USA > West Virginia > Pendleton County > A history of Pendleton County, West Virginia > Part 13
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As a result of the new constitution, Pendleton reorganized its county court, this event taking place February 25, 1873. But though the old names were restored, the spirit of the old order of things was forever gone. A new day had arrived. A person is forcibly reminded of this fact in comparing the county record books of before 1865 and after. Until the date mentioned the books of a Virginia courthouse follow a time-
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honored model that reaches back into the colonial days. There is but slight change from one decade to the next. But since that date a new model has come into view. The new books do not look like the old ones. They are not kept like the latter and therefore do not read like them. For a while the phrase "gentlemen justices" is still used, but is felt to be hopelessly out of date, and soon is quietly dropped. What is true as between the old and the new county records is true of things American in general. It is a very superficial idea which sees in the war of 1861 nothing more than the forcible settling of a political dispute. That event was a deep-seated upheaval, leaving nothing untouched in American society, whether North or South.
The first county court under the reorganization gave the districts of Pendleton county the names they now bear. Previously they had been designated by number. The June term of court was made the fiscal term, and the December term was made the police term. The salaries of sheriff, county clerk, circuit clerk, prosecuting attorney, and jailer were placed respectively at $175, $200, $135, $240, and $40. The next year 25 road precincts were announced.
War is always accompanied by a weakening of the re- straints of morality, integrity, and social order. The ill- feeling between the two factions of the Pendleton people during the great war had made the county a scene of disorder and violence. It was happily not followed by any murders after the return of peace, yet the resentments called into being could not at once utterly subside. The effects of the four years of civil turmoil were now apparent in an increase in the number of instances of assault and illegitimacy.
Pendleton is one of the three counties of the state which do not limit themselves to a board of three commissioners. Since January 1, 1903. there has been a commissioner from each district, thus giving to purely local interests a better recognition.
The jail burned in 1864 was replaced by another, and this in turn was destroyed by fire in 1905. The present building is of modern architecture. In 1882 a levy of $1000 a year for six years was ordered, so as to provide a fund for a new courthouse In 1889 the contract for the present structure was awarded to John A. Crigler for $7900.
In 1873 the air began to be filled with rumors of approach- ing railroads, none of which have as yet been definitely re- alized. In October of the year named there was a proposal to vote $50.000 to the "Shenandoah Valley and Ohio Rail- road," the bonds to be in amounts of $50 and upward, to run 24 years, and not to be sold for less than their par value.
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The conditions were imposed that the road must be under actual contract from Franklin to the terminus in the Shen- andoah Valley, and that no part of the subscription should be spent outside of the county. D. G. McClung, J. E. Penny- backer, and J. D. Johnson were appointed agents for the sub- scription, but the financial panic of the same year gave the projected road an effectual quietus.
The next railroad project to take serious form was the "Chesapeake and Western." April 20th, 1895, a vote was ordered as to whether "the county shall issue the bonds of Pendleton county to the amount of $32,000, to be subscribed to the capital stock of any responsible and reliable company that builds a railroad through this county along the South Branch valley from and connecting with some general line of railroad passing or to the county seat, and also secure to such company the right of way for such railroad through the county." Franklin and Mill Run districts were each to pay one-fourth of the issue, and each of the other districts one- eighth, the bonds having a maximum and minimum life of 2 and 15 years. But the order was rescinded, and June 1st made the election day on the following apportionment of $10,000: the county at large, $20,000; Franklin, $11,000; Mill Run, $8,000; Bethel, $1.000. Still another election was or- dered for December 7th of the same year for $50,000, the projected road to run by way of the South Fork, Franklin, Smith Creek, and Circleville.
Another paper railroad appeared four years later. A vote was ordered for September 16th on a levy of not more than $26,000 to pay for the right of way of the "Seaboard and Great Western" from Skidmore's Fork in Rockingham to the line of Grant county. This order in turn was re- scinded, and a vote ordered 14 days later, enabling the dis- tricts of Sugar Grove, Franklin, Mill Run, and Bethel to vote a subscription to pay the damages on a width of 100 feet in the right of way.
