USA > West Virginia > Braxton County > History of Braxton County and central West Virginia > Part 10
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The first road order was from Elk River by way of Nathan Prince's by Salt Works to Col. Haymond's mill; viewers, Nicholas Gibson, John Hills and Jacob McMahan. The Court of December 8, 1819, ordered that Lucy, a slave belonging to Thomas H. Batton, who had been sentenced to be hung for murder of a child on the 14th day of February, at the town of Fleshersville, between the hours of 12 and 4 o'clock.
Of the first Court house, little is known. Order April 11, 1820, for Court
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house, at Weston, to be built of brick, and has since been the seat of justice of a flourishing town of great wealth, and an able citizenship, 22 miles from Clarksburg, and 43 miles from Sutton.
Weston is one of the richest inland towns in the state. It is situated in the valley of the West Fork river, and surrounded by a fine mineral and agri- cultural country. The West Virginia Hospital for the Insane, one of the finest public institutions in the state is located there, and the B. & O. railroad shops for the Richwood and Pickins division contribute largely to the business inter- ests of the town. Weston has long been noted for her prominent citizens and business men. Albert A. Lewis, Mathew Edmiston, Draper Camden, Jackson Arnold, John and Henry Brannon, J. M. Bennett, and Minter Bailey are among the many prominent citizens who gave character and impress to the town. Judge Henry Brannon, for many years a member of the Supreme Court of the State, was perhaps her greatest jurist.
UPSHUR COUNTY. SETTLED IN 1767.
The first effort by petition to establish a new county was made in 1848. A vote being taken at the regular spring election of 1848. A large majority of the voters were in favor of the new county of Upshur, which was to be formed out of parts of Lewis, Randolph and Barbour counties. It was not until 1851 ยท that the new county was organized. The county was named in honor of Abel P. Upshur, who was Secretary of the Navy in the Administration of President William Henry Harrison.
The Governor of Virginia commissioned the following gentlemen as justices of the peace for the new county: Adam Spitler, Simon Rohrbough, George Bastable, James T. Hardman, Jacob Lorentz, Daniel Bennet. K. Hopkins, George Clark, and John W. Marple. The first magisterial court met at the house of Andrew Poundstone in April, 1851. John Reger was recommended to the Governor as a suitable person for sheriff, and Stewart Bennet was nomi- nated as Commissioner of the Revenue. The first circuit court was held at the residence of Andrew Poundstone on the 17th day of June, 1851.
The town of Buckhannon was made the county seat and the new county started off with all the functions of a well organized county. Buckhannon is now a town of about 4,000 inhabitants. For many years it has been recognized as a school town, and more recently the West Virginia Wesleyan College has been established there. The town is beautifully located on the Buckhannon river. Its railroad facilities are a branch of the B. & O. running from Weston to Pickins, and the Coal & Coke from Elkins to Charleston going near the town, with a branch road running to the town. Buckhannon is 16 miles from Weston, 38 miles from Clarksburg and 46 miles from Sutton.
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ROADS.
Following is a very interesting letter written by Harrison Kelley, now in his ninety-third year:
Mabie, West Virginia, Oet. 1, 1909.
I notice a letter in the Barbour Demoerat of Thursday, September 2, 1909, from N. Poling, Phillipsburg, Kansas, wondering whether there were any be- sides himself living who was employed on the Philippi bridge in 1852. . I was employed on the Philippi bridge in its construction from start to finish, and was one of the following workmen :
Lemuel Chenoweth, architect, builder and contractor, Jacob Sargeant, Christian Capito, John Capito, Carr MeCuteheon, John S. Chenoweth, Wm. Marstiller, David Boyles and Harrison Kelley, carpenters.
I was employed by Mr. Chenoweth for fourteen years in the building of bridges on the Staunton and Parkersburg turnpike. Within that time we built the following bridges: Stalnaker bridge, two miles above Beverly; the Beverly bridge; Middlefork bridge; Buekhannon bridge; Stone Coal bridge; Weston bridge; Polk creek bridge; South Fork Hughes river bridge; North Fork Hughes river bridge. I built the Jane Lew bridge and the Salt Liek bridge over the Salt Liek Fork of the Little Kanawha, in Braxton eounty, myself. I also repaired the bridge over the Cheat river on the Staunton and Parkers- burg pike. The Cheat river bridge was built by Captain Kidwell. The above bridges were all covered struetures.
