USA > West Virginia > History and government of West Virginia > Part 7
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23. Heroic Achievement of Elizabeth Zane .- At the time when the attack upon the fort was being pressed at every point, Colonel Shepherd explained to the men that the powder within the walls was almost exhausted, and that the only source from which a supply could come was the house of Ebenezer Zane, about sixty yards from the gate of the fort. The Col- onel asked whether any man would undertake the hazardous task of securing some of the powder. Three young men stepped forward, but while the matter was being discussed, a young lady, Elizabeth Zane, sister of Ebenezer and Silas Zane, came forward and insisted that she should be permitted to make the desperate attempt, saying that her life could be better spared than that of a man at such a critical time. The gate was opened and she glided away to her brother's house, where she secured the powder, and then began the return. A volley was discharged at her, but the
WEST VIRGINIA DURING THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR. 113
bullets flew wide of the mark, and she entered the gate in safety, and thus saved Fort Henry. The pages of history may furnish a parallel to the exploit of Elizabeth Zane, but an instance of greater heroism is nowhere to be found.
24. The End of the Revolutionary War .- The Revolution closed in 1783, and the Colonies of 1776 had become the recognized nation of North America, How many West Virginia pioneers served during this war we do not know. But certain it is that the founders of our State were represented on almost every battlefield of the Revolution. The muster rolls of Virginia regiments are still in existence, and it is safe to say that, of the men composing the Hampshire Rifle Regiment alone, there are descendants in almost every county of the State. When the war was past, many old heroes found homes and lived and died in West Virginia. They had marked with their blood the snows of the North, and had marched and counter- marched through the pestilential swamps of the South. Of all the American States, West Virginia stands in point of service next to the Original Thirteen Colonies. 1 25. Three West Virginia Major-Generals of the Revolution,-Three Major-Generals of the Revolution- ary War lived in Berkeley county, West Virginia. These were Alexander Stephen, Charles Lee and Horatio Gates. The former lies buried near Martins- burg. General Lee resided about ten miles from Martinsburg. General Gates was an English officer with Braddock at the battle of Monongahela in 1755, where he was shot through the body. He purchased
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a farm in Berkeley county, where he resided until the beginning of the Revo- lution, when he entered the American armny and made a world-wide reputation by his capture of Burgoyne at Sar- atoga, in 1777. After the war, he returned to his home in Berkeley, where he resided until 1790, when he removed to New York, where he died GENERAL HORATIO GATES. April 10th, 1806.
26. The Early Days of Martinsburg .- Martins- burg is situated upon the site of what was once the chief town of the Tuscarora Indians, the little stream on which it is situated still bearing the name of Tus- carora creek. The town was created by legislative enactment in October, 1778, on lands of Adam Stephen, and named from Colonel T. B. Martin, one of the heirs of Lord Fairfax. November 30th, 1793, the Assembly directed the trustees to establish a market house, and February 9th, 1813, it was enacted that "all free white male persons, being citizens of Virginia, and free-holders of the said town" should meet in the ensuing April and elect a board of trustees therefor. The Martinsburg academy was established January 8th, 1822, with David Hunter, Elisha Boyd, Philip C. Pendleton, John S. Harrison, and John R. Cook, trustees.
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CHAPTER X.
WEST VIRGINIA AFTER THE REVOLUTION.
From 1785 to 1795.
1. Mason and Dixon's Line. - So long as the country remained a wilderness the question of bound- aries was of little consequence, but when settlements began to be made, disputes arose between Virginia and Pennsylvania. The southern boundary of Penn- sylvania as defined in the grant to William Penn, was a line extending from the Delaware river five degrees west. With this Virginia had nothing to do until the western boundary of Maryland was passed, but beyond that both Virginia and Pennsylvania claimed jurisdiction and so bitter was the dispute that it almost ended in civil war.
2. The Surveyors at Work .- In November, 1763, Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon, two eminent surveyors of London, came to America to fix the boundary and on Cedar (now South) street, Philadel- phia, they erected an observatory to enable them to ascertain the latitude of that city. Having done this, they fixed a stone from which to begin the celebrated "Mason and Dixon's Line." Slowly the surveyors proceeded westward and on October 27th, 1765, they were on the summit of North mountain, ninety- five miles west of the Susquehanna river. Here the work was stopped until the next year when it was
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completed to the summit of the Alleghanies, where the Six Nations forbade further prosecution of the work. But their consent was secured and the work went on in 1767, until the Catawba war-path near Mount Morris, now in Green county, Pennsylvania, was reached, where it was again stopped by the Indians and here for fifteen years the Line terminated.
