USA > West Virginia > Monroe County > A history of Monroe county, West Virginia > Part 24
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Looking between the fine oaks in front of the brick mansion of Lynnside, we see a little distance down the valley the hamlet of Sweet Springs. The collection of buildings is suggestive of more than a hamlet, yet less than a dozen are permanently occupied. Sweet Springs without its hotel interest would be like the play of Hamlet with Hamlet left out. A short mile farther down the valley is Sweet Chalybeate Springs, the line separating the Virginias passing midway between the resorts.
Another short mile, but in the rear of the big hotel and at the foot of Peters Mountain, will bring us to the spot where lived the eccentric Colonel Royall and his indomitable wife. Royall was a wealthy planter who just after the Revolution turned his back on
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Tuckahoe Virginia and came to Sweet Springs valley. During the second quarter of the last century his widow was a journalist of the city of Washington and the best known woman in America. Her book on "Life, Manners, and Customs in America" was very help- ful in the compilation of this volume.
Three years ago a son of Monroe, now in California, formulated a plan that the Daughters of the United Confederate Veterans pur- chase Old Sweet Springs and make it a center of learning. For such a purpose it has many things in its favor.
We turn southward. The cleared portion of the valley is some- times more than a mile broad, and yet nearly every house stands very near the road we are following. In five miles we are on a section of the divide between Atlantic and Mississippi waters. Yet the space between the mountain ramparts looks as valley-like as ever. Our gradual up grade merely changes to a gradual down grade as we follow the waters of Second Creek and come in another five miles to the hamlet of Gap Mills. Here is a mill pond and at its mouth is a narrow break in the rocky stratum that forms the core of Gap Mountain. It is almost an ideal spot for a mill dam. The basin of Second Creek above the gorge was a very favored point of early settlement. It was well populated even at the close of the Revolution, but the earliest names are nearly or quite un- known to the present inhabitants. The comfortable homes around us are suggestive of those we saw in the Sinks. Near the pond stood until about 1888 the first brick house to be erected west of the Alleghany. It was the large two-roomed dwelling of Andrew Summers.
As we go southward, the space between Peters and Little moun- tains becomes more restricted and more uneven. It is a belt rather than a valley, because it is partitioned into pocket-shaped basins, each with its watergap toward the west, as in the instance at Gap Mills. In these passes, or a little above, are the bold springs which start Indian and Rich creeks and their feeders. If we ascend to the pastures on the flank of the higher mountain, we can look over Little
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Mountain and catch interesting glimpses of the still lower country beyond.
For forty miles we have on our left the massive and regular up- lift of Peters Mountain. It is sometimes claimed that it derives its name from Christian Peters, the founder of Peterstown. This is impossible. The mountain was already well known by its present name when Peters was only a boy of sixteen and living in Rocking- ham county. The name comes from Peter Wright, who in 1746 settled immediately below the site of Covington and built a mill. He was a well known personage in his day, and also gave name for a while to Dunlap Creek, which we find spoken of as Peter's Creek in 1753. Wright's valley at Bluefield also gets its name from the same man. It is related of Wright that he was once snowbound in a cave on the side of the mountain, and that the spot became known as Peter's cave. It is, however, a natural consequence that as Chris- tian Peters was a leading citizen near the south end of the moun- tain, his name grew to be associated with it. Thus the opinion arose that the mountain was named for him. The range is a noble one and merits the following tribute written by James Pyne after he had made a trip around the world :
It was under the shadow of Peters Mountain that I first saw the light of day. It was there that I heard the wolf's howl, the catamount's scream, the thunder's peal, and the tempest's rage. There I learned to wonder at the beauties of nature; the unfolding buds, the blooming, fragrant flowers, the hum of bees, the song of birds. It was there my restless soul was composed, my anguish set at rest on a gentle, loving mother's breast. It was in the cool shades by the gushing springs of living waters at the foot of Peters Mountain I heard the still, small voice of God, and learned to know his love. There I saw the "clear, cool night stars" and the glorious awakening of the morning, "the seed time and the harvest time," and the great white gown of autumn pulled down over the crest of the mountain to the dark-colored leaves. It was under the sheltering care of old Peters Mountain that my first sweetheart lived. How innocent, how divine is child love. Can a man ever forget the little girl who first talked to him about love? No, never. It was in Peters Mountain that I learned to know the love of father and mother, brother and sister, friends and home. It was there, too, that my thoughts flew upward to love of country and
A MODERN COUNTRY HOME "Walnutta," Residence of Mrs. Ellen Lively
"The Hodge Farm in the Foreground
ONNAVIĊ² AVIVAVIU
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the love of our Creator. There childhood's happy days joyously sped, ten- derly, sweetly, but all too quickly.
