USA > West Virginia > History and government of West Virginia > Part 3
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Lady Spottswood, who became the wife of Governor Alexan- der Spottswood, in 1724, was Anne Butler, daughter of Richard Brayne, of Westminster, England. She derived her middle name from James Butler, Duke of Ormond, her god-father. There are many descendants of the issue of this marriage in Virginia and West Virginia.
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FIRST PERMANENT SETTLEMENT.
panied him a miniature horseshoe; some of these were set with valuable stones, and all bore the inscrip- tion, Sic jurat transcendere montes-Thus he swears to cross the mountains. These were given to all who would accept them with the understanding that they would comply with the terms implied in the inscrip- tion.
6. Shenandoah the Home of Savage Men .- The valley region includes all the territory lying between the Blue Ridge on the east and the Alleghany moun- tains on the west. The first quarter of the eighteenth century passed away and savage men roamed back and forth through all its wide extent, and quarreled and warred among themselves for the possession of the hunting grounds, then a howling wilderness. But the time was near at hand when those who were to settle the land, were to occupy it. The Shenandoah Valley was to be redeemed from the sway of barbarous men and made the dwelling-place of civilization.
7. No Definite Western Boundaries of Virginia's Border Counties .- Virginia was the first state in the world composed of separate political divisions based upon the principle of representative self-government. In 1634, twenty-seven years after the founding of Jamestown, the colony was divided into eight counties or shires, similar to those of England. Virginia ever tried to keep civil government abreast of her most adventurous pioneers, and to accomplish this, the House of Burgesses-the legislative body of the Col- ony-continued to make provision for the formation of new counties. These were usually established
40 HISTORY AND GOVERNMENT OF WEST VIRGINIA.
with defined boundaries except on the west, where the county extended indefinitely into the wilderness, so that the settlement on the utmost bounds of civiliza- tion would be included.
8. Exploration of John Van Matre .- About the year 1725, John Van Matre, a representative of an old Dutch family of New York, traversed the valley of the South Branch of the Potomac. He was an Indian trader making his headquarters with the Delawares, a part of which tribe then resided on the Susquehanna river in Pennsylvania, whence he jour- neyed far toward the south to trade with the Cherokees and Catawbas. Returning to New York, he advised his sons, if they ever removed to Virginia, to secure lands on the South Branch, these being, as he said, the best he had seen.
9. Morgan Morgan, the First White Man to Find a Home in West Virginia .- John Lederer came as an explorer ; Governor Spottswood and party came as ad- venturers; John Van Matre came as an Indian trader, but his sons, whom he advised regarding the fertile lands of the South Branch, were not to be the first to estab- lish a home within the State. Morgan Morgan was
. the name of him who reared the first cabin home in West Virginia. The year was 1726-7, and the place was the vicinity of the present village of Bunker Hill, on Mill Creek, in Mill Creek magisterial district, in what is now Berkeley county. Morgan Morgan was a native of Wales, from whence he emigrated in early lite to Pennsylvania. He was a member of the Church of England and noted for his exemplary piety. With the
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FIRST PERMANENT SETTLEMENT.
soberness of a sound mind and the earnestness of a pious heart, he went about doing good, but forgot not his own household. Late in life he became a minis- ter of the church, and was a power for good in that wilderness land. Such was the character of the man who established the first Christian home in West Vir- ginia.
10. The Founding of Mecklenberg, now Shep- herdstown. -- One mile below the present town of Shepherdstown is what has been known for nearly two hundred years as the "Old Pack-horse Ford," which was the only crossing of the Potomac river east or west of it. By way of this ford came the Ger- mans from Pennsylvania, who found here the gateway to the fertile lands south of the Potomac. Hither came a number of them as early as 1727-8, and once across the river they saw on all sides the grey lime- stone, reminding them of similar scenes in the Father- land, and here they halted. They built a little village which they called New Mecklenberg, from the city of that name in Germany. Thus was founded the old- est town in West Virginia. Thirty-four years later the Virginia House of Burgesses legally established the town and afterward changed the name to that of Shepherdstown, in honor of Thomas Shepherd, who laid it out.
11. The Van Matre Patent .- It has been stated that John Van Matre, the Indian trader, advised his sons to secure lands on the Virginia frontier. One of them, Isaac Van Matre, visited that region about the year 1727, and so pleased was he that, in 1730, he and his
42 HISTORY AND GOVERNMENT OF WEST VIRGINIA.
brother John, received from Governor Gooch a patent for 40,000 acres of land which they located and sur- veyed the same year. Much of it was in what are now Jefferson and Berkeley counties.
