride to serve as guides and scouts.
The start from Fort Henry was made September 1, and in six days the Blue Ridge was sighted. This circumstance is one of the
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A HISTORY OF MONROE COUNTY, WEST VIRGINIA
facts which disproves the current opinion that under Indian occu- pancy the Atlantic states were an unbroken forest. A map of 1719 shows a "large savannah" lying a little east of the Blue Ridge and parallel with it. By a savannah was meant a prairie, the latter word not yet having come into the English language. Five years later Colonel William Byrd, in speaking of the Roanoke valley says, "there is scarce a shrub in view to intercept your prospect, but grass as high as a man on horseback." The Roanoke valley was followed by the party under Batt.
New River was first touched about three and one-half miles north of Radford. Maintaining a northerly course, Peters Moun- tain was crossed, and doubtless by one of the Indian paths. The journal kept by the party now speaks of valleys tending westwardly, and adds that "it was a pleasing though dreadful sight to see the mountains and hills as if piled upon one another." An easy descent of three miles brought them about noon to two trees, on one of which were marked with a coal the letters M A N. The other was cut in with the letters M A and several other "scrabblements." These trees were close by a run coursing sometimes westerly, some- times northerly, with "curious meadows" on each side. Pressing forward, the party found stony hills but rich soil, and meadows with grass above a man's height. They also found "many streams run- ning northwest, and several from the mountains looking south- erly, all running northerly into the great river. In seven miles they came to a steep descent with a great run in it," their course by the path being west southwest. They turned west, and again meeting the river they made quarters for the night. The farther they went that day the richer they found the soil. It was "stony, but full of brave meadows and old fields." The encampment near the site of Union was September 13, Old Style, equivalent to September 24, New Style. The change in the calendar did not take place until 1752.
Where the explorers now were is not difficult to guess by any person familiar with the geography of Monroe. This guess would be confirmed by a close study of the entire journal. The run near the marked trees can scarcely be anything else than Second Creek
21
DISCOVERY AND EXPLORATION
near Gap Mills. It is equally clear that the mountains "looking southerly were Swope's Knobs, and that the "great run" was Indian Creek. The "curious" and "brave" meadows and the old fields are clear evidence that much of the landscape they looked upon was bare of timber. This was due to burning the open spots, and at the close of every hunting season in order to attract the buffalo, elk, and deer. Reckless as has been the white man in destroying the na- tive timber, the red man was even more so. Hu Maxwell says that, in five more centuries he would have made all virginia either a mea- dow or a desert. The mention of trees marked with recognizable letters is rather startling. It goes to illustrate the fact that much of the exploration of the earth has been done in a very unobtrusive way. Many pathfinders have lived unknown to the world in gen- eral. It is those who are paraded, as it were, with the blare of a megaphone that receive public notice.
After again reaching New River, the explorers kept down the stream and found cornstalks in the bottoms. They were told the Mohegans had once lived here. More marked trees were found. From the upland they went down to the river over ground where the natives had once lived, and the old fields were found so encum- bered with weeds and locusts that they could hardly get through. When they came to a quiet pool they imagined they were at the head of tide. From a river-hill they thought they saw a tidal estuary in the distance. They were now far below Hinton, and in reality were viewing a fog in the river canyon. The runlight glimmering upon the fog gave it the appearance of an inlet from the sea. When the party had been out sixteen days the Indians said bad weather would soon be coming on and they wished to return. Grapes, haws, and gooseberries were found, but their provisions were used up and not only was the game scarce but it was hard to get at.
The Wood expedition was absent from Fort Henry just one month. As an exploit it is undoubtedly genuine, and it was much relied upon by the British government in its controversy with France as to the ownership of the Mississippi valley. Notwithstanding the energy of the French explorers the actual priority of claim is on the side of the English. But the idea of the explorers that they were
22
A HISTORY OF MONROE COUNTY, WEST VIRGINIA
almost within sight of the Pacific shows a strange ignorance of Amer- ican geography, even for that day and age. They seem to have been unaware of the extensive travels of De Soto, Coronado, and other Spanish explorers in the preceding century.
The enterprise shown in the Wood expedition was not promptly followed up. The accomplishment of 1671 seems to have become half forgotten, although, when prospectors were examining the val- ley of the New, some 70 years later, the stream was commonly known as Wood's River. It was not until 1716 that Governor Spottswood undertook his celebrated junketing trip to the South Fork of the Shenandoah. Even yet the dwellers in Tidewater had hazy and very unfavorable ideas of the country beyond the Blue Ridge. But the veil was now permanently lifted and exploration became active.
In 1732 John Lewis and his followers began the settlement of Augusta county. So rapid was this immigration from Ulster that the new county, authorized in 1738, was definitely organized in 1745. By this time venturesome landseekers were building cabins on New River near where Radford stands, more than 100 miles be- yond the mother settlement by Lewis. Others, by occupying the valley of Jackson's River, had pressed forward to the base of the Alleghany Front.