I also helped to build open bridges over the following ereeks and rivers: Leading creek, Randolph eounty; Files ereek at Beverly; Mill ereek, Huttons- ville ; the Bull Pasture river, Highland county, Va .; Ramsey's draft, Augusta county, Va .; and Walker's creek, Wood county.' Nearly all these useful strue- tures went down in the Civil war, and have been replaced by steel ones.
I am a citizen of Mabie, Randolph county, West Virginia, and reside on the north side of the Staunton and Parkersburg turnpike, hard by the viaduet of the Roaring Creek and Charleston railroad. I reeolleet Mr. Poling very well, and together with my wife and five sons, hasten to send him and family our best regards.
I was born on the 12th of September, 1822, on Kelly's Mountain, near Bev- erly, Randolph county. My exact age is 87 years, and 19 days today.
Very respectfully yours,
HARRISON KELLEY.
The bridge over Little Kanawha and Salt Lick, are in a good state of pres- ervation, they withstood the movements of troops during the Civil war and the great floods, that have oeeurred sinee their construction .- Editor.
The foregoing is copied from the Barbour Democrat of October, 1909, and A. W. Corley of our town tells us he knew many of those people when he was a boy; that he often saw Lemue! Chenoweth who was known as the "Bridge Builder of West Virginia;" that Chenoweth has often been here; that Benj. Skidmore was his uncle, and his grandfather, Andrew Skidmore, is buried in
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the Skidmore graveyard in South Sutton; that John S. Chenoweth was also a grandson of Andrew Skidmore and has been here; that Mr. Corley has seen and erossed many of the bridges referred to, and is well acquainted with Harrison Kelley; that he was at Mr. Kelley's house this Fall; that he is now in his ninety-third year, is well preserved and intelligent, and very interesting to talk with. He claims to be the oldest Free Mason in this state. His memory is clear on the historical events of this county, and in conversation could interest and entertain a person exceptionally for a day or two. He is the survivor of a family of eighteen.
When the Weston & Gauley Bridge Turnpike was being constructed in 1851-1852, the only recollection we have of the road-making, was watching a large fleshy Irishman digging a ditch in Father's meadow, leading from the eulvert under the pike to the creek. Wm. Haymond was the engineer, and we had his field notes until they were destroyed in the fire which destroyed the old homestead in 1897. Felix Sutton was the superintendent, and as we remember, spent much of his time on the road from Weston to Gauley Bridge.
Singleton Anawalt had a five-mile section near Kanawha and Salt Lick Bridge. John Stout had section from Flatwoods to Sutton. Jesse Jackson had section south of the Elk. The abutments of bridge were built in the Fall of 1853, and the span was completed the following summer. The road was mac- adamized in the Fall of 1853, extending from near Benjamin Skidmore's to near the lime kiln, distance one mile. The contract was let to Anawalt parties working on the road, Henry Perrine, Wm. B. Davis, Jack Skidmore, Simon and George Dean, Peter Coger, Henry McKisie and Peter McAnnia.
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The first explorers west of the mountains came on foot and carried all their effects on their backs, following the trails made by wild animals and the Indians.
As the settlements increased, pack horses were used and all the early set- tlers brought their belongings in this way.
Long before the permanent occupation of the county, traders with a string of horses loaded with goods crossed the mountains in Pennsylvania to trade with the Indians in the Ohio Valley.
The first mention of vehicles crossing the mountains was in General Brad- dock's disastrous expedition against the French at Fort Duquesne (Pittsburg) in 1775. Upon this occasion a large number of wagons carrying supplies and ammunition accompanied the army, and a fairly good road was cut out through the forest from Fort Cumberland to the Monongahela river.
The General Assembly in 1776 appointed commissioners "to view, lay out and direct a road to be cleared from the North branch of the Potomac to Fort Pitt on the Ohio, by or near the road called Braddock's road, in the most direct and cheapest manner the said commissioners think fit," and two hundred pounds were appropriated for that purpose.
Over the Braddock road most of the early pioneers traveled to Western Pennsylvania and Virginia.
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Some time later, the Assembly authorized the construction of a road called the State road from Winchester by way of Romney to Morgantown.
The Assembly in October, 1786, appointed a commission consisting of Wil- liam Haymond, Nicholas Carpenter, Hezekiah Davisson, Thomas Webb, John Powers and Daniel Davisson, of Harrison county, to lay out and open a wagon road from some point on the State road as deemed best by them to the mouth of the Little Kanawha river, now Parkersburg.
The work was to be let to the lowest bidder, the road to be thirty feet wide, the commissioners to receive five shillings a day (83 1-3 cents), and the ex- penses to be borne by Harrison eounty.