12. Joist Hite's Colony .- In 1731, the Van Matres sold a part of these lands to Joist Hite, who, in the year 1732, with his family and three of his sons-in- law, George Bowman, Jacob Chrisman and Paul Fro- man, and other persons to the number of sixteen fam- ilies, left York, Pennsylvania, and cutting their way through the wilderness, crossed the Potomac at the "Old Pack-horse Ford," and thence proceeding up the Valley, found homes in the vicinity of Winches- ter. These settlements were made in what is now Frederick county, Virginia, and, therefore, not within the present borders of this State, but we make men- tion of them, for they exerted a great influence upon the early settlements within the present boundaries of Berkeley and Jefferson counties.
13. Other Early West Virginia Pioneers .- In 1730, and the years immediately following, a number of daring frontiersmen found homes in West Virginia. They settled principally upon the Opequon, Back creek, Tuscarora creek, Little and Great Cacapon, along the Potomac and in the South Branch Valley. Some were Scotch-Irish and Germans, but these were not the only people who found early homes in West Virginia; for in its occupation and settlement, there were blended almost all of the elements of European civilization which were transplanted to our country. For awhile these distinct elements maintained their
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EARLY HISTORY OF THE STATE.
individuality, but a long series of Indian wars, together with the Revolution, forced them into a united whole, and so complete was the assimilation that instead of a later divergence they have by common interests become more firmly bound together.
** Our forest life was rough and rude, And dangers closed us round ; But here amid the green old wood, Freedom was sought and found." -Gallagher.
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CHAPTER V.
IMPORTANT EVENTS IN THE EARLY HISTORY OF THE STATE.
From 1730 to 1754.
1. Establishment of Local Government in West Virginia .- The Virginians have always been a liberty. loving and a law-abiding people, and as they advanced westward into the wilderness they endeavored to have civil government extended over them. At the time of the settlement of Morgan Morgan, and the coming of the German mechanics to Shepherdstown, the country occupied by them was within the limits of Spottsylvania county the western limit of which was undefined. In 1734, Orange county was formed from Spottsylvania and the inhabited part of West Virginia was included in it until 1738, when the House of Burgesses created Frederick county, the northern half of which was about the same as that of the present counties of Berkeley, Morgan and Jefferson. But five years passed away and it was 1743 before there was sufficient population to justify the organi- zation of Frederick county, and it was not until that year that Governor Gooch named the justices of the Peace for the new county. Morgan Morgan was the first one named and thus the first settler in West Virginia became the first civil officer within the limits of the State.
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EARLY HISTORY OF THE STATE.
2. Treaty with the Indians at Lancaster .- The settlements on the borders of Virginia, Pennsylvania and Maryland, were rapidly extending to the west- ward and thus encroaching upon the lands of the Indians; lands, which, as we have seen, were claimed by the Six Nations. That matters might be satisfactorily adjusted theColonies named secured a meeting of the chiefs with the commissioners, those on the part of Virginia being Thomas Lee and William Beverly. The negotiations began June 22d, 1744, and continued until July 4th ensuing, the place of meeting being Lancaster, Pennsylvania. A peace was concluded and the region lying between the Alleghanies and the Ohio was ceded to the English, the consideration being £400. Thus the title to what is now West Virginia passed for the time being from the Six Nations and vested in the English King.
3. The Fairfax Land Grant .- What is known as the "Fairfax Land Grant" was an important factor in the early settlement of West Virginia. In the twenty-first year of the reign of King Charles II. (1681), a grant was made to Lord Hopton and others, of what was known as the Northern Neck of Virginia. The proprietors sold it to Lord
THOMAS, LORD CULPEPER .*
*Thomas, Lord 'Culpeper, Baron of Thorsway, was appointed Governor of Virginia by King Charles II., July 8, 1675, but did not
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46 HISTORY AND GOVERNMENT OF WEST VIRGINIA.
Culpeper to whom it was confirmed in the fourth year of King James II. (1688). This immense estate embraced all of the territory lying between the Po- tomac and Rappahannock rivers in Virginia, and all of the present counties of Jefferson, Berkeley, Mot- gan, Hampshire, Hardy, Grant, Mineral and a part of Tucker, in West Virginia. The grant descended from Lord Culpeper to his only daughter, Catharine, who married Thomas, fifth Lord Fairfax, from whom the estate descended to their eldest son, Thomas, who be- came the sixth Lord Fairfax.