It is in 1749 that we find a definite beginning of settlement on the lower course of the Greenbrier. Virginia had a headright law, permitting each adult male immigrant who had paid his way to Virginia to take up 50 acres of the public domain. This was a wise policy, and it was similar to the present homestead law of the federal government. It tended to fill the colony with a class of thrifty immigrants and at no more than a reasonable speed. But the operation of the headright law was largely neutralized by what is known as the order in council. So far as this other method was followed, the public lands were parceled out in immense blocks to associations of influential men who stood in with the government. In theory these companies were immigration agencies. They were supposed to solicit bona-fide settlers and bring them to the land in question. The company was supposed to see that its lands were set-
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DISCOVERY AND EXPLORATION
tled within some definite limit of time. But the colonial gov- ernment was very lenient in enforcing its conditions against its own favorites. The practical working of this system was to enable a syndicate to corner the desirable land over a very large area, and to extort a price from the settler which was seemingly low yet rela- tively high. The settler therefore had to pay this price or move farther on. Oftentimes he did move on. One result was to push forward too rapidly a thin fringe of settlement and expose it unduly to raids by hostile Indians. By giving little service in return, the members of these syndicates were permitted to line their pockets at the expense of the public.
In pursuance of this policy of favoritism the Greenbrier Land Company was organized in 1749. Its president was John Robinson, Treasurer of Virginia and Speaker of the House of Burgesses. The other members were William Beverly, Beverly Robinson, John Rob- inson, Jr., Henry Weatherburne, Thomas Nelson, Jr., John Craig, John Wilson, and four Lewises : Robert, John, William, and Charles. Of these, all but Wilson and John, William, and Charles Lewis were planters from Tidewater. They were little else than silent partners, whose names were supposed to lend dignity and prestige to the enterprise. The active partners were John Lewis and his sons, Thomas and Andrew, both of whom were surveyors. By order of council the company was granted 100,000 acres, lying in the present counties of Pocahontas, Greenbrier, and Monroe. It was allowed four years in which to make surveys and pay for set- tlement rights. The grant was not in one solid block, the company being allowed to pick out the choice parcels and leave the adjacent cull lands to take care of themselves.
It is very plain that the Greenbrier grant was based upon a pre- vious exploration, but of this we have little precise knowledge. We are told that French explorers visited this valley and gave its river the name of Ronceverte. But in the French language "ronceverte" means a green brier. The tradition that General Andrew Lewis named the river fron the greenbrier thickets that caused him trouble in his surveying cannot be correct. The river had been visited by previous explorers, English as well as French, and was already
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A HISTORY OF MONROE COUNTY, WEST VIRGINIA
known by its present name. One of these was John Howard, who was commissioned by Governor Gooch to "make discoveries to the westward." With five companions he went down New River in a boat the frame of which was covered with buffalo hide. From near Hinton they proceeded overland to Point Pleasant, and then boated 800 miles down the Ohio and into the Mississippi. They were there captured by a party of French and Indians, but at length released.
By 1755, when the Indian war put an end to his work, Andrew Lewis had surveyed one-half of the grant and had sold a number of parcels, the Virginia government holding out inducements to attract landseekers west of the Alleghanies.
In 1749 another syndicate, known as the Loyal Land Company was granted 800,000 acres extending from the Greenbrier to the line of North Carolina. The surveying was to be done within four year, but in 1753 this time limit was renewed. Settlers were to gain title on paying the surveyor his fee and to the company three pounds ($10) for each 100 acres. After the war of 1754-59, the privileges of the company were suspended. Soldiers of the French and Indian war who were entitled to public land under the king's proclamation of 1763, began to settle on the grant. This led to a petition by the agents and settlers who had located under the com- pany to hold title accordingly. In 1773 permission to this effect was given by the Colonial Council. By a court decree of 1783, the title of the Loyal Company to surveys made before 1776 was affirmed.
Settlers on Wolf and Second creeks made survey under the Green- brier Company. Those in the remainder of the monroe area *made survey under the Loyal Company.
In 1750, Doctor Thomas Walker, manager of the Loyal Com- pany, went with five companions as far as Cumberland Gap on the present Tennessee line. His return was on the west side of the
*As used in this book the expression, "Monroe area" applies to the territory contained within the present boundaries. By "Old Monroe" is meant the territory within the boundaries which were in force from 1802 to 1806. The county was then larger than either before or since.
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DISCOVERY AND EXPLORATION
Alleghany, and he reached the mouth of the Greenbrier June 28. We make the following extract from his diary for July:
6th. We left the river (Greenbrier). The low grounds on it are of very little value, but on the branches, they are very good and there is a great deal of it, and the highlands is very good in many places. We go: to a large creek, which affords a great deal of very good land and it is chiefly bought. We went up the creek four miles and camped This creek took its name from an Indian named John Anthony that frequently hunts in these woods. There are some inhabitants on the branches of Greenbrier, but we missed their plantation.
In 1751, Christopher Gist, agent and surveyor for the Ohio Land Company, crossed New River on a raft, May 7, eight miles above the mouth of Bluestone. That day he went 13 miles east- ward, killed a bear, and lodged in an Indian camp. He was now in Springfield district.
According to tradition, Andrew and William Lewis and from 10 to 15 other men came up Dunlap Creek in the fall of 1754 and examined the lands over a large territory. In the party was Colonel James Patton, the most energetic of the founders of Augusta county. Other members were a Stuart, a McClung, a Campbell, and a Mc- Neer, the latter being the ancestor of the McNeers of Monroe. They were piloted by Peter Wright, who lived where Covington now stands. However, this could not have been the first time that the Lewises were in Sweet Springs and Second creek valleys.
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