USA > West Virginia > Randolph County > A history of Randolph County, West Virginia, from its earliest exploration and settlement to the present time > Part 8
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Old Surveys.
The following surveys were made in what is now Ran- dolph County before separation from Harrison :
August 3, 1785, Geo. Harness, adjustor for both sides, surveyed a tract on both sides of Dry Fork of Cheat River above Buffalo Lick.
Surveyed in 1785, on Westfalls Mill Run for Jacob West- fall, Jr. and Geo. Westfall, Sr., 322 acres.
Surveyed 1785. for Benjamin Wilson, assignee of Henry Banks, 200 acres East side of Valley River, adjoining lands of John Truby. Chain Carriers, Wm. Cassidy, Jacob West- fall and Cornelius Bogard.
Surveyed. August 1785, for John Jackson, assignee of Geo. Harness, 148 acres of land in Harrison County, on Black Water Creek, a branch of Cheat River.
Surveyed August, 1785, by Geo. Harness for Wm. Hay- mond, a tract of land on Black Water Creek. Chain carriers, Henry Mace and John Jackson.
Surveyed June, 1785, for Isaac Westfall, assignee of Cor- nelius Westfall, assignee of Joseph Friend, assignee of An- drew Woodrow. 152 acres of land in Harrison County on both sides of left hand fork of Isners Run, adjoining lands of Thos. Isner.
John Wilson, adjustor, surveyed in 1785, for Henry and Nicholas Petro, 200 acres adjoining the land they then lived
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A HISTORY OF RANDOLPH COUNTY
on and lands of Daniel Westfall and William Wilson, as- signee of Benjamin Wilson, assignee of Henry Banks.
Surveyed by Edward Jackson, adjuster, 1735, for Wm. Haymond, Sheriff of Harrison County, lands of Christopher Strader on Buckhannon River, including mouth of Little Sand Run.
Surveyed 1785, for Jacob Riffle, 50 acres on waters of Tygarts Valley River, adjoining lands of John Alexander, Geo. Harness, surveyor. Chain carriers, James Lackey and Geo. Wilson.
Surveyed, August 1786, for James Taffee, assignee of Israel Brown and Robert Chanee, 698 acres on both sides of river that empties into Tygarts Valley River below Roar- ing Creek.
Surveyed February 1786, for James Taffee, assignee of Israel Brown, assignee of Robert Chanee, 875 acres on West side of the waters that empty into Roaring Creek. Chain carriers, Jonas Friend and John Westfall.
Surveyed by Daniel Pugh for James Taffee, 1000 acres of land on King's Creek, a branch of Tygarts Valley River and adjoining lands of John Wilson, Benjamin Wilson and Henry Petro.
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A HISTORY OF RANDOLPH COUNTY
CHAPTER VIII.
EARLY ROADS IN RANDOLPH. 1
"One day through the primeval wood, A calf walked home, as all calves should; But made a trail all bent askew, A crooked trail as all calves do.
"And then the wise bell weather sheep, Pursued the trail o'er vale and steep And drew the flock behind him, too As good bell-weathers always do.
"This forest path became a lane, That bent and turned and turned again; This crooked path became a road, Where many a poor horse with a load, Toiled on beneath the burning sun, And traveled some three miles in one.
And thus a century and a half Trod in the footsteps of that calf."
T THE roads of a country are an index to its culture and civi- lization. The status of any people, historic or contem- poraneous, may be determined by a knowledge of its facilities for intercommunication. The civilization of the classic an- cients reached its limitations in stone highways. The carts, wheelbarrows, canals and junks are parallelled by the civili- zation of the Celestial Empire. Civilization today is moving forward on railroads, steamships and magnetic telegraphs, while the possibilities of aerial navigation are challenging man's inventive genius.
Of course good roads were an impossibility in Randolph for many years because of the sparsely settled condition of the county.