4. Efforts to Fix the Boundary of the Fairfax Estate .- In 1733, Lord Fairfax petitioned the King, asking that commissioners be appointed to determine the bounds of his patent. The request was heard with favor and the commissioners, having been appointed, assembled at Fredericksburg, Virginia, in 1734, and the journey to survey the Potomac and find its head spring, or first fountain, began from that place. On November 18th, the party was on the Potomac river, four miles above the mouth of the Shenandoah river, now in Jefferson county, West Virginia. This was the first surveying party ever sent into this State.
arrive in the Colony until 1680, when he brought with him an act for the " free and general pardon, indemnity and oblivion" for all participants in " Bacon's Rebellion." He is described as an able but artful and covetous man. In 1669, he had a half interest with the Earl of Arlington, in the grant for the "Northern Neck," which embraced all of what was afterwards known as the Fairfax Estate. He purchased Arlington's interest and thus became sole proprietor, and his daughter, Catharine, his sole heiress. Culpeper was removed from office, the charges against him being heard by a jury in Middlesex County, England. He died in 1719.
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EARLY HISTORY OF THE STATE.
5. The Planting of the Fairfax Stone .- At the mouth of the South Branch a halt was made, but the North Branch was decided to be the true continuation of the Potomac and onward along its winding course proceeded the surveyors, chainmen, axemen and attendants, until the first FX fountain of the North Branch was reached. Then the party returned and the surveyors made a map and sent it with their report to England. This the king did not approve until April 1745, THE FAIRFAX STONE .* in which year Lord Fair- fax came to Virginia never more to return to Eng- land. Other commissioners were appointed to mark
*The Fairfax Stone, which was the first monument erected to mark ownership in land in thisState, had a square base, each side of which was two feet and six inches; it was constructed of sand-stone and was built up as shown to a point or apex four feet and six inches from the base. The base was on a level with the surface, and the stones forming the pyramid were three in number, two of which were each two feet high, and the cap-piece or apex, six inches high, all joined. There was no date, but on the middle stone, on each of the four sides were the letters "F X" The joints were cemented and the cutting perfectly true. This stone, one of the most interesting historical monuments in the United States, was destroyed, in December, 1881, by some unknown person, but it is believed to have been the work of some thoughtless boys. The Davis Coal and Coke Company had another stone cut and put in its place, as nearly similar to the original as possible.
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48 HISTORY AND GOVERNMENT OF WEST VIRGINIA.
the line between the first fountains of the two rivers -the Potomac and the Rappahannock. The jour- ney to the source of the Potomac as determined by the previous surveyors, began on September 18th, and twenty-nine days later-October 17th, 1746, they placed the Fairfax Stone at the head fountain of the North Branch of the Potomac river.
6. George Washington a Surveyor in West Vir- ginia .- In March, 1747-8, Lord Fairfax employed George Washington, then in his seventeenth year, to survey and lay off into lots much of that part of his estate in West Virginia. The boy surveyor crossed the mountains and surveyed more than a hun- dred tracts of land, laying off the same in quantities to suit the purchasers. He kept a journal in which he made a record of daily transactions, and from it we learn that on Friday, March 25th, 1748, he swam his horse across the Potomac at the mouth of Patter- son's creek, now in Mineral county, up which he pro- ceeded to the house of Abram Johnston, where he spent the night, and the next day, visited the home of Sam- uel Hedges, who was one of the king's Justices of the Peace for Frederick county. Thus the leader of the armies of the Revolution and the first President of the United States surveyed the first farms in West Virginia.
7. The "Ohio Company." - Many cabin homes dotted the country along the upper waters of the Potomac, but no one had yet found a habitation west of the mountains. But now an effort was to be made to settle the region toward the Ohio river. In 1748, a corporation known as the "Ohio Company," was
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EARLY HISTORY OF THE STATE.
formed. It was composed of John Hanbury, a mer- chant of London, Thomas Lee, Thomas Nelson, William Thornton, William Nimms, Daniel Cresap, Michael Cresap, Lawrence Washington, Augustus Washington, George Fairfax, Jacob Giles, Nathaniel Chapman and James Woodrop. The company in. 1749, was granted 500,000 acres of land on the Ohio situated on both sides of the river, principally within the present counties of Jefferson and Columbiana, Ohio, and Brooke county, West Virginia.