3. The Line Completed .- When the Revolution closed, Virginia and Pennsylvania, raised to the dignity of independent States, agreed amicably to adjust all boundary disputes. To perform this work, Dr. James Madison and Robert Andrews were appointed on the part of the former and John Ewing, George Bryan and David Rittenhouse on the part of the latter. The commissioners met at Baltimore in 1780, and began the work of extending Mason and Dixon's Line five degrees west from the Delaware river. But the Indians again stopped them and nothing was done for four years. Then a part of the commissioners reared an observatory at Wilmington, Delaware, and the others journeyed west and on the loftiest peak of the Fish Creek Hills erected another. Supplied with astronomical instruments, both parties, from their respective stations, for six weeks observed such celestial phenomena as would enable them to determine their respective meridians. From the data thus obtained, they determined the location of the fifth meridian west from the Delaware river, and here they planted a post to mark the southwest corner of Pennsylvania as the terminus of Mason and Dixon's Line.
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4. Virginia's Cession of the Northwest Ter- ritory .- All of the vast region extending from the Ohio to the Mississippi and bounded on the north by the Great Lakes was known as the Northwest Terri- tory, and claimned by Virginia, New York, Massa- chusetts and Connecticut. Virginia based her claim upon charters from the English King, upon the con- quest of the country by General George Rogers Clarke, and upon the fact that she had established civil government in it by the creation of Illinois
county. The smaller States, prominently Maryland, insisted that this region should be the property of the Nation and not of individual States. Virginia joined the other claimants in surrendering the territory, and in 1784, Thomas Jefferson, Samuel Hardy, Arthur Lee and James Monroe, for Virginia, executed a Deed of Cession to Congress, by which the State forever relinquished jurisdiction in the territory beyond the Ohio. This session and the running of the western boundary of Pennsylvania north from the western terminus of Mason and Dixon's Line, left a narrow strip between the said western line and the Ohio, which has ever since been known as the "Pan-Handle."
5. Ferries Established. - The first ferry on the South Branch of the Potomac was established in 1782, from the lands of Ralph Humphrey to lands opposite. In 1785 a ferry was established across the Monongahela at the mouth of Decker's creek. This year the first ferry on Tygart's Valley river was established from the lands of John Pettyjohns, to
I18 HISTORY. AND GOVERNMENT OF WEST VIRGINIA.
lands opposite in Monongalia county. At the same time two ferries were established over Cheat river, one from the lands of Jacob Scott and the other from the lands of Thomas Butler, both in Monongalia county. The first ferry on New river was established in 1787, from lands of Charles Lynch in the county' of Montgomery; and the same year the first ferry over the Ohio was established from lands of Robert Wood in Ohio county, to lands opposite in the North- west Territory. The first ferry in Harrison county was established over Elk creek on lands of George Jackson in 1786. The same year a ferry was located by legislative enactment over the Greenbrier river where the town of Alderson now stands, and a year later Crow's ferry was established over the Potomac at the junction of the North and South Branches.
6. Legal Establishment of West Virginia Towns. -In 1785, Clarksburg was established at the junction of Elk creek and the West Fork of the Monongahela on lands on which John Simpson had reared his cabin in 1764. Morgantown was established the same year. A year later Charlestown-then in Berkeley but now the seat of justice of Jefferson county-was made a town by legislative enactment, on lands the property of Charles Washington, from whom it derived its name. In October, 1787, the town of West Liberty, in Ohio county, was established on lands of Reuben Foreman and Providence Mounts. It was the seat of justice of Ohio county until 1797, when it was removed to Wheeling. The same year Middletown, in Ber-
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keley, and Watson, in Hampshire, became towns by legislative enactment.
7. Indian Hostilities Renewed .- The year 1784 was one of comparative quiet. The treaty of peace between the United States and Great Britain had the effect to restrain the Indians for the time being, but they renewed hostilities in 1785, which they con- tinued for ten years thereafter. A connected recital of the barbarities perpetrated in West Virginia alone, if written in detail, would fill volumes and would more- over present only a dreary uniformity of incident and a narration of individual efforts and sufferings, of less important triumphs and defeats, the whole being but a confused mass of re-encounters of the rifle and tomahawk, of murders, burnings, captivities and re- prisals, which confound by their resemblance and weary by their number. It has been estimated that a thousand families in West Virginia alone, fell victims to savage barbarity.