We double back on our course until we reach Gap Mills, and then make a detour to the one precinct of Monroe that lies beyond Peters Mountain. Our road takes us to the summit by a circuitous course in order to overcome the grade. From the summit we may see Keeney's Mountain on the western line of Old Monroe. East- ward in the near distance is Potts Mountain, while beyond are glimpses of those ranges that make Craig a miniature Switzerland. Our descent is rapid. The floor of the valley of Potts Creek is narrow, and there is not the limestone formation that covers so much of Monroe county. So late as 1840 this upper portion of the valley is said to have been well-nigh a wilderness. And yet Colonel Will- iam Preston of Point Pleasant fame saw enough promise in the val- ley to locate several surveys before the Revolution.
We come to the creek at Laurel Branch, a railroad station yet scarcely a hamlet. To Waiteville, the one other station in the pre- cinct, it is five miles. The head of the valley spreads out like a fan and covers a quite large and smooth area. Waiteville may count as a rudimentary village. On the mountain side, which does not seem to rise far above this elevated plain, we observe the loops by which the railroad lightens the ascent to the divide between Potts and Stony creeks. We return to Gap Mills by a shorter course, and find a better soil on the western slope of Peters Mountain than on the eastern. There are numerous huckleberry bushes. But rat- tlesnakes infest the huckleberry patches, as well as the mountain slopes in general. Now and then the county hears of a bite by a rattlesnake or a copperhead. Wolf Creek has furnished a "rattler" four feet six inches long and sixteen and one-half inches in girth. A resident of the valley we are now in slew 94 of the deadly rep- tiles in 1894.
From the mill dam in the Second Creek gorge a little valley rap- idly widens out, but in a mile it sharply contracts. There is a sec- ond and last ridge through which the creek has to make its way. Why is this stream called Second Creek, when there is neither a
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First Creek nor a Third Creek? It was bearing this name in 1751. To the explorer leaving Jackson's River at the mouth of Dunlap, and following the red man's trail to the mouth of Indian, it was the second stream he would encounter. In returning, it would like- wise be the second stream. This circumstance may have suggested the name.
Emerging from this second gap, we have before us the plateau of the Sinks and in the distance is Bickett's Knob. In the foreground is the nearest approach to a glade to be found in the county. It is the nucleus of the great estate known as the Lewis place. This be- gan in 1751 with a survey of 1000 acres made by Andrew Lewis. Financial embarrassment finally threw it into other hands, yet it re- mains one undivided whole, and the most conspicuous instance of landlordism in Monroe. It would be better for the community if it were broken into small farms and carried on by their owners.
The glade we have mentioned is traversed by Second Creek. In the north are the ridges over which we passed on our way to the Cove. We can peer into the mouth of the valley drained by Big Devil Creek and its affluent, Little Devil Creek. Why these names came into being no one seems able to tell. They appear to be quite as old as that of Second Creek itself. There is a local song that runs somewhat as follows:
I lost my dog last Saturday night, And where do you reckon I found him? Way down on Little Devil Creek, With all the devils round him.
An uncanny tradition of the Lewis place tells of the grave of a man buried in a vertical position. The first burial near Lindside is said to have been that of an Estill girl, 13 years old, who was killed by the falling of a tree. Eads Mountain in the foreground recalls an incident. While Cornelius Vanstavern was walking across the ridge he met a wolf devouring a lamb, and killed the beast of prey with his heavy walking stick. On another occasion his dogs started a deer. He ran to the house for his rifle but could not find it. Presently he heard the report of the weapon followed by the voice of his mother telling him to fetch the deer she had shot.
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MONROE AS SEEN IN A TOUR
The road to Union and thence to Willow Bend on Turkey Creek presents about the same features as the stretch from Sinks Grove to Pickaway. But beyond, the surface is more uneven. Our road parallels Little Mountain and follows a succession of streams, some minor elevations rising on our right. We pass through the hamlet of Rock Camp and the village of Lindside, make several fordings, and come in sight of where Peters Mountain suddenly breaks down to give passage to New River. When we come to the little stream known as Scott's Branch we are on the Virginia line. The strip between it and the river was once a part of Monroe and should not have been taken away. In the creek hollow below our road is Gray Sulphur Spring, once a summer resort but now only a mem- ory.