8. The Ohio Valley ; Claims of England and France to the Same .- By the Ohio Valley is meant all that vast region drained by the Ohio river and its tributaries, and within it lay all of West Virginia except that part drained by the Potomac. England claimed all of the great Valley, and based her claim upon the discoveries of the Cabots on the Atlantic coast, which, she asserted, extended her possessions from sea to sea. Then, too, had not the English pur- chased a large part of the territory from the Indians at the treaty of Lancaster? France occupied all Canada, and rested her claim to the Ohio Valley upon the discoveries of La Salle, who, as we have seen, descended the Ohio river in 1669-70, and also upon that of Marquette, who was at the mouth of the Ohio in 16So. A common law of nations gave to the country discovering the mouth of a river all the country drained by it. Hence, France could not understand by what authority England granted lands on the Ohio river, or why that kingdom undertook to purchase the same from the Indians.
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HISTORY AND GOVERNMENT OF WEST VIRGINIA.
9. French Expedition to the Ohio Valley. - France resolved to perfect her title to the Ohio Val- ley by formal possession, and determined to place along that river, a number of leaden plates bearing inscriptions asserting her claims to the lands on both sides of that stream, even to the source of its tribu- taries. The command of the expedition sent out to deposit these plates was given to Captain Bienville de Celoron. It consisted of eight subaltern officers, six cadets, an armorer, twenty soldiers, one hundred and eighty Canadians, fifty-five Indians, and Father Bonnecamps, who styled himself the "Jesuitte Math- ematicien."
10. The Journey .- The expedition left La Chine, near Montreal, Canada, on June 15th, 1749, and on July 29th reached the Allegheny river at the mouth of Conewango creek. Celoron was provided with at least six leaden plates, each of which was about eleven inches long, seven and a half inches wide, and a quarter of an inch in thickness. The first plate was buried on the south bank of the Allegheny river, opposite the mouth of the Conewango. Then the journey was continued, and on August 3d the second plate was buried near the mouth of French creek.
11. The Voyage Down the Ohio. - The voyage down the Ohio brought the little fleet to the mouth of Wheeling creek, now almost the center of the city of that name, and here, August 13th, the third plate was buried. Two days and nights passed, and the voyagers went on shore at the mouth of the Mus- kingum, the site of the present city of Marietta,
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EARLY HISTORY OF THE STATE.
Ohio. Here the fourth plate was deposited. On the morning of August 18, a rain-storm drove the canoes
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THE FRENCH EXPEDITION DESCENDING THE OHIO.
ashore at the mouth of the Great Kanawha, and here on that day the fifth plate was buried .* The entry
*This plate was found in 1846, and removed from the spot in which it had lain for ninety-seven years. The following is the inscription which it bears:
"In the year 1749, reign of Louis XV., King of France, we, Celoron, commandant of a detachment sent by Monsieur the Mar-
52 HISTORY AND GOVERNMENT OF WEST VIRGINIA.
made in Celoron's journal here, translated, reads as follows: "Buried at the foot of an elm, on the south bank of the Ohio and on the east bank of the Chi- nondaista, the 18th day of August, 1749."
12. The Expedition Homeward Bound .- Heavy rains detained the detachment at the mouth of the Great Kanawha for two days. Leaving there on Au- gust 20th, the voyage down the Ohio was continued. For several days their canoes floated on beneath the dark shades of the forest on the river's brink. On the 30th, the Great North Bend of the Ohio was passed, and they reached the mouth of the Great Miami, where, on the 31st, the sixth and last plate was buried. From here the homeward march was begun, and on November roth they reached Montreal, having accomplished a journey of more than six hundred leagues.
13. The Loyal and the Greenbrier Companies .- The English disregarded the claims of the French, and the Virginia authorities continued to issue land grants to be located in the Ohio Valley. July 12th, 1749, the Governor and Council issued a grant to
quis de la Galisoniere, Commandant General of New France, to re-establish tranquillity in some Indian villages in these cantons, have buried this plate at the mouth of the Chinodashichetha the 18th August, near the river Ohio, otherwise "Beautiful River, " as a monument of renewal of possession which we have taken of the said river Ohio, and of all those which fall into it, and of all the lands on both sides as far as the sources of said rivers; the same as were enjoyed, or ought to have been enjoyed, by the preceding Kings of France, and that they have maintained it by their arms, and by treaties, especially by those of Ryswick, Utrecht, and Aix. la-cha-pelle."
