USA > West Virginia > Pendleton County > A history of Pendleton County, West Virginia > Part 11
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Some men acquired much local fame as huntsmen, and were able to tally a long list of the deer and other animals that they killed. One of these men while on his way from Brandywine as a witness at court saw the trail of a bear and turned aside to follow it. Not being present when his name was called at court, a postponement was moved. The judge was inconveniently inquisitive, and drew out the cause of the man's absence. He then made the remark that the Day of Judgment would have to be postponed if it found this per- son trailing a wild animal.
The roads were still poor, yet were slowly becoming bet- ter. In 1850 we find provision for assessing the damages along the right of way of the Moorefield and South Branch turnpike.
The militia system kept alive until dissipated under the heat of civil war. Each district supplied one company which assembled for muster in April and October. The regimental muster took place at the county seat toward the close of May. Thursday and Friday were training days for the offi- cers, and Saturday was the day of general muster. Only the officers appeared in uniform, and they furnished their own blue, brass-buttoned costumes. A high-topped hat with a feather in front was worn. and also a low hat with its brim turned up on one side and its ostrich plume leaning back. The pantaloons had a yellow stripe on each side. A broad red sash was passed twice around the waist and tied in a loop with the ends drooping nearly to the ankle. The spectacular drill day took somewhat the place now filled by the traveling
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circus, and its close was marked by drinking and brawling.
The affairs of the county seem to have been prudently ad- ministered, the increase of revenue from the tithables just about keeping pace with the growth in population. Taxation was very low in comparison with the assessments we are now familiar with. In 1846 a resident of the Seneca valley was taxed one cent on a tract of 130 acres. That by hard effort he was able to keep this ground out of the delinquent tax list will appear from the fact that the title was still in his name several years later.
After the colonial days the citizen of foreign birth became very rare, and in 1854 it looks like a strange incident to find a record of the naturalization of two Irishmen.
In 1851 we find mention of but four mercantile firms out- side of Franklin. These were William Adamson at the Mouth of Seneca, William S. Arbogast at Circleville, Addison Harper on the South Fork, and I. A. and Enoch Graham at Upper Tract.
In 1846 the community was stirred up by the atrocious crime perpetrated by William Hutson, a resident of Reed's Creek. He murdered his wife and several children. The trial took place October 2. Daniel Smith presiding as judge. The 24 jurors appear to have been the following: Benjamin Arbogast, Thomas Beveridge, Daniel Cotton, George Eagle, Samuel C. Eagle, Henry Fleisher, John Jack, Jacob Hull, John Lightner. Henry McCoy, James Moyers, James Morton, Jacob Smith. Benjamin Rexroad, Isaac Seybert, Joseph Siron, Abraham M. Wilson, and Samuel Wilson. These jurors were chiefly from the southern end of the county. The names withdrawn do not appear. The deputy sheriffs, Peter H. Kinkead, and John M. Jones, gave the oath to the jury. That body appears to have come to a speedy agreement. It reported that "we, the jury, find that William Hutson, the prisoner at the bar, is guilty of murder in manner and form as in the indictment against him is alleged, and we so decide and sustain that he is guilty of murder in the first degree." In accordance with this verdict the prisoner was hanged near Franklin. It was the first legal execution in the county. Though at this distance of time it would appear that Hutson was a victim of some mental derangement, the prompt and unequivocal punishment is thought to have had a salutary influence for many years.
Soon after the Hutson trial the county of Highland was formed from portions of Bath and Pendleton. Its boundaries are thus defined by the legislative act of March 19, 1847: "Beginning where the North River gap road crosses the Augusta county line, and running thence to the top of Jack-
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son's Mountain, so as to leave Jacob Hiner's mansion house in Pendleton county; thence to Andrew Fleisher's so as to in- clude his mansion house in the new county; thence to the highland betwen the Dry Run and Crab Bottom, and thence along the top of the main ridge of said highlands, to the top of the High Knob; thence N. 65 degrees W. to Pocahontas county line "
The area of Pendleton was thus reduced from 990 square miles to 707, and its length of more than 40 miles was cor- respondingly shortened. The number of inhabitants in the section thus lost to Pendleton was about 2100. In 1850, the new county had a population of 4227. Of this number, 3837 were whites, 23 were free blacks, and 364 were slaves. The war with Mexico was then going on, and the name of Mon- terev, the county seat of Highland, commemorates a victory by General Taylor.