This road was the first made from Clarksburg east to some point at or near the Cheat river, where it is supposed to have joined the State road.
The work west from Clarksburg must have been very deliberately con- ducted, as from the report of a traveller as late as 1798 it appears that there was nothing but a blazed way through the woods on this end of the road at that time.
Another traveler in going east from Clarksburg in 1790, speaks of a wagon road near the Cheat river.
Another one says he left Alexandria with wagons June 30 and arrived at Morgantown July 18, 1796.
The celebrated National road, which practically followed the Braddock route, was the work of the National Government. It went by Cumberland, Uniontown and Wheeling, and was completed in 1820.
'The original intention was to extend it to the Mississippi river, but the era of railroads prevented this being carried out.
This road was the most traveled thoroughfare in this country, being the great commercial artery from the west to the east. Taverns were strung all along the road and from Wheeling east to the mountains droves of cattle, horses, hogs, sheep, wagons, carriages and stage coaches were always in sight.
But the shriek of the locomotive caused the taverns to close their doors, and the grass to grow on the path which the great procession had trod for years.
The National road cost the government seventeen hundred thousand dol- lars, and was fourteen years in process of construction.
THE NORTH WESTERN TURNPIKE.
In 1827 a charter was granted to the Northwestern Turnpike Company to construet a turnpike road from Winehester to Parkersburg by way of Rom- ney and Clarksburg, the State being a large stockholder.
In 1831 the State practically assumed charge of the construction of the road which reached Clarksburg in 1836, and where it passed through the town is still known as Pike street.
The chief engineer of the road was Colonel Claudius Crozet, a French en- gineer, who was said to have been a soldier in the wars of Napoleon. He was assisted by Charles B. Shaw.
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In 1848 the State appropriated $60,000 for macadamizing the road from the Valley river to Parkersburg.
The distance from Winchester to Parkersburg is given as 23634 miles, of which 83/4 miles was in Maryland. The cost of construction was given at $400,000.
The building of this road was looked forward to with the highest antic- ipation by the people living along its course, as it gave them a much better out- let to the east than they had ever had before.
Stage lines were put on, tavern stands opened, mails were carried and con- nections made at Parkersburg with steamboats.
The first coaches or public conveyanees in Harrison county ran from Clarksburg to the National road at Uniontown about 1830.
The Clarksburg merchants rode on horseback to Baltimore, generally mak- ing the trip in six days.
Wagons hauling 4000 pounds of goods were about fifteen days on the road from Baltimore; the bills of lading allowed twenty days for the trip. The round trip from Clarksburg to Baltimore was considered to be thirty days. Freight rates were from 21% to 3 cents per pound.
Live stock was driven cast at an early day as they furnished their own transportation.
The drivers of these freight wagons would often have a number of bells attached to the harness. and took pride in making a good appearance and pre- sented an interesting sight.
The driver of a stage coach was an important personage along the road, and the arrival of a coach at a town always caused a crowd to assemble to view the passengers and hear the. news.
Long after the stage coach had given way to the locomotive old drivers used to boast of their crack teams, and how they had driven Andrew Jackson, Henry Clay, Thomas H. Benton and General Zachary Taylor and other celebrities safely on their way to Washington, over the National road.
An act of incorporation was granted to the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company by Maryland February 28, 1827, which was confirmed by Virginia March 8, 1827, and by Pennsylvania February 22, 1828.
The road was opened to Ellicott's Mills and the first locomotive ran on it August 30, 1830.
Frederick 'was reached December 1. 1831, Harpers Ferry. December 1, 1834, Cumberland November 5, 1842, Piedmont June 21, 1851, Fairmont June 22, 1852, and Wheeling December 24, 1852, a distance of 379 miles.
The work of constructing the Parkersburg branch from Grafton was eom- menced in August, 1852. at Brandy Gap Tunnel, Thomas S. Spates being the contractor, and same was completed in January, 1857.
The first locomotive reached Clarksburg in July, 1856, from Grafton. As the construction of the railroad progressed west from Baltimore, freight and passengers were hauled from the terminus of the road to Clarksburg, Fetter- man being the last station hauled from, beginning in 1852 and ending in 1856.