8. Famous Frontier Warriors .- The long years of savage warfare developed many heroic men among the founders of West Virginia, and their names should not be forgotten, for they formed the strong arm of defense against the savage hordes that carried de- struction along the frontier of civilization. Prominent among these men were Lewis Wetzel, Ebenezer Zane, Samuel McColloch, Andrew Poe, William Crawford, John Stuart, Samuel Brady, and a host of others who were leaders in the struggle between civilization and barbarism, which was decided chiefly on the soil of West Virginia.
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9. Jefferson's Notes on the State of Virginia .- The first literary work that related in any manner to what is now West Virginia, was the "Notes on the State of Virginia," written by Thomas Jefferson, third president of the United States, and published in Paris, France, in 1784, because the work could be done more cheaply there than in America. The edition consisted of but two hundred copies, some of which were distributed in Europe, but the greater . number in America. The work was reprinted in France and this country. The author described with great exactness the rivers and mountains of West Virginia, having had access doubtless to the journals of Gist and other early explorers within the present limits of the State.
10. The First Steamboat in the World .- Shep- herdstown is famous for having been the residence of James Rumsey, who was the first man in the world to propose steam as a substitute for wind in propelling vessels. He built a steamer on the Potomac in 1784, which was tested on the broad reach of that river at Shepherdstown, in the presence of General Washing- ton and other distinguished men of the day. The material and workmanship, together with the tools used, were those of an ordinary blacksmith shop. After patenting his invention, Rumsey went to Lon- don where greater facilities were offered for perfecting it. There he built a steamer which was tested on the Thames. December 20th1, 1792, while explaining his invention before the Society of Arts, of London, he placed his hand upon his head and complained of
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pain. This was his last utterance. He died twenty- four hours later and was buried at St. Margaret's, in Westminster Abbey. He is the only West Vir- ginian whose dust sleeps with that of the great men of England. Thus one of the world's greatest inventors
DWELLING OF JAMES RUMSEY AT SHEPHERDSTOWN.
was a West Virginian and he found a grave in a foreign land. The honor of the invention has been long claimed for others, and it is now time that the great wrong be corrected and credit given to him to whom it rightfully belongs, and whose claims are beyond successful contradiction.
11. The Federal Constitution .- Soon after the close of the Revolution it was seen that while the Articles of Confederation had bound the Colonies to- gether in time of war they were not adapted to the new order of things. And for the purpose of forming
"From a drawing made by Henry Howe, Esq., the distin. guished historian and artist, in 1843.
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" a more perfect union," the Federal Constitution was framed. It had to be ratified by three-fourths of the States before it could become operative. The Vir- ginia Convention which met for this purpose was composed of some of the most eminent men in the State. Seven counties existed in what is now West Virginia. These, with their representatives were as follows: Berkeley, William Darke and Adam Stephen; Greenbrier, George Clendenin and John Stuart; Hampshire, Andrew Woodrow and Ralph Humphreys ; Harrison, George Jackson and John Prunty; Hardy, Isaac Van- Matre and Abel Seymour; Monongalia, John Evans and William McCleery; Ohio, ARCHIBALD WOODS .* Archibald Woods and Eben- ezer Zane. These representatives belonged to that class of men of whom it was said: "They are farmers to-day, statesmen to-morrow and soldiers always."
*Archibald Woods, prominent in the early history of Wheeling, was born November 14th, 1764, near Charlottesville, Virginia. In 1781 he enlisted in the Revolutionary army, and served until the close of the war, soon after which he removed to Ohio county. Here he was appointed a Justice of the Peace. With Ebenezer Zane he represented Ohio county in the Virginia Convention of 1788, which ratified the Federal Constitution and for which action both voted. He mustered troops for the War of 1812, and started on the march with them, but all were ordered to return before reaching the field of action. He was long connected with the business interests of Wheeling. He died October 26th, 1846.