Trigger Run, the tributary of Scott's Branch that we have been following, was the home of Christian Peters, a local magnate of the early years of this county. The stream was named from a pioneer who tried to shoot an Indian, but the trigger of his gun would not work. This may have been of the nature of "buck ague." Near the head of the little run are traces of one of the several racetracks that were formerly in use.
From Peterstown it is five miles to the hamlet of Cashmere, formerly Brush Creek. Three miles beyond is the group of houses known as Ballard. We are now on the high plateau between New River and Hans Creek and can look far away in every direction. The sandy soil gives this upland an appearance quite different from the Sinks. It is a curious fact that as the New River is closely ap- proached the Appalachian region undergoes a change in its geology and consequently in its soils. One feels that he is coming into a different country. South of the river is greater mineral wealth, in- cluding some metals scarcely found to the north. This Quaking Asp tableland is thickly peopled and schoolhouses are not far apart.
Mr. Adair of this neighborhood has a unique but very efficient cistern. It is on a ridge, at a higher elevation than the house, and is fed by a concreted drainage area of 28 by 66 feet. Gravity con- ducts the abundant supply to the house, and the rain does not have to seep through birds' nests in eave gutters.
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A HISTORY OF MONROE COUNTY, WEST VIRGINIA
We are passing near the spot where occurred the only duel with a fatal ending that is known to local tradition. It took place about a century ago. While a resident of this county was visiting North Carolina, he was accused of being there to steal slaves. This led to a challenge and a duel and a North Carolina man was killed. Some time later his brother learned the whereabouts of the slayer and sent a challenge by a messenger. The Virginian said he did not wish to fight, but the message was peremptory and a meeting was arranged. It took place in a road on the line between Monroe and Summers, about seven miles from Peterstown and three from New River. The fight was to be with pistols and on horseback. During the interval between the challenge and the duel, the Virginian practiced with his own weapon until he could cut a rope dangling from a tree. The meeting was at sunrise. The North Carolina man arrived with a coffin carried in a wagon. The challenged man asked that the duel he called off. He said he would be sure to kill his adversary, and he did not wish to do so. The North Carolinian refused. He insisted on the fight and said the coffin was for the use of whichever man should be killed. The Virginian replied that his antagonist was the one who would need it. At the first fire the stranger fell dead, his own ball missing. Some thirty years later, the Virginian's principal, then advanced in years, consented to relate the incident to a young man, but exacted a promise that the latter should tell no one else during his lifetime. The man who was then young grew old and is no longer living. The name of the Monroe duelist is forgotten.
A little beyond Ballard the road takes a very decided drop to Red Sulphur Springs, but brings us back to the upland, and our next descent is to Hans Creek. In Revolutionary days the stream was called Hand's Creek, from one John Hand, a squatter and hunter who lived on its lower course. However, it is probable that his name was Hance, rather than Hand. An Adam Hance was a con- stable on New River in 1773. At the mouth of the stream is Grave- yard Hill, which rises island-like from an extent of bottom land. It is now three miles to Greenville. The bottoms on Indian are not
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continuous, the high, slaty river-hills sometimes crowding very near to one another. In fact the lower valley of Indian Creek is the most broken part of the county.
Both the Indian and the Laurel, which unite at Greenville, are freakish in their behavior. When little over a mile from the vil- lage, Laurel runs squarely against a hill. The law of gravitation not permitting it to flow over the hill, it enters a cavern and comes out on the other side. But after a very short distance it resumes its subterranean career and does not again show itself until very close to its mouth. In the bottom above Greenville, Indian sends a por- tion of its waters into a hole on its south brink. As has been proved by experiments, these waters follow a transverse channel under the creek bed, join those of Laurel a little above the mouth of the lat- ter, and thus get back where they properly belong.
A mile from Greenville is Singing Cave, which has quite a little history. It is long and tortuous, is no longer traversed by a stream, and has two entrances. Saltpeter was made here from the time of the Revolution until nearly the close of the war of 1861. There may still be seen the rotting timbers of which the leaching vats were made; also mounds of leached earth and the perfectly distinct im- prints of horseshoes, horses having been used to haul out the salt- peter lye. The cavern is dry, and comes by its name from the sing- ing parties that have made its walls echo and re-echo. One instance of this kind was when a large band of Confederate troops entered the cave and sang their martial airs.