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EARLY HISTORY OF THE STATE.
John Lewis, Thomas Walker and others, under the corporate name of the "Loyal Company," for 800,- 000 acres of land, the boundary of which was to begin on the line between Virginia and North Caro- lina. October 29th, 1751, the "Greenbrier Company" , was authorized to locate 100,000 acres on the waters of Greenbrier river.
14. First Settlers on Greenbrier River .- The first white men who reached the upper course of the Greenbrier river, were Jacob Marlin and Stephen Sewell, who, in the year 1749, came to the mouth of Knap's creek, now in Pocahontas county, and erected a cabin on the bank of Greenbrier river, on what has ever since been known as Marlin's Bottom. Here they were living in 1751, when John Lewis and his son Andrew came west as the surveyors of the Green- brier Land Company. Sewell afterward moved fifty iniles farther west, and fell a victim to savage bar- barity. Both of these men have their names pre- served in those of two lofty mountains of the State.
15. First Explorers South of the New River. -In the year 1750, Doctor Thomas Walker, of Vir- ginia, with five companions, set out on a journey of exploration in the western wilderness, and, pressing onward, reached the Cumberland mountains, which they so named in honor of the Duke of Cumberland. Then they explored the region about the sources of the Green, Salt, and Kentucky rivers. Then, jour- neying northward, the explorers crossed the Big Sandy river and traversed the mountains in what is now the southern part of West Virginia, crossing the
54 HISTORY AND GOVERNMENT OF WEST VIRGINIA.
upper courses of the Guyandotte and Twelve Pole rivers; and June 28th, 1750, the party reached New river, opposite the mouth of the Greenbrier. They
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JUNCTION OF THE GREENBRIER AND NEW RIVERS.
crossed the former and continued up the latter on their return home. Thus, Dr. Thomas Walker, with five companions, two of whom were Ambrose Powell and Colby Chew, were the first white men in that part of
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EARLY HISTORY OF THE STATE.
West Virginia south of the Great Kanawha, and the first who saw the mouth of Greenbrier river.
16. Christopher Gist Explores the Hills and Val- leys of West Virginia .- Christopher Gist was a dis- tinguished surveyor of North Carolina. In Septem- ber, 1750, the Ohio Company, for £150 and other. considerations, employed him to make explorations in the Ohio Valley. Gist began his journey in Octo- ber, 1750, and returned in May, 1751, having de- scended the Ohio river to the falls, now Louisville, Kentucky, but he had only observed the lands north of the Ohio. November 4th, 1751, the Company sent him out again, this time to explore the lands between the Monongahela and Great Kanawha rivers. He traversed this entire region, being the first white man to explore that part of West Virginia between these rivers.
17. The Ohio Company Petitions for a Second Grant .- Gist made his report to the Company in October, 1752, and it hastened to petition the king to grant to it all the territory south of the Ohio river bounded as follows: "beginning at the mouth of the Kiskiminetas Creek-a tributary of the Allegheny in Pennsylvania-thence down the Ohio to the mouth of the Great Kanawha River; thence with that stream and New River to the mouth of Greenbrier River; thence a straight line along the mountains to the southeast spring on the Monongahela, and thence northward, until a line from the mountains reaches the place of beginning." In consideration of this grant the Company was to speedily erect two forts, one
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56 HISTORY AND GOVERNMENT OF WEST VIRGINIA.
at the mouth of Chartier's Creek on the Allegheny, and the other at the mouth of the Great Kanawha, and to settle three hundred families within the limits of its grant. War put an end to all this.
18. George Washington's First Public Service .- Meanwhile the French were putting forth every effort to strengthen themselves in the valley of the Ohio, and in 1753 advanced south- : ward, building a cordon of forts extending from Lake Erie to the Ohio. To stay these movements, Governor Robert Dinwiddie, of Vir- ginia, determined first to re- sort to diplomacy. Major George Washington, then but twenty-one years of age, was summoned to Williams- " burg, at that time the capi- GEORGE WASHINGTON tal of Virginia, and en- trusted with the hazardous mission of carrying messages to the French author- ities on the Upper Ohio. With several companions he began the journey over the mountains passing through what is now the eastern part of West Vir- ginia. December 4th, 1753, he reached Venango, on the Allegheny River, and passed on to Fort Le Boeuf, where he delivered Dinwiddie's message to the French commander. That official stated that his orders were to hold possession of the Ohio Valley, and he would do so to the best of his ability. Washington's first
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