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12. The Founding of Charleston .- The land on which the city of Charleston now stands was granted in 1773 to Colonel Thomas Bullitt for services in the French and Indian War. He sold it to his brother Cuthbert, of Maryland, who transferred it to his son Cuthbert of Prince William county, Virginia. Charles Clendenin removed to the Greenbrier Valley as early as 1780. He had four. sons- George, William, Robert and Alexander-all distinguished in border war. George rose to prominence and in 1787, when in Richmond, he pur- chased the land at the mouth of the Elk river, and a year WILLIAM CLENDENIN .* later removed to it with his aged father, brothers and an only sister. Here these founders of the future capital of West Virginia, ou May Ist, 1788, began the erection of a block-house, which later served the purpose of dwelling, fort, court-house and jail. It was afterwards known as Fort Lee, so-called in honor of Governor Henry Lee, of Virginia. Soon others came to dwell in and
*Captain William Clendenin, one of the founders of Charleston, was a prominent frontiersman. He was wounded at the battle of Point Pleasant in 1774. He was one of the first justices of Kanawha county, which he represented in the Virginia Assembly in 1796, and 1801. He was high sheriff in 1802-3, and in the latter year carried the petition to Richmond asking for the formation of Mason county. It was created in 1804, and Captain Clendenin, then residing on the Ohio, within the limits of the new county, became its first representative in the General Assembly.
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around the fort and in December, 1794, the General Assembly enacted "That forty acres of land, the property of George Clendenin, at the mouth of Elk river in the County of Kanawha, as the same are already laid off into lots and streets, shall be estab- lished a town by the name of Charleston," so called from Charles, the father of the Clendenin brothers, who were its founders.
13. Harmar's Expedition against the Western Indians .- The Indians still continued the war, and in 1790 General Josiah Harmar, with an army of fourteen hundred and fifty men, was sent against them. This force was organized at Fort Washington, now Cincinnati, from which place it marched on September 26th, its objective point being the Indian towns at the junction of the St. Mary's and St. Jo- seph's rivers-now Fort Wayne, Indiana. On October 22d, when within twenty miles of its destination, the army was attacked by a large body of Indians, who fought with such desperation that Harmar's army was thrown into utter confusion and retreated to Fort Washington, leaving the dead unburied on the field.
14. Residence of Daniel Boone in West Virginia. -Daniel Boone, the founder of Kentucky, spent sev- eral years as a resident of the Great Kanawha Valley. The cause which led to his removal from Kentucky is but another instance of man's injustice to man. Boone had been the first white man to find a home in the wilds of Kentucky, and when the wars were ended, he settled down to rest the remainder of his days. But the sheriff informed him that the title to his lands was
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disputed, and suits entered against him. He could not understand this. He made no defense, but stung by ingratitude, he left Kentucky never to return. He went to the home of his child- hood on the Schuykill, but all was changed, and there could be no home there for him. Coming to the Great Kanawha Valley, he found. congenial friends among the founders of Charleston. With George Clendenin he represented DANIEL BOONE. Kanawha county in the Vir- ginia Assembly in 1791. About the year 1798, he sought and found.a home with his son, Daniel M. Boone, in Upper Louisiana. There he died in 1820, and in 1845 his remains were removed to Frankfort, Kentucky, where they now rest.
15. The Town of Wellsburg .- The town of Wells- burg, the seat of justice of Brooke county, was laid out by Charles Prather, from whom it received the name of Charlestown. It was established by legisla- tive enactment, December 7th, 1791. By an act of the General Assembly passed December 27th, 1816, the name was changed from Charlestown to Wellsburg, in honor of Alexander Wells, who married the only daughter of Charles Prather. Brooke Academy at Wellsburg was incorporated by act of the Assembly passed January 10th, 1799. In 1852, it was by legisla- tive enactment authorized to transfer its property to the Meade Collegiate Institute.
126 HISTORY AND GOVERNMENT OF WEST VIRGINIA.
16. Frontier Forts, Blockhouses and Stockades. -Such were the names given to the various kinds of structures for defense. A range of cabins usually formed at least one side of the fort. Partitions of logs separated the cabins one from another. The walls of these cabins on the outside were ten or twelve feet high, the slope of the roof being turned wholly in- ward. The blockhouses were built at the corners of the fort and projected about two feet beyond the outer walls of the cabins and stockades. The upper stories were about eighteen inches larger in diameter than the lower one, thus providing an opening at the com- mencement of the former to prevent the enemy from gaining a position under the walls. In some of these forts, instead of blockhouses, the corners were fur- nished with bastions. The fort was always near a spring or stream of water, and a large folding gate next to it, made of thick slabs, was the only point of entrance or exit. The walls were furnished with port- holes at proper heights and distances. The whole of the outside was made bullet-proof.