In 1774, when Pendleton was still a part of Augusta, a road was ordered to be surveyed up Seneca and over the Al- leghany divide in order to connect the infant settlements on Cheat and Tygarts Valley with the communities east of the mountains. Whether this road was ever surveyed and im- proved is uncertain. Road making in that day, however, con-
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A HISTORY OF RANDOLPH COUNTY
sisted largely in cutting out the brush and removing the logs along the proposed highway. A new order for a road over the same route was ordered by the Court of Pendleton County in 1787. Regardless of the condition of the trail, this was the main route traversed by the pioneer in reaching his new abode West of the mountains.
Among the important early road surveys were the fol- lowing :
In 1787 a road from the county seat by W'm. Smith's to Middle Fork.
Same year a road from the county seat to Sandy Creek.
Same year a road from Salt Lick on Leading Creek to Mud Lick.
In 1788 a road from the Tygarts Valley Road to Crab Apple Bottom in Highland County.
In 1789 a road from Peter Cassity's to the Clarksburg road at the mouth of Leading Creek.
In 1790 a road from Michael Isner's in Tygarts Valley to the Hardy County line.
Same year a road from Connolly's Lick to the top of the Alleghanies at the Angusta County line.
In 1792 a road from Beverly to the upper ford of Cheat.
In 1793 a road along Currences Blazes square across the Valley.
Same year a road from Beverly to the Carpenter settle- ment on Elk.
In 1795 a road from Beverly to Jacob Westfall's Saw Mill on Files Creek, so as to intersect the Big Road.
In 1798 a road from Beverly to Wolf's at the foot of Rich Mountain toward Buckhannon.
The travel in an early day between the valley and set- tlements to the Westward was probably across the mountains South of Huttonsville.
In 1814 a road was ordered to be made that would be passable for pack horse from Beverly to Buckhannon.
The Staunton and Parkersburg Pike was built about 1840. Evidently the Board of Public Works intended to cross the mountains South of Huttonsville. This'would have left Beverly ten or twelve miles to the north. To induce the
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A HISTORY OF RANDOLPH COUNTY
Board to make Beverly a point on the road, several thousand dollars was subscribed by citizens of Beverly to be used in the construction of the road.
In 1784 Henry Petro was appointed surveyor of a road from Eberman's Creek to Jacob Westfall's Mill.
In 1785 Cornelius Bogard was appointed surveyor of a road from Wilson's Mill on Wilson's Creek to the Rocking- ham County line. This was practically a continuation of the Seneca Trail by which most of the settlers had entered the valley from the East. It crossed over Cheat Mountain at the Kelly settlement to Cheat River, thence up the river to the mouth of Taylor Run, ascending Shaver Mountain by a divid- ing ridge just South of Taylor Run, passing down on the east side of the mountain about one-half mile north of the Coberly farm, uniting with the road as presently located at or near Laurel Fork.
At a court held at Clarksburg, September, 1784, Abram Kittle, Thos. Phillips, Geo. Westfall, Sr., and Benjamin Horn- beck were appointed viewers of a road from Jacob Westfall's Mill to a bridge opposite Geo. Westfall's Mill. Geo. Westfall's Mill was located, perhaps, in the vicinity of the old Baker Mill at Beverly, while Jacob Westfall's Mill was probably located on the Buckey Mill site, about one mile east of Bev- erly, on the same stream.
At the same term of the court, Ebenezer Petty, Jacob Yokum, Peter Cassity, and Jacob Stalnaker, Sr., were ap- pointed viewers of a road from a bridge opposite Geo. West- fall's Mill to Darby Conoly's place. This road, perhaps, the most travelled road in the first half century in the history of the county, crossed the river about one mile south of Beverly at what is known as the slaty ford on the Coberly farm, then skirted the base of the old river terraces up the river, passing about 100 yards to the west of the old Isaac White house on the brow of the hill, thence up the river at the base of the foot-hills, crossing over the bluff near the site of the old Methodist church a quarter of a mile west of the residence of J. A. Crawford, thence on up the valley largely on the west side to Conley Run.