Saltpeter suggests gunpowder. Valentine Cook had a new pow- der mill in 1797. Another early maker of the article was Jacob Mann, whose mill stood near where the Thomas mill now is. He opened up a trade with the North Carolina people, who supplied him with lead brought from the mines in Wythe. This Carolina trade was large enough to give name to a road that passed by Sing- ing Cave. Mann's boys would sprinkle powder along an old race, fire it at one end, and then see who could first hit the other end of the trail. The father used for his blacksmith shop a cavern 150 yards below the mill at Hunter's Springs.
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A HISTORY OF MONROE COUNTY, WEST VIRGINIA
Panther Hollow on Indian derives its name from this circum- stance: John Miller heard a piece of bark fall from a tree, and looking up saw a puma-known to the pioneers as panther or "painter"-about to spring upon him. He immediately fired and killed the animal.
Adam Miller of the same clan was crossing Cumberland Moun- tain to visit a relative. He and his fellow traveler lodged for the night with a German family. One of the two grown daughters, ad- dressing her sister in her mother tongue, remarked that "the one with legs like a turkey gobbler is my fellow. You can have him. The other one with a nose like a turkey gobbler's snout is your fellow." Miller at once replied in the same language: "You have both done well. I congratulate you." Two bundles of feminine apparel made an abrupt dash through the door and were not again seen by the young men.
From Greenville there is a choice of roads to our starting point. One takes the valley of the Laurel, while the other attempts to fol- low the crooked course of Indian Creek, crossing the stream about as often as possible. On this road is the oldest Baptist house of worship within the present limits of Monroe. A little beyond is the hamlet of Hunter's Mill. Not far above is the stone house built by the first sheriff of this county. It dates from a few years before or a few years after the beginning of the nineteenth century. The walls are so sound and true that they look capable of standing for centuries yet to come. To this spot migrated Wallace Estill in 1773, coming a hundred miles from his earlier settlement on Bull- pasture River. He was then a man of seventy-five, yet there were left to him nearly twenty years in which to "grow up with the country," a consideration doubtless of less weight to himself than the fact of his numerous boys and girls, the youngest of whom were mere chil- dren. We are told of ghosts that have appeared on the farm, per- haps the "harnts" of those of Estill's slaves that lie buried near the bank of the creek. Or they may be the wraiths of some of the vanished red men. No portion of the county is richer in Indian legend than the valley of Indian Creek.
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MONROE AS SEEN IN A TOUR
Midway on the road from Salt Sulphur to Union are many acres solidly covered with a tall, dense growth of stickweed. Even ninety years ago the pest was in evidence. It is described by Mrs. Royall as "pipestem," on account of the stiff stalks being then used as stems for tobacco pipes.
We are within sight of Green Hill, where we began our im- aginary tour. We close our chapter with the following words by a native of the county :
To those of us who are away from our native heath, it seems that the sun shines a little brighter, the grass grows a little greener, and the birds sing a little sweeter in Old Monroe. No mountains look half so grand and majestic as those that rear their heads over the beautiful valleys and look down upon the homes of a happy and contented people, such as are found in God's own country.
XXXIII
FAMILY NAMES
National Derivation of the Monroe Families-Lists of Surnames-The Recent Influx-A Forward Look.
PPALACHIAN AMERICA is today the most American part of the United States, and yet the Americans are a a composite people. Their language and their institu- tions are derived from England, although more than half of the American stock is non-English.
A great share of the province of Ulster in the north of Ireland was confiscated by the English government and colonized with a new population. This was mainly from the southwest of Scotland. The newcomers were joined by many families from the north of Eng- land and the Highlands of Scotland, and by a few Welch and Hu- guenots. Not a few of the native Irish accepted the Presbyterian creed of the immigrants and blended with them. The general fusion is commonly but not very correctly called the Scotch-Irish people. It was these people from Ulster who took the lead in settling the Appalachian country. They were joined by many of the English- Americans from the coast and by much of the German immigration, which, like that from Ulster, was very large between 1725 and 1775. Among them were also a few Hollanders from New York. The French names occurring in America before the Revolution be- long either to the Norman-French families that had been in the British Isles for centuries, or to the Huguenot families, who as Protestants had been driven from their native land by religious per- secution. After the Revolution some of the French soldiers who had served in that war preferred to stay in America. About 7000 of the Hessian mercenaries who had served in the British army also remained.