Those political events of this period which directly concern Pendleton county are highly important, even if we have left them to the close of our chapter.
The state constitution of 1776 remained in force until 1830. It allowed two members in the House of Delegates to each and every county; no more and no less, except that the towns of Williamsburg and Norfolk were each entitled to one member. But the aristocratic complexion of the document grew more and more obnoxious to the counties west of the Blue Ridge. In 1825 a convention met at Staunton and issued an appeal to the legislature, that a new constitution be framed. The direct result was the constitutional convention of 1829, of which General McCoy was one of the 96 members and the representative for Pendleton county. But the new instrument was not progressive. The counties east of the Blue Ridge were able to outbalance those to the westward, and the new constitution was drawn almost wholly in their interest. It was so displeasing to the counties which now form West Virginia that they gave 8365 votes against its adoption and only 1383 in its favor. But as the correspond- ing votes in the rest of the state were 7198 and 24,672, the new charter carried by a majority of nearly 11,000. The new constitution fixed the membership of the House of Delegates at 135, only 29 being apportioned to what is now West Vir- ginia. The representation from the two divisions of the state was to remain unchanged, regardless of any unequal growth in population. As the weak counties were now lim- ited to a single delegate, the representation of Pendleton was reduced from two to one. There was a little broadening in the matter of voting qualifications, but in general there was no liberalizing of the forms of government.
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Other features of the new constitution were these : Just- ices were commissioned as before, but the limit to each county was 12. The board was to make three nominations for the office of sheriff at the November term, the governor to com- mission that officer for a term of a little more or a little less than a year and a half, according to the date of commission. The governor also chose the coroner from two nominees, the office being held during good behavior. The county clerk was appointed by the court for a term of seven years. Constables were appointed by the court for two years. There was to be a quarterly term of county court, and supplementary terms in each alternate month. The fourth Thursday in April was made election day, except for presidential electors. Female slaves above the age of 16 were counted as tithables.
The western counties of the state were restive under the illiberal features of the constitution of 1829, and in 1850 a new convention met at Richmond, deliberated nine and a half months, and framed the instrument which was ratified the next year by a vote of 75,748 against 11,069. The mem- ber of the convention for Pendleton was A. M. Newman. The new constitution became effective January 1, 1852.
Under this new charter, each magisterial district elected 4 justices, one of whom presided, the others being divided into classes. They were now allowed a per diem of $3. County officers were also chosen by the people. The county clerk and county surveyor held office for 6 years, the prosecuting attorney for 4 years, and the sheriff and commissioner of revenue for 2 years. The right to vote was now freed from all property qualifications. The time of state elections was changed to the fourth Thursday in May. Pendleton was put with Augusta, Bath, Hardy, Highland, Rockbridge, Rocking- ham, and Shenandoah to form the Ninth Congressional Dis- trict, and with Hardy, Highland, Page, Rockbridge, Shenan- doah, and Warren to form the Twelfth Judicial Circuit.
Of the 32 state senators, 19 were to come from east of the Blue Ridge. Of the 152 members of the house of Delegates, 47 were allotted to the counties now in West Virginia. In apportioning this representation, slave property was thrown into the scale, and as a vast majority of the slaves were east of the Blue Ridge, the East of the state retained the balance of power in its own hands. But as a concession to the West, it was provided that in 1865, or in any tenth year thereafter, and in the event that the General Assembly should fail to agree on a principle of representation, the voters of the state were to decide between four different schemes of suffrage. These four plans were as follows: 1. A suffrage basis resting solely on votes. 2. A mixed basis, one delegate being as-
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signed to each seventy-sixth of the number of whites, and one to each seventy-sixth of all state taxes on licenses and law processes, plus the capitation tax on freedmen. 3. A taxa- tion basis, the senators being apportioned on the taxation basis as aforesaid, and the delegates on the suffrage basis. 4. The senate to be chosen by the mixed basis, the lower house by the suffrage basis.
But the year 1865 found the state of West Virginia an ac- complished fact, and this elaborate scheme of the convention for retaining a control to the East as long as possible has now only an historic interest.