Jonas Friend was made overseer of a road by the Harri-
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A HISTORY OF RANDOLPH COUNTY
son County Court in 1784, from his home near the mouth of Leading Creek to Eberman's Creek, now Chenoweth's Creek.
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A HISTORY OF RANDOLPH COUNTY
CHAPTER IX. ANNALS OF EDUCATION.
T THE education of the youth of Randolph, in the first decade of its history, because of the sparsely settled condition of the country, must have been limited to the home and fireside. While the achievement that mostly concerned the pioneer was the conversion of the wilderness into homes and farms, yet a people with the courage and intelligence to take advantage of the opportunities afforded by a frontier community with the laudable ambition to improve their condition, would not long neglect the education of their children. Accordingly, private schools were early established by two or more families uniting and employing a teacher. The next step in the way of ele- mentary education was in the direction of subscription schools, open to all who were able to pay the tuition fees. Often the teacher of these schools was a roving individual, whose quali- fications were limited to his ability to teach the most rudi- mentary branches, such as reading writing and arithmetic and his physical ability to maintain discipline. As a rule these teachers received a meagre salary and boarded around with the patrons of the school. However, not a few of the early teachers of Randolph were men of classical scholarship, and the impress and influence of their teaching is not only manifest today, but will extend to future generations. Such men were James H. Logan, Dr. Squire Bosworth, Rev. Thomas and Jacob I. Ilill.
Education was a subject the early lawmakers of Virginia considered worthy of their consideration and Randolph Academy was established by act of the Virginia assembly of December 1, 1787. In the following November, among the additional trustees appointed, were the following from Ran- dolph County: John Haddan, Abraham Claypoole. James Westfall, and Henry Fink. The trustees selected Clarksburg as the most eligible location for the proposed institution of
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A HISTORY OF RANDOLPH COUNTY
learning. A copy of the act founding Randolph Academy is appended :
WHEREAS, The inhabitants of the counties of Harri- son, Monongalia, Randolph and Ohio, are from their remote stiuation, deprived of the advantages arising from the estab- lishment of public seminaries within the state; and it is just and reasonable that the one-sixth of the fees of the surveyors of the said counties, which are now applied toward the sup- port of the William and Mary College, should be applied to the establishment of a public seminary within one of the said counties.
BE IT THEREFORE ENACTED BY THE GEN- ERAL ASSEMBLY, That his excellency Edmund Randolph, Benjamin Harrison, Patrick Henry, Joseph Prentiss, James Wood, George Mason, George Nicholas, John Harvey, Tho- mas Mathews, William Ronald, Henry Banks, William Mc- Leary, John Evans, William John, Francis Worman, John Pearce Duvall, George Jackson, Benjamin Wilson, Nicholas Carpenter, John Powers, Archibald Woods, Moses Chapline, Ebenezer Zane, David Chambers, John Wilson, Jacob West- fall, junior, Robert Maxwell and John Jackson, junior, gentle- men, shall be and they are hereby constituted a body politic and corporate, to be known by the name of "The trustees of the Randolph Academy," and by that name shall have per- petual succession and a common seal.
The said trustees shall hold their first session in Morgan- town in Monongalia County, on the second Monday in May next : they shall then or as soon after as conveniently may be. fix upon some healthy and convenient place within one of the counties of Harrison, Monongalia, Randolph, or Ohio, for the purpose of erecting thereon the necessary buildings for the said academy.
After defining the powers and duties of the trustees of the academy the act concludes in the following sections, indicat- ing the source from which the financial support of the institu- tion should come :
The surveyors of the said counties of Monongalia, Har- rison, Randolph, and Ohio, shall not be accountable to the
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A HISTORY OF RANDOLPH COUNTY
president and masters of William and Mary College, for any part of the fees which shall accrue to them after the first day . of January, one thousand seven hundred and eighty eight : And the bond as given by them for the yearly payment of one-sixth of their fees to the president and masters of the said college, shall be and are hereby declared to be null and void, so far as relates to the fees which shall become due to them after the said first day of January, in the year last men- tioned.