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FAMILY NAMES
It is extremely difficult to apportion the Monroe surnames among the various nationalities represented. The Scottish Lowland is an English-speaking region, and some surnames are found on both sides of the boundary. Our list of Scotch names should doubtless be somewhat increased at the expense of the English. The names from Ireland, Wales, and Holland are more readily distinguished, because each country has its own language. As to the German names, some have taken on a thoroughly English form. Instances are Baker, Friend, Haynes, Hull, Mann, Peck, and Stephenson. In fact there are Manns in Monroe of English origin as well as German, and there are Millers of Scotch as well as German origin.
Our list of Scotch names is as follows: Alexander, An- derson, Archey, Arnot, Ballantyne, Bickett, Black, Blanton, Bow- yer, Burns, Byrnside, Callaway, Campbell, Cantley, Carden, Carlisle, Chambers, Charlton, Christy, Clark, Connor, Crosier, Curry, Dicken- son, Dickson, Dunbar, Duncan, Dunlap, Dunn, Dunsmore, Erskine, Farmbrough, Flint, Forlander, Gilchrist, Given, Graham, Hamilton, Hand, Handley, Henderson, Higgenbotham, Hogshead, Honaker, Houston, Humphreys, Irons, Jamieson, Jarrell, Johnson, Johnston, Karnes, Keaton, Kitchen, Longanacre, Malcom, McCartney, Mc- Claugherty, McCoy, McCreery, McDonald, McDowell, McGhee, McGlamery, McMann, McNeer, McNutt, McPherson, Milburn, Neal, Neel, Nelson, Nettles, Nickell, Parker, Patton, Pritt, Pyles, Rainey, Reaburn, Reed, Rowan, Scott, Soward, Steele, Stever, Stodg- hill, Tackett, Thompson, Tomlinson, Wilson, Wylie.
As English names we list these: Abbott, Alderson, Alford, Ap- pling, Baber, Barnett, Beard, Benson, Biggs, Bland, Blank- enship, Boggess, Boon, Bostick, Bradley, Brooking, Brown, Budd, Caruthers, Coalter, Cook, Copeland, Cornwell, Correll, Cummings, Dransfield, Early, Echols, Edgar, Ellis, Ellison, Ewing, Foster, Gray, Green, Groves, Gullett, Hale, Halstead, Hancock, Harvey, Hawkins, Hereford, Hill, Hines, Hodge, Houchins, Hunter, Hutchinson, Jen- nings, Keadle, Keatley, Keyes, Lanius, Lawrence, Leach, Lee, Legg, Linton, Lively, Lobban, Maddeson, Maddox, Massy, Osborne, Pack,
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Prentice, Riner, Roach, Robinson, Rolston, Rushbrook, Sawyers, Scarborough, Shanklin, Shires, Smith, Smithson, Symms, Tapscott, Taylor, Tracy, Turpin, Waite, Walker, Warren, Willey, Willis, Wiseman, Woods, Woodson, Woodville, Wright, Young.
As German names we count Baker, Bare, Beamer, Beckner, Bit- tenger, Broyles, Carnifax, Comer, Conrad, Counts, Crebs, Ensmin- ger, Fleshman, Hansbarger, Haynes, Hedrick, Holsapple, Hoylman, Hull, Keister, Keller, Kessinger, Maddy, Mann, Miller, Moss, Peck, Pence, Peters, Pitzer, Riffe, Ruddle, Skaggs, Spade, Stephen- son, Wanstaff, Wickline, Weikel, Winebrenner, Zoll. Other names which would seem to belong here are Best, Costler, Friend, Gatliff, Harper, Hinchman, Magnet, Ruth, Tincher.
As Irish names we have Beirne, Boyd, Bryan, Cochran, Dillon, Doran, Dowdy, Eagan, Farley, Kean, Keenan, Kilpatrick, Lafferty, Lynch, Murphy, Parke, Pharr, Ryan, Shanton, Sullivan, Swinney.
The French names, including those thoroughly naturalized in the British Isles, are Adair, Burdette, Caperton, DeHart, Dubois, Es- till, Fitzpatrick, Larew, Lewis, Mitchell, Morton, Pyne, Shumate, So- vain, Tiffany, Wallace.
Welch names are Ballard, Evans, Gwinn, Hank, Jones, Rodgers, Thomas, Vawter, Williams.
Holland appears to contribute only Summers and Vanstavern.
From distant Poland comes the name Crotshin.
Many names, both British and non-British, have undergone change in spelling. Some of these instances are as follows, the old forms being shown in brackets.
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