17. The Beginning of Wheeling .- On a bright morning in 1770, Colonel Ebenezer Zane stood on the bank of the Ohio river, just above the mouth of Wheeling creek. He was the founder of a future city. Erecting a cabin, he remained a year, and then went east to induce some friends to remove with him to his home on the Chio river. He was successful. His two brothers, John and Silas, came and spent the summer of 1772, and in the early part of 1773, other settlers came. Thus was made the permanent settle-
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ment of a future city. Wheeling was laid out in town lots by Ebenezer Zane in 1793, and December 26th, 1795, it was made a town by legislative enact- ment. The town was incorporated January 16th, 1806, and by an act of the Assembly, March 11th, 1836, the town of Wheeling was incorporated into the city of . Wheeling. The first court for Ohio county was held at Black's cabin, on Short creek, January 16th, 1777. Later the sessions were held at West Liberty, and in 1797, Wheeling became the seat of justice, and the court met at that place May 7th of that year at the house of John Gooding.
18. The Defeat of General St. Clair .- The only effect of General Harmar's campaign was to inten- sify the hostilities of the savages, and they waged a fierce and relentless warfare upon the frontier of Vir- ginia and that of Kentucky. To stay the tide of blood, President Washington appointed General Arthur St. Clair to the command of the army of the Northwest. That officer proceeded to Fort Washing- ton, whence the ill-fated expedition of General Har- mar had marched, and there an army of twenty-three hundred men was speedily collected. On September . 27th, 1791, it was put in motion and filed away into the wilderness. On November 3d, the army en- camped in what is now Mercer county, Ohio, within two miles of the present Indiana state line. Here it was attacked, and no battle of the Northwest was ever attended with such a loss of human life. St. Clair's army became a band of fugitives, most of whom finally reached Fort Washington.
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19. West Virginians at St. Clair's Defeat .- One of the most distinguished military men of West Vir- ginia was General Will- iam Darke of Berkeley county. He won honor at the battle of Monon- il gahela and served with distinction throughout the Revolutionary war. In 1791,as commandant of the Second Virginia regiment, he marched across West Virginia, and descended the Ohio to Fort Washington, where his regiment be- came an important part of the army of St. Clair. At the defeat of that army General Darke led three desperate charges and was the coolest man on that bloody and chaotic field. His regiment was GENERAL WILLIAM DARKE. composed almost en- tirely of West Virginians and of those who lost their
*General William Darke, a distinguished soldier, was born near Lancaster, Pennsylvania, in 1735, and came with his parents to what is now Berkeley county, West Virginia, in 1741, when but six years of age. He was with Braddock at the battle of Monon- gahela, in 1755, and thereafter for fifteen years was engaged in
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lives on that fatal field, eighty are reported to have been from Berkeley county alone. Long years after the mournful story of their fall was rehearsed in the mountain homes of West Virginia, and old soldiers chanted "St. Clair's Defeat, " which told in plain- tive accents how,
"We lost nine hundred men on the banks of the St. Mary." 20. Wayne's Victory; The Savage Power Broken. -For a hundred years a merciless warfare had been waged against the frontier settlements, but the time was now come when the savage power was to be broken. Gen. Anthony Wayne-" Mad Anthony" -was placed in command of an army of more than three thousand men which was collected at Fort Washington for the purpose of invading the Indian
the Indian wars on the western border. He entered the Revolu- tionary army in 1776, with the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel, and together with the greater part of his regiment, was taken prisoner at Germantown, and detained on board a British prison-ship, until November 1st, 1780, when he was exchanged. In 1781 he recruited his regiment, known as the " Hampshire and Berkeley Regiment," and with it was present at the siege of Yorktown, where, October 19th, 1781, he saw Cornwallis surrender his army to the Americans. He was a member of the Virginia Convention of 1788, which ratified the Federal Constitution, for which measure he cast his vote. Pro- moted to the rank of Colonel, he marched at the head of the Sec- ond Virginia Regiment, in 1791, and joined the ill-fated army of General St. Clair at Fort Washington, now Cincinnati. He saved . the remnant of the army at St. Clair's defeat, on the banks of St. Mary's, near the present boundary line between Indiana and Ohio. Among the slain was his son, Captain Joseph Darke. General Darke died November 26th, 1801, and is buried in a neg- lected graveyard a short distance from Shenandoah Junction, in Jefferson county. His name is commemorated in the town of Darkesville, West Virginia, and in that of Darke county, Ohio.
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