Each of the surveyors of the said counties shall, within one month after he shall be required by the board of trustees, give bond with sufficient security in a reasonable sum, for the yearly payment of one-sixth part of the fees which shall become due to him after the said first day of January, to the said trustees ; and in case any one of the said surveyors shall fail or refuse to give such bond and security he shall forfeit and pay to the said trustees the sum of one hundred pounds, to be recovered by motion in the court of the county of such surveyor, upon giving him ten days previous notice of such motion : and each of the said surveyors shall annually forfeit and pay the like sum to the said trustees, to be recovered in the same manner, until he shall give such bond and security.
Free School System.
In order to understand the causes that resulted in the foundation of the free school system, it is necessary to give a cursory review of the origin and progress of popular educa- tion in the mother state. Thomas Jefferson, in 1779, pre- pared and had submitted to the Virginia Assembly a bill "For the Better Diffusion of Knowledge." This was the first movement to establish a system of Free Schools in Virginia. The object of Mr. Jefferson's Free School bill, in conjunction with his other bills for religious freedom and the abolition of entails and the rights of primogeniture, was to form "a sys- tem by which every fiber would be eradicated of ancient of future aristocracy, and a foundation laid for a government truly republican."
Mr. Jefferson's Free School bill was not even considered
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A HISTORY OF RANDOLPH COUNTY
by the General Assembly, but it greatly influenced public sentiment and laid the foundation for all subsequent legisla- tion on public education in Virginia. It proposed a system embracing three classes of schools, namely :
1. Elementary schools, free to all and supported by pub- lic expense.
2. General schools, academies and colleges, to be main- tained partly by public expense, and partly by tuition fees.
3. A State University, at the head of the system.
In his "Notes on Virginia" Mr. Jefferson gives the fol- lowing particulars of the system :
"The bill proposes to lay off every county into small dis- tricts of five or six miles square, called hundreds, and each of them to establish a school for teaching reading, writing and arithmetic. The teacher to be supported by the hundred and every person in it entitled to send his children three years gratis, and as much longer as he pleases, paying for it. These schools to be under a visitor, who is annually to choose a boy of best genius in the school, of those whose parents are too poor to give them further education, and to send him forward to one of the grammar schools, of which twenty are pro- posed to be erected in different parts of the country, for teach- ing Greek, Latin, geography and the higher branches of num- erical arithmetic. Of the boys thus sent in one year, trial is to be made at the grammar schoods one or two years, and the best genius of the whole selected, and continued six years, and the residue dismissed. By this means twenty of the best geniuses will be annually instructed at public expense, so far as the grammar schools."
"At the end of six years' instruction, one-half are to be discontinued, from among whom the grammar schools are to be supplied with future masters, and the other half who are to be chosen for the superiority of their parts and disposi- tions, are to be sent and continued three years in the study of such services, as they may choose at William and Mary College, the plan of which is to be enlarged, as will hereafter be explained, and extended to all the useful sciences."
The general objects of the law are to provide an educa-
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A HISTORY OF RANDOLPH COUNTY
tion adapted to the years, to the capacity, and the condition of every one, and directed to their freedom and happiness."
In 1796, December 22, an act to establish public schools was passed which embodied the provision of Mr. Jefferson's bill for elementary schools, being the first grade of the system.
This act contained the general plan of an efficient free school system. The entire management of the proposed sys- tem was placed in the hands of three county officers, styled aldermen, who were empowered to divide the county into school districts, employ teachers, determine the amount of money necessary to build school houses, to pay teachers' salar- ies and to make a levy upon the property of the inhabitants of each county for this purpose. A fatal proviso, however, was added to the act: "That the court of each county, at which a majority of the acting magistrates thereof shall be present, shall first determine the year in which the first election of ald- ermen shall be made, and until they so determine no such election shall be made." Concerning the failure of his law, Mr. Jefferson said : "The justices, being generally of the more wealthy class, were unwilling to incur the burden, so that it was not suffered to commence in a single county." Although ths law was never repealed, there is no record showing that this act was ever put in operation.