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The Kanawha turnpike was an incentive to the opening of several later lines. By 1827 there was a post road from Gauley Bridge to Nicholas county. In 1838, the Charleston and Point Pleasant turnpike was built. About 1848 the Giles, Fayette and Kanawha turnpike (begun in 1838) was completed, start- ing at Pearisburg and passing through Peterstown, Red Sulphur Springs and the present site of Beckley, Mt. Hope, Oak Hill and Fayetteville, joining the Kanawha turnpike at Kanawha Falls. About 1850 a "state road" was con- structed from Logan through Boone to Charleston, and over it passed much traffic which declined after the completion of the Norfolk and Western in 1891. About 1850, a turnpike (begun in 1848) was constructed from Gauley Bridge via Summersville, Sutton, Flatwoods and Bulltown to Weston, at which it connected with another road leading to the Northwestern turnpike at West Union.
One of the first roads leading into the territory now embraced in Braxton was a road ordered by the county court of Randolph county in the year 1793. This was a road from Beverly to the Carpenter settlement on the Elk river. This road evidently came by way of the Hackers creek settlement, the forts on the West Fork, Bulltown and followed the buffalo trail by way of Salt Lick Bridge, and either up Salt Lick and some of its tributaries heading toward the Elk or by way of O'Briens fork and Granny's creek to the Elk river, and up the Elk to the Carpenter settlement.
THE BUCKHANNON AND LITTLE KANAWHA TURNPIKE.
On March 15, 1849, an act passed by the Virginia Assembly authorizing the opening of books for receiving subscriptions to an amount not exceeding twelve thousand dollars, in shares of twenty-five dollars each, looking to the incorporation of The Buckhannon and Little Kanawha Turnpike Company, who shall construct a turnpike road from Buckhannon, by way of Haymonds Mills, in Braxton county, to some convenient point in said county to intersect the road from Weston to Sutton.
D. S. Haselden, George Bastable, A. R. Ireland, James Mullins and C. G. Miller of Buckhannon; Samuel T. Talbot, David Bennett, Samuel Wilson, Ezra Morgan and A. B. See of French Creek; F. Berry, W. P. Haymond, and C. L. Hurley of Haymonds Mills were appointed to superintend at their re- spective places the reception of the subscription.
The state subscribed three-fifths of the capital stock which was to be paid parapassu as the individual subscriptions were paid. The road was not to be less than fifteen feet wide and construeted on a grade not to exceed four degrees.
The act also provided that three-fourths of the two-fifths had to be sub- scribed by individuals before the company could be formed. This road was built during the 50's.
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THE CLARKSBURG AND BUCKHANNON TURNPIKE.
The act authorizing the formation of ajoint stock company to construct this turnpike road was passed March 8, 1848.
The books were opened at Clarksburg and Buckhannon. The necessary two-fifths of the capital stoek was subseribed by private citizens in these two towns and along the proposed route. The road was built on the same grade and with the same width as all the turnpike roads in the state of Virginia.
STAUNTON AND PARKERSBURG TURNPIKE.
In 18 .... , the Virginia Assembly passed an aet authorizing a committee of citizens of Staunton and Parkersburg, Virginia, the two termini of the pro- speeted road to open up books of subseription to private eitizens. The state promised to subscribe three-fifths of the capital stoek for the construction of this turnpike.
The road was begun and construeted out of Staunton, Virginia, eastward along the most feasible and praetieable route suggested by the board of super- vision eleeted by the stockholders of this turnpike company.
As it proceeded westward, the company deemed it advisable to open its books in order that the citizens of any town or county might be permitted to bid and subscribe its bids in capital stock for the construction of the road through the county and town.
Pursuant to this policy of the company, on November 15, 1840, there was signed on condition that the road pass through both Beverly and Buckhannon, and that the money subscribed be expended in making the road between these two towns. This subscription was an indueement to bring the road to Buck- hannon. It was completed in the year 1847, and previously was constructed from Buekhannon to Weston.
PHILLIPI AND BUCKHANNON TURNPIKE.
The aet opening the subseription books for the formation of the Philippi and Buckhannon Turnpike Company was passed March 7, 1849.
The capital stoek was limited to ten thousand dollars, three-fifths of which was subscribed by the board of publie works of Virginia and two-fifths by the citizens of Philippi and Buckhannon, and other eitizens along the proposed turnpike.
The same aet named Laird D. Morrall, Edwin D. Wilson, Charles S. Hall, Isaae Striekler, Elam D. Talbot of Philippi and D. S. Haselden, Mifflin Lorentz, James Miller, George Bastable and George W. Miller of Buekhannon, a commit- tee to solieit and receive subseriptions from private individuals.
The turnpike was not to be less than fifteen feet wide, and was to be built on a grade not to exceed four degrees. This road was completed in the early 50's.
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POSTAL DEVELOPMENT IN WEST VIRGINIA.