Still another project was the "C. and I." railroad in 1902, in behalf of which an election was called for the third of May, the bonding of Bethel district to be $5000, and that of Franklin $15,000.
The county has thus far escaped the unenviable fate of having to pay bonds on a fraudulent project. But the only appearance of railroad construction within its borders is found in about 50 yards of grading a mile south of Franklin. The embankment is in good order, and nothing stands in the way of its being a portion of a trade route except a certain num- ber of miles of grade above and below, with ties, rails, rolling stock, and various other accessories and conditions.
CHAPTER XVI
Church, School, and Professional History
Early colonial Virginia was not a land of religious freedom. The Church of England was supported by the taxation of all the people. As to other sects their houses of worship were limited in number, and these had to be licensed and registered. Their preachers had to take various oaths and could not cele- brate marriages. The clergyman of the established church attended mainly to cultivating his glebe, or parsonage farm. Sometimes he was coarse and rough, intemperate, profligate, and a gambler. In fact the eighteenth century was one of religious lethargy, and was characterized by drunkenness, profanity, and a general coarseness of speech and conduct.
But while this was still true of the east of Virginia at the time the settlement of Pendleton began, the established church never gained a real foothold west of the Blue Ridge. The Scotch-Irish settlers of the western section were solidly Presbyterian, and they were assured by Governor Gooch that they would not be molested in their religious preference. The German settlers adhered mainly to the Lutheran and German Reformed churches, and they were treated with a similar tolerance. The new counties west of the mountains had at first their vestries and church wardens, the same as other counties, and through this mechanism the church exer- cised certain functions in civil government. But west of the mountains the vestrymen were not Episcopalian, because there were scarcely any people of that belief to be found. Good and true men believed the highest interests of the state required the support of the church by the state and compul- sory attendance on public worship. But as the period of the Revolution approached, the opinion grew strong that the long continued experiment of trying to make people religious by statute law had proved an utter failure. Accordingly Vir- ginia adopted December 16, 1785, the following declaration : "Whereas, Almighty God hath created the mind free; that all attempts to influence it by temporal punishments, or bur- thens, or by civil incapacitations tend only to beget habits of hypocrisy and meanness, and are a departure from the plan of the Holy Author of our religion : No man shall be com- pelled to frequent or support any religious worship, nor en- forced, restrained, molested, or burthened in his body or
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goods, nor otherwise suffer on account of his religious opin- ions or belief."
Not until 1785, therefore, was religion free in Virginia. Pendleton being made a county almost precisely two years later, never had a vestry or any church wardens.
The Scotch-Irish, as we have seen, were Presbyterian. This class of settlers was particularly strong on the South Branch. But being restless and venturesome. many of them passed on to newer locations, and thus caused a relative de- cline in their number. The oldest of their churches is that of Upper Tract. There was with little doubt an organiza- tion here prior to 1797, but we have no definite knowledge of it. In that year Isaac Westfall deeded one acre to the joint use of the Lutherans and Presbyterians. There was already on this lot a newly built church. It stood on the east side of the river. A little prior to 1860 the congregation built for its exclusive use a new church in Upper Tract village. About 1880 a church was built at Franklin, and there is a third one near Ruddle.
The large German element was chiefly of the Lutheran and German Reformed churches. The latter faith gradually ois- appeared by merging with the former. The earliest organiz- ation of which we have any record is that of the Propst church, two miles above Brandywine. It was founded in 1769, and is the earliest church in the county of which we have any record. The Lutheran faith has maintained a strong foothold wherever the German element is strongest and most tenacious in holding to ancient customs. We there- fore find the Lutheran churches chiefly in the upper parts of the South Fork and South Branch valleys. In the North Fork valley, partly owing to the division of sentiment during the civil war, it has proved less tenacious, and one of its churches was then burned. The best known of its ministers was the Reverend George Schmucker, who came in 1841 and preached for forty years. His territory was forty-five miles long, reaching into Hardy and Highland. Many of his congrega- tions grew very large, but the civil war almost paralyzed his work. His marriage fee was one dollar if the couple came to him, two dollars if he went to them. It was taken sometimes in maple sugar, grain, and "snits." At a wedding in the Smoke Hole he lost his way and arrived after the supper had been eaten. The discouraged groom had concluded to call the wedding off, but was led to reconsider. People came to him for temporal as well as spiritual advice. He sometimes united the children and even the grandchildren of the earlier weddings.