CHAPTER XIII
Slavery in Pendleton.
The Appalachian highland is seldom adapted to large farm- ing operations. In early times the access to an outside market was far more inconvenient than in the lowland South. But neither the Scotch-Irish nor the German settlers of this mountain land were as a class favorable to slavery. Some of the religious sects among the Germans were decidedly op- posed to it. West of the Blue Ridge, therefore, slavery never had the foothold it possessed east of the mountains.
In 1756 there were 40 black tithables in Augusta, indicating a slave population of not more than one-twentieth of the whole. Runaways appear to have been of frequent occur- rence. Yet slavery grew more rapidly than the general in- crease. In 1779 Rockingham had 165 colored tithables, one- ninth of the inhabitants being negroes. The capitation list for Pendleton in 1790 mentions only three colored tithables, these being the property of Francis Evick. In 1834 there were 280 slaves. In 1850 there were 322 slaves and 31 free colored, a total of 353. This was six per cent of the entire population. The same date nearly or quite coincides with the high water mark of the negro race in Pendleton.
If this county were destitute of river bottom and of large and smooth areas of fertile upland, the number of slaves would always have been exceedingly small. But the river bottoms with their adaptability to large and profitable farm- ing gave a conspicuous advantage to those fortunate persons who owned these lands. This geographic condition quickly created a class of prosperous river-valley farmers, who under the industrial ideas of a former day were not slow to resort to slave labor. Yet very few became slaveholders on any- thing like a large scale, and few of the hill farmers followed their example. This geographic condition helped greatly to accustom the people of the county to the mode of social and political thought which was prevalent east of the Blue Ridge. It had in consequence an important bearing on the attitude of Pendleton during the crisis of civil war.
The old laws relative to negro lawbreakers were severe, yet not without reason. The slave had not the forethought, the initiative, nor the self-restraint which the white man had acquired through centuries of effort. He was a savage by in- stinct and heredity. Force, not suasion, was the one argu-
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ment he could comprehend, and he expected it to be applied swiftly and vigorously. Leniency led only to a loss of re- spect toward those in authority over him. Thus we find that the negro who stole a horse or a hog was hanged. In 1779 a slave of Rockingham who killed a man was ordered hanged and his head set on a pole.
The early records of Pendleton contain considerable men- tion of negro crime. In 1810 a negro felon was branded in the hand and returned to his master. In 1811 negro Stevens was tried for plotting to kill, but was discharged. In 1812 negro Daniel was branded in the hand for stealing a calico habit and a piece of muslin. In 1823 negro Lucy was sold for $11.25, the amount of jail fees, of which she was the occasion. In the same year a negro named Ben stabbed John Davis. He was ordered burnt in the hand, given ten lashes on the bare back well laid on, and remanded to jail subject to the order of his master. The most serious crime was in 1843, when a girl named Maria, the slave of William McCoy, fatally stabbed a negro youth belonging to John McClure. The tragedy occurred in Franklin near the house recently torn down by John McCoy. Her trial took place in December. She was reprieved and sent South.
Sometimes the slave was the occasion of lawbreaking on the part of the white man. In 1811 two men in the south- west of the county were tried for stealing a wench, but were discharged. In 1859 a resident of the North Fork was jailed for giving a pass to a negro, though not convicted. In the same year another man committed a felony by helping three negroes to get away.
The colonial records of Augusta tell us the age of a slave child was passed upon by the county court and ordered certified in the records. The whereabouts and the doings of the slave were kept under scrutiny, and his liberty of move- ment was very much restricted. If a slave left his master's premises without a pass, any person might bring him before a justice, who at his option might order a whipping; or for every such offense he might be given ten lashes by the land- owner upon whom he had trespassed. He might not carry a gun except by the permit of a justice. If he gave false testi- mony, each ear might by turn be nailed to the pillory and afterwards cut off, in addition to his receiving 39 lashes at the whipping post. The law of 1851 forbade the sale of poisons to negroes. For any slave or free negro to "prepare, exhibit, or administer any medicine whatsoever," was a fel- ony punishable by death, unless there were no ill intent or result. He might not give medicine even in his own family without the consent of his master.