The Literary Fund.
The opportunity was again presented for the agitation of the public school question in 1810 when the Literary Fund was created.
"It was enacted on the 2d of February, 1810, that all escheats, confiscations, fines, penalties and forfeitures, and all rights in personal property accruing to the Commonwealth, as directed, showing no rightful proprietor, shall be appro- priated to the encouragement of learning ; and the auditor was directed to open an account to be designated as the Literary Fund."
The following year an act was passed protesting against any other application of the revenues of this fund by any other General Assembly, to any other object than the educa- tion of the poor. This was the beginning of what was called
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A HISTORY OF RANDOLPH COUNTY
the "Pauper System" which continued in force up to 1861 and was in operation in every county except those in which a free school system had been established and in such counties their just quota of the Literary Fund went into the county school fund.
Various amendments were made to the Literary Fund bill from time to time, however, under laws most friendly to free schools, it required the endorsement of two-thirds of the legal voters of the county, before a single public school be established. This, coupled with the property qualification of voters, gave a vast advantage to the enemies of public edu- cation.
The constitution, which was adopted by the state of West Virginia in 1861, made provision "for a thorough and efficient system of free schools." The legislature on the 10th day of December, 1863, passed an act, establishing our pre- sent system of free schools. However, some slight amend- ments were made under the new constitution adopted in 1873.
School Commissioners for Randolph County.
At a session of the County Court, held on the 27th day of October, 1856, by Joseph Hart. Thos. B. Scott. and Jacob Vanscoy as members of the court, the following School Commissioners were appointed for Randolph County :
District No. 1-John W. Moore.
District No. 2-Harmon Snyder.
District No. 3-John M. Crouch.
District No. 4-E. B. Bosworth.
District No. 5-Wm. P. Brady.
District No. 6-Squire Bosworth.
District No. 7-John I. Chenoweth.
District No. 8-Levy Moore.
District No. 9-Wm. M. Phares.
District No. 10-Washington Taylor.
District No. 11-Samuel Dinkle.
District No. 12-Cyrus Kittle.
District No. 13-Alexander Grim.
District No. 14-Alph Taylor.
District No. 15-Jesse M. Roy.
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A HISTORY OF RANDOLPH COUNTY
School Statistics of Randolph County for 1866.
Amount of School Fund.
$2,157.00
School Houses in 1865
2
School Houses in 1866
12
Average value of School House, 1866
$140.00
Enumeration
1736
Enrollment
761
Daily Attendance
615
Teachers-Male
21
Teachers-Female
9
Average Salary-Men
$24.00
Average Salary-Female
$15.00
Average length of term
2.8 months
Statistics 1910.
Names of Magisterial and
Independent Districts
No. School in
No. White Pupils
ยท Enumerated
No. Colored Pu-
pils Enumerated
Total Amount of
Building Fund
Total Amount of Teachers' Fund
Beverly
20
643
46
$ 2,898.32
$ 7,375.74
Dry Fork
41
1365
5,940.81
13,316.35
Huttonsville
15
666
13
1,951.75
4,965.11
Leadsville
20
716
2,053.19
5,901.38
Mingo
14
361
2,599.33
4,709.93
Middle Fork
25
627
2,801.04
7,039.81
New Interest
13
425
1,113.22
3,648.35
Roaring Creek
16
516
3,987.92
4,805.57
Valley Bend
8
253
1,728.12
2,335.23
Elkins Independent
33
1584
65
65,572.31
20,831.73
Total
205
7143
128
$90,646.01
$74,929.20
Public Schools of Randolph in 1882.