The United Brethren, Church of the Brethren, and Men-
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nonite sects are all of German origin, and their adherents are very largely of the German element, though not to the same degree as in the case of the Lutherans. The first and second have a strong membership.
The first Methodist society in America was organized at Frederick, Maryland, in 1763, but during the Revolutionary days the Methodist preachers, generally English-born, were under suspicion as to their loyalty. In consequence the church had but slight foot-hold on American soil until 1788. After that time its success became very phenomenal. Its earnestness and its itinerant system were admirably adapted to the newer parts of the country, and west of the Blue Ridge its gains were particularly large. That Methodism is so strong in Pendleton comes almost as a matter of course. The first Methodist sermon in this county is said to have been the one preached by the Reverend Ferdinand Lair on the farm of L. C. Davis near Brandywine. He spoke in the open air, resting his Bible on the limb of a sycamore. The spot is about a mile from Brandywine and on the right of the road leading to Oak Flat. One of the unhappy results of the dis- pute over slavery was the rending of the Methodist as well as other Protestant churches. Yet the Baltimore conference, of whose territory Pendleton was a part, remained united until 1866. Since that year there have been represented within the county both the great divisions of the parent church; the Methodist Episcopal and the Methodist Episco- pal South.
At an early day there were adherents of the Baptist faith in Pendleton, and in 1795 we find mention of the Reverend George Guthrie, a Baptist preacher in the south of the county. This church, usually very strong throughout the United States, has no organization here.
The Disciples Church, originating in West Virginia and becoming a strong and aggressive denomination, has two societies.
A few adherents of the Latter Day Saints have showed their own earnestness by building a chapel on Smith Creek.
The absence of the Catholic Church, now so strong in America, is significant of the absence of the foreign im- migration of the last sixty years.
In 1860 there were fifteen church buildings in Pendleton. Of these four were Lutheran, four were Methodist, two were United Brethren and one was Presbyterian. The other four were union churches. The seating capacity of the fifteen was 1450 and the average value was $540.
For perhaps thirty years after the settlement of Pendle- ton, we have no positive knowledge of any schools within the
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county. It is doubtful if there was anywhere a building used specially as a schoolhouse, though it is far less probable that there was an entire neglect of school training. Teaching in those days was considered a private not a public matter, and to a large extent it was an adjunct to the ministerial office. We may safely conclude, therefore, that among the German settlers the ministerial head of the Propst church gave in- struction through the medium of the German tongue. Other- wise, and among German-speaking as well as English-speak- ing settlers. the only education was doubtless by private tutoring or by such heads of families as were competent to teach the rudiments to their own children.
In those days and for years afterward the amount of illit- eracy was very great, and the women were more illiterate than the men. Some of the more prominent settlers could sign their names only by means of a mark. Oftentimes both husband and wife had to make use of this expedient in sign- ing a deed or a marriage bond. Sometimes an initial letter was used instead of the simple cross. Thus Francis Evick uses an E, or F. E. Sebastian Hoover uses a B as an initial for "Bastian," or "Boston." Positive illiteracy was prob- ably least rare among the Germans. Usually the German settler signed his name in German script, but once in a while he used a mark in signing a paper written in English.
But even with a general ability to read and write, there was very little to read, and the high postage and infre- quent mails were not favorable to correspondence. Books were very few, and these few were mostly of a religious na- ture. No newspapers were published nearer than the sea- coast cities, and before the Revolution it was no doubt al- most a curiosity to see a copy in these Pendleton valleys. In 1796 the nearest college was Washington, just established at Lexington. As for reading and instruction in the Ger- man tongue, the nearest press was the one set up at New Market by Ambrose Henkle, in 1806, and the first school of high grade was the New Market School, founded in 1823.