Postal service, established in the colony of Virginia as carly as 1692, was first extended to the trans-Allegheny territory of Western Virginia in 1794 by the creation of post offices at Morgantown and Wheeling.
The first later official reference to improved mail routes in what is now West Virginia occurs in a report on the "finest" route in the country, from New York to Cincinnati. Railroad service extended to Cumberland, Md., thence to Wheeling by four-horse coach daily, at a "running speed" of seven miles an hour. Troubles secmed to center at Wheeling. The Postmaster-Gen- eral complained that "this important mail was always detained at the ferry of the Ohio River some ten or twelve hours," because "the proprietor of the ferry could not be induced to encounter the danger of crossing the mail stages in the night." He regrets that "the General Government, while expending much money in constructing the Cumberland road east and west of the Ohio, omitted to construct a bridge over that stream."
There was a controversy with Virginia as to tolls at the toll-gate east from Wheeling. The General Government had ceded the National road to the states tthrough which it passed, reserving the right to alter the conditions of the cession at will regardless of Congress. The cession appears to have been made in 1832 and in 1836 Virginia receded and proceeded to charge toll. The toll for each mail coach was eighty-eight cents and the contractor refused to pay. Mail from the cast, when stopped, returned to Triadelphia and re- mained there until the Wheeling postmaster supplied the necessary cash. There was much correspondence, but the records fail to disclose how the matter was adjusted.
It may be interesting to note that the "running time" from New York to Wheeling in 1835, was 83 hours; in 1837, 67 hours ; in 1885, 18 hours and 15 minutes, and in 1913, 17 hours and 45 minutes.
The first Post-Office Directory obtainable was included in the report of the Postmaster-General for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1841. At that time there were 206 post-offices within the limits of the present State of West Vir- ginia, embraced in 28 counties, as follows :
Berkeley, 7; Braxton, 4; Brooke, 4; Greenbrier, 10; Hampshire, 16; Hardy, 6; Harrison, 14; Jefferson, 7; Kanawha, 13; Logan, 4; Marshall, 6; Mason, 5; Nicholas, 3; Ohio, 3; Pendleton, 7; Pocahontas, 5; Preston, 5; Randolph, 6; Tyler, 7; Wood, 13.
Hampshire headed the list with 16 officers, while Mercer had but one, Princeton, the county seat. Jefferson paid her post-masters $1,584.96, and af- forded $3,818.49 revenue to the Department. Ohio county came next paying postmasters $2,162.49, leaving but $2,589.30 "net procceds." The salary of the postmaster at Wheeling was $2,000.
The Postal Guide for 1912 reports 2,117 post-offices in the State, two- thirds of which have money-order facilities. About 600 offices have been dis- continued by rural delivery. Post-offices of the first class are Bluefield, Charles-
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ton, Clarksburg, Fairmont, Huntington, Parkersburg and Wheeling. Those of the second elass are Buekhannon, Charles Town, Elkins, Grafton, Hinton, Keyser, Mannington, Martinsburg, Morgantown, Moundsville, New Martins- ville, Piedmont, Richwood, Sistersville, Welch, Wellsburg, Weston and Wil- liamson. There are 76 third-class offiees, in all, 101 Presidential post-offices in the Statc. Postal development during the past fifteen years has been phenom- enal. West Virginia has kept paec with her most progressive sisters and has distaneed many of them in the raee.
RURAL FREE DELIVERY.
To West Virginia belongs the honor of being the State selected for the first experiment in rural free delivery. . The first rural service in the United States was installed at Charles Town, Jefferson County, October 6, 1896. Hon. William L. Wilson was Postmaster-General, the only West Virginian to hold that position. A. W. Machen, the Superintendent of Free Delivery was in- trusted with the task of installing the serviee. The matter had been passed over for two years by Mr. Wilson's predecessor, and it can truthfully be said that he was not favorably inclined, fearing the cost. Supt. Machen detailed his chief clerk and instructed him to proceed to Jefferson county and arrange the serviee, as a compliment to Mr. Wilson. The recommendation was for three routes at Charles Town, one at Halltown, and one at Uvilla. Carrier Gibson, Route No. 1, Charles Town, is still in the service and is Carrier No. 1, United States of America. Salaries of carriers were fixed at $200 the year. Service was crude but highly appreciated by the people.
ROADS.
According to J. H. DisDebar, who visited Clarksburg in 1846, the citizens were "a somewhat exclusive conservative set with all the traditions and social prejudices pertaining to an aneient moss-grown aristocratic town" with pre- tentions "by common consent founded upon antiquity of pedigree and superior culture and manners."
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