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Before 1776 the slave was real estate in the eye of the law. After that date he was regarded as personal property. The person with at least one-fourth of negro blood-and there was a large and increasing number of such-was counted as a mulatto.
Toward the period of the civil war, there were few whip- pings in Pendleton in consequence of the disfavor with which the institution was generally regarded. 'The non-slaveholder found his chief grievance against slavery to lie in the too great petting which he thought the slave received, and which he found to make him impudent 'The dates of slave births were recorded in the family Bible, though on the fly- leaves. With the master's consent the slave might be bap- tized. When the estate was settled up, the slaves were divided among the heirs, a single slave being sometimes held in plural ownership. The small amount of slaveholding thus became much diffused. Perhaps the largest holder in the earlier years of the county was Daniel Capito. On the settling of his estate in 1828, the 12 slaves were sold at auction for $2511.50.
The capitation tax on a slave was 44 cents in 1800, and $1.20 in 1860.
Sometimes the freeing of a slave at a certain age is men- tioned in a will. Thus Nicholas Harper provides that his slave Lydia be set free when she is 30, if she behave herself, and that her child Polly be free at the age of 21. Some- times there is a proviso that a slave be freed at a certain age, "should the law permit." More emancipating would have been done, but for the embarrassing status of the freed negro. So long as slavery remained in force it was not de- sirable that such persons be numerous. They continued in a certain degree to be the wards of their former owners who were thus in a measure responsible for their conduct. If the negro were under 21, or over 45, or of unsound mind, he was supported by the estate of the former owner. The constitu- tion of 1851 required the registering of the freedmen every five years. In the registry were mentioned age, color, and identifying marks. A copy of the paper was given to the freedman. A county court might then grant him permission to live within its jurisdiction during good behavior. Some- times the application was refused. Such a refusal was put up against Elizabeth Dice in 1850. In 1845 the petition of the negro Randall was overruled, but two years later it was ac- cepted. The freedman might not carry a gun without a li- cense, and if he worked in another county, his certificate had to be registered there. He could not himself hold slaves ex- cept by descent. If over 21 and a male, or under 18 and a
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female, there was permission to choose a master. Removal from the state forfeited a certificate, and the free negro of another state was forbidden entrance into Virginia.
The behavior of a negro, whether slave or free, was nat- urally the measure of the tolerant feeling extended toward him. It is said of a free negro named Hayes, who in the early years of the last century lived on a mountain northeast of Ruddle, that his boys and girls were by general consent allowed to attend the same school with the white children.
The war of 1861 overthrew the institution which Henry A. Wise denounced as "a blight on the economic development of the South, that repressed inventive talent, paralyzed Saxon energy, and left hidden the South's commercial re- sources." The slaves and freedmen of 1860 were to be found in most neighborhoods of the county. Soon after the close of the war they had mostly disappeared. In the valleys of the South Fork and the North Fork there are now none at all, with perhaps a solitary exception in Circleville district. The con- tinuance of a desire for black labor on the part of some of the residents of the county seat led to the rise of a settlement of colored people a mile south of Franklin. The settlement is known locally as "Africa." It contains about 70 persons. a number of whom are immigrants from other counties. The only other group of colored people is composed of a few fam- ilies on the west side of the Blackthorn valley, and is known as Moatstown. These people were never slaves. The negro element in Pendleton, especially that of Moatstown, shows a large admixture of white blood.
CHAPTER XIV
Period of the Interstate War
The purpose of the present chapter is to tell the story of Pendleton during the great upheaval of 1861. It will deal no more with events happening outside the county than seems necessary to the intelligent understanding of events happen- ing within.
Having its commercial outlet toward the Valley of Vir- ginia, this county was in social and political touch with that region. During the controversy over the expediency of se- cession, the Valley was in strong sympathy with the Eastern district of the state, and quite as a matter of course, the pre- vailing attitude of the Pendleton people was the same as that of the Valley.