So far as known the first schoolhouse in Pendleton stood on the farm of Robert Davis. It was in existence shortly after the close of the Revolutionary fighting in 1781. A second schoolhouse on the same farm was nearly rotted down in 1845. In 1791 there was a schoolhouse on the farm of An- drew Johnson on the east side of North Fork. The oldest one in Franklin district stood near the home of George W. Harper above Cave postoffice. The second oldest in the same district stood northwest of the home of Henry Simmons.
The first teacher of whom there is any recollection was a forger, who had been sold as a convict to Frederick Keister.
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He taught in the first schoolhouse on the Davis farm, and John Davis and Zebulon Dyer were among his pupils.
A school at that period was purely a matter of neighbor- hood enterprise. The state or the county had nothing to do with it. Instruction was limited to reading, writing, and arithmetic. The rule of three-simple proportion-came before fractions, and it was thought a great accomplishment to master it. Grammar, geography, and history were let very much alone. If the pupil came to know something of these topics, it was through his own efforts after leaving school.
The state constitution of 1776 is as silent as a clam on the subject of popular education. There was no official recog- nition of this matter until 1810. A law of 1820 created a "Literary Fund," made up of various fines and penalties and other odds and ends of public moneys Each county was to have a collection agent to serve without salarv, and each county or city was entitled to a board of five to fifteen com- missioners, one of whom was to be a bonded treasurer. This board was to determine how many indigent children it would educate, and what it would pay for this purpose. Each member could select his own indigents, but had to gain the assent of parent or guardian. This secured, the pupil had to attend, or the parent could be charged the tuition for absent days. Books and other necessaries were furnished but only the three R's were taught. Under this law Thomas Jones was director of the Literary Fund for Pendleton and treas- urer of the school committee.
By the law of 1845. a petition of a third of the voters em- powered the county court to submit the question of a system of pubilc schools, a two-thirds vote being necessary to put it in force. Schools under this law were maintained by a uni- form rate of increased taxation. Of the three trustees in each district, two were elected by the voters and one by the board. The trustees were to build the schoolhouse, employ or discharge the teacher, visit the school at least once a month, examine the pupils, and address them if they chose, "exhorting them to prosecute their studies diligently, and to conduct themselves virtuously and properly." A weak fea- ture of this law consisted in leaving such school establish- ment to the option of the several counties.
Under this new law General James Boggs was county superintendent, and continued in office until his death in 1862. when he was succeeded by David C. Anderson. In 1856 General Boggs made the following report : "The com- missioners have established schools in various parts of the county with the aid of the primary school fund, where they
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could not have been established without it. The school funds are insufficient to educate all the poor of the county, even if competent teachers could be obtained." The report is signed also by William McCoy, Jacob F. Johnson, Benjamin Hiner, Andrew W. Dyer, J. Trumbo, James B. Kee, Cyrus Hopkins, and J. Cowger.
In 1865 Pendleton became in fact a part of West Virginia, which had adopted a stronger public school law. Its system of sub-trustees came in the following year. At that time five grades of certificates were recognized, the applicant being able to secure a one if he could write and had knowledge of his birth-date. In 1873 came the district board of education, and a year later the county board of three examiners. Subse- quent changes have been made in the direction of greater efficiency in superintendence and in teaching, and in the length of term.
The history of fraternities in Pendleton may be briefly given. The social life of the county has remained simple, because of the rural nature of the county and the absence from large industrial centers. The Masonic order had a lodge at Franklin before 1840, and after a long slumber it was re- vived, but is no longer in existence. The Highland Divi- sion of the Sons of Temperance was granted the use of the courthouse in 1848, but went down before the war. After that event there was for about two years a lodge of the Friends of Temperance. The Knownothings, a once famous political society, had a foothold in the county during the 50's, and in much more recent years the Farmers' Alliance was a local power. Beginning with about 1855 a literary society called the "Pioneers" held weekly meetings at the court- house until about 1867. It owned a library of about 250 volumes. These have since been scattered.