A. S. Bosworth was County Superintendent that year and from his report we learn the following facts: There was an enrollment of 1758 pupils in the county : there was but one graded school in the county and this was at Beverly; there were 24 log buildings and 34 frame buildings for school pur- poses in the county ; the average value of school buildings was $211. Fifty-three teachers were licensed that year with grades
1
District
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A HISTORY OF RANDOLPH COUNTY
as follows: 20 first grade, 25 second grade, and 8 third grade. The following teachers were licensed : H. L. Stalnaker, G. W. Cunningham, C. S. Moore, Teresa Cain, A. M. Bradley, D. B. Curtis, Anna McLean, Maud Chenoweth, Nannie Daniels, John L. Bosworth, James B. Litle, B. W. Taylor, P. C. Web- ley, Lee Marstiller, J. B. Canfield, W. Marstiller, Agnes Mar- stiller, Angelia Scott, Alice Scott, F. M. Canfield, C. M. Mar- stiller, M. A. Durkin, Ella Wilmoth, F. J. Triplett, Sylvester Wilmoth, Arnold Wilmoth, L. B. Triplett, D. E. Coberly, E. R. Skidmore, D. A. Denton, M. E. Lawson, Lemuel C. Rice, Delpha Marstiller, Celia Wilmoth, Flora Channel, B. B. Herron, T. L. Daniels, Sheffey Taylor, Thomas Madden, Mary King, W. P. Madden, John F. Ward, F. H. Kittle, John Hutton, Martin Madden, Mollie L. Thomas, Henry Simmons, WV. O. Grim, H. B. Morgan, J. H. Wamsley, J. L. Wamsley.
Superintendents of Schools.
David Goff
1853
C. S. Moore. 1888
W. F. Corley
1865
D. A. Hamrick 1890
S. B. Hart.
1867
S. L. Hogan 1892
Jacob I. Hill.
1869
W. T. Woodward 1895
J. W. Price. 1872
A. J. Crickard 1899
A. F. Wilmoth
1875
E. A. Poe 1903
A. S. Bosworth
1882
W. J. Long 1906
B. W. Taylor
1884
Troy Wilmoth 1915
F. P. Madden
1886
The Davis and Elkins College.
The founding of the Davis and Elkins College marked a new era in the educational history of Randolph. The first session opened in 1904 and has steadily grown in power, pat- ronage and usefulness. Until 1908, the college was under Lexington and Winchester Presbyteries. The Presbyterian church of the State is now united in its support. The College received an endowment of $100,000 under the will of the late Senator Davis. The College is open to both sexes and com- pares favorably with the best institutions of learning in this country.
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A HISTORY OF RANDOLPH COUNTY
CHAPTER X.
CIVIL WAR PERIOD.
0 N December 20, 1860, South Carolina adopted an ordi- nance of secession declaring that the Union existing be- tween South Carolina and the other States was dissolved. The spirit of secession spread with great rapidity, and by the first of February, 1861, five other states-Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia and Louisiana-all had taken similar action. On February 4, 1861, delegates from six of the seceded states met at Montgomery, Alabama, and formed a new government called the Confederate States of America. February 8th, the same year, Jefferson Davis was elected President, and Alex- ander Stevens, Vice-President. Virginia was not only the old- est but, in many respects, the most influential among the slave holding States. She was soon to become the principal theatre in which the great Civil War drama was to be en- acted. The public mind at this time was much agitated and the impending crisis cast its shadows before. Under these circumstances Governor Fletcher called the General Assembly in extra session on Monday, January 7, 1861, and an act was passed providing for a State Convention and the election of delegates thereto. The object of this convention was to de- termine the position Virginia should take in regard to seces- sion. The election was held February 4, 1861, and the con- vention was to be held February 13th following. John N. Hughes was elected to represent Randolph County in that convention. The public mind was further inflamed by the bombardment of Fort Sumpter by the forces of South Caro- lina on April 13, 1861. On April 17, 1861, this convention. passed an ordinance of secession by a vote of yeas 88 and nays 55.
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