The secession issue reached an acute stage when a conven- tion of the Virginia people met at Richmond in February of 1861. April 17 it adopted an ordinance of secession, by a vote of 88 to 55, the counties beyond the Alleghanies gen- erally opposing the measure. The delegate from Pendleton was Henry H. Masters, who voted with the majority and in doing so he reflected the views of a large majority of his own people. It was only after nine weeks of debate that the con- vention came to the point where it was willing to pass the ordinance. That which quickly turned the scale in favor of secession was the call of President Lincoln for troops to put down the revolution in the cotton states. This meant coer- cion, which the prevailing political thought of Virginia held to be inconsistent with the nature of the Federal bond. In the popular vote held May 22, the 48 counties now forming West Virginia repudiated the ordinance by an overwhelming ma- jority, but not nearly large enough to overcome the heavy affirmative vote in the rest of the state. There seems to be no record as to the number of votes for and against which were thrown in Pendleton county.
The action of the state as a whole led to favorable or unfavor- able action in the various counties. On the 10th of May the fol- lowing resolution was adopted by the county court of Pendle- ton: "Whereas, the Constitution of Virginia by the Ordinance of Secession having dissolved all connection between the United States and the State of Virginia, and the said Ordi- nance having been ratified by an overwhelming majority of the voters of the state, and thus exempting all officers of Virginia
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from their obligation to support the said Constitution: Be it therefore resolved by this Court that if any member or members of the Court have any scruples or doubts upon the subject, it is hereby declared to be their duty to resign their offices herewith."
All the justices in attendance then came to the clerk's desk and took the oath to support the constitution of the Confede- rate States of America. The justices present and signing were James Boggs, president, Samson Day, John W. Dolly, Jacob Dove, William F. Dyer, James A. Harding, Daniel Harold, Solomon Hedrick, Benjamin Hiner, John Kiser, Samuel Puffenbarger, Harry F. Temple, Isaac Teter, Jacob Trumbo, Salisbury Trumbo, and Jesse Waybright.
The same day an order was passed, "Whenever the Colonel, Lieutenant Colonel, and First Major of the Regiment of the county, or two of them, shall certify to the commissioners that a volunteer company of at least 60 effective men, rank and file, the larger number of whom belong to said regiment, has been organized by the election of officers, these commissioned by the governor, and that the assistance of the county is neces- sary to uniform and arm such company in whole or part, that the said commissioners shall draw on the Treasurer not over $30 per capita." Each captain and one or more sureties were to give bond for the faithful application of the money, the amount to be disbursed among the soldiers not to exceed $6000. The justices were to ascertain within their several districts the wants of the families of soldiers, and to supply these wants, reporting monthly to the commissioners, and their vouchers to be honored to an amount not exceeding $500.
In accordance with this order a bond issue of $6500 was voted, the bonds not to be sold at less than their par value, and to be in sums of $25 redeemable in six yearly instal- ments. The commissioners to attend to this sale of bonds were Jacob F. Johnson, William McCoy, and Samuel John- son. The moneys raised were to be deposited with Henry H. Masters for the benefit of the county.
The order for the disposition of the fund reads as follows: "For the purpose of taking into consideration and making an allowance for the relief of the Volunteer Company of this county, and for all others that may be called into service from the county."
The body of troops thus raised and equipped was given the name of the Franklin Guards. It numbered 140 men, rank and file. They were the pick of the county, and are spoken of as a remarkably fine body of soldiers. The Guards were at- tached to the 25th Regiment, but a number captured at Rich
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Mountain and paroled were taken into the 62d upon their exchange early in 1862.
The beginning of hostilities was not entirely abrupt. The mails were carried between Franklin and Petersburg until after Federal and Confederate had elsewhere come into armed collision.
During 1861 the actual shock of war was not felt within the limits of Pendleton. Volunteers numerously enlisted to serve in the Confederate army, yet aside from the with- drawing of labor from the farms, the industries and the government of the county proceeded in much the same paths as usual. A portion of Garnett's army, in its long and roundabout retreat from Beverly marched up the North Fork, but was not pursued, nor did any Federal force seek to enter the county from the north, the direction most open to inva- sion. There had, as we have seen, been an old road from the valley of the Seneca into that of the Cheat, but it was rough, it led through a very rugged and thinly peopled re- gion, and was therefore not suited to the movement of a strong force. But a little south of the county line lay the Staunton and Parkersburg turnpike, a well-constructed and very important thoroughfare. After the failure of the Con- federate operations in the Greenbrier valley, General Edward Johnson of Georgia was posted on the summit of the Alle- ghanies to defend this route against attack from the west.
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