Neither is the political history of Pendleton a complex epi- sode. During the administration of Washington the people of America gathered into two opposing schools of political thought. The teachings of Jefferson were taken up with en- thusiasm by the people of what were then the backwoods. His creed was more acceptable to them than the tenets of the Federalists. Agricultural communities, especially those least in touch with economic movements, are slow to yield convic- tions deliberately formed. It is therefore a quite natural re- sult that the supremacy of the Democratic party in Pendle- ton has had very little interruption. The Whig party had, however, quite a following in its day, and now and then elected its nominee, especially in the "landslide" year of 1840.
The close of the war between the states found the up- holders of the Confederate cause massed in a single party, re-
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gardless of former differences, while another party, the ex- ponent of the nationalist idea, was in power in the North, and to a certain extent, also, in the Unionist sections of the former slave states. In general these distinctions obtain in this county. Thus in the main, the line of cleavage between the Democratic and the Republican parties coincides with the divisions of sympathy during the years of war. But. as in other counties of the state, the present industrial epoch has shown a tendency to gain on the part of the Republican or- ganization. After the war and until the adoption of the Flick amendment, the Republican party was in control. Since then the Democratic party has been uniformly successful in county elections, and no general primary is held by its oppo- nent. It has local control in all the districts except Union and Mill Run, although its majority in Sugar Grove is small.
Previous to 1860 the bar of the county was represented al- most wholly by attorneys who were not Pendletonians by birth or training. Among them were Samuel Reed in 1788, Thomas Griggs in 1802, William Naylor in 1803, Samuel Harper in 1805, Robert Gray in 1812, George Mays in 1813, Joseph Brown in 1814, and James C. Gamble in 1816. Some of these were doubtless lawyers residing in other counties. Robert Gray was prosecuting attorney in 1817, Nathaniel Pendleton in 1822. and I. S. Pennybacker in 1831.
A similar remark may be made of the other professions.'
See Part III.
VIEW OF FRANKLIN FROM THE EAST .- Phot'd by A. A. Martin.
CHAPTER XVII
The Town of Franklin
In 1769 Francis and George Evick surveyed 160 acres of land on the left bank of the South Branch. It is on a portion of this tract that Franklin is built. George appears to have lived across the river at the mouth of the Evick gap. The early home of Francis was near a spring that issues from the hillside above the upper street and near the Ruddle tannery.
In June of 1788 the first county court of Pendleton met at the house of Captain Stratton, six miles below the Evicks. One of the duties assigned to it by the legislative act creating the county was to determine a central position for the court- house. Just what motives led to the selection of the Evick farm we do not know. As the southern county line then stood, the position was much less near the center than it is now. The Peninger farm near the mouth of the Thorn would more nearly have met the geographical condition. But
Francis Evick appears to have been thrifty and business-like, notwithstanding his inability to write his name, at least in English. It is probable that he presented a more attractive proposition to the county court than did anyone else.
The Evicks had been living here about twenty years, yet the neighborhood was thinly peopled. Up the river the nearest neighbors appear to have been Ulrich Conrad and Henry Peninger. Conrad built a mill at the mouth of the Thorn about the time the Evicks came. Down the river near the present iron bridge was James Patterson. A nearer neighbor in the same direction was George Dice. Above Dice along Friend's Run were the Friends, Richardsons, Powers, and Cassells.
Within a few weeks after the action of the county court, Francis Evick laid off a town site along the foot of the ridge above his meadows. Incidentally thereto, but probably a little later, George sold his interest in the tract of 160 acres, and moved to a larger farm on Straight Creek. The date of the transaction is August 16, 1788, and the consideration is 250 pounds ($833.33). The place was for several years called Frankford, apparently an abbreviation of "Frank's ford," as the crossing of the river at the mouth of the Evick gap was known. In the older states it was usual for a town to grow up at haphazard, with little regularity or system in its pas- sage-ways or in the shape of its lots. But the county seat of
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