USA > West Virginia > Braxton County > History of Braxton County and central West Virginia > Part 23
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The seeds of ginseng remain twelve months in moist earth, then plant in the Fall, and in six months the plants come up, thus making eighteen months the period of germination.
Thomas B. Hughes, a noted minister of the M. E. church, who reeently died, and who was the father of two Methodist Bishops, dug ginseng to sup- port himself in school and to buy books. We should not despise the day of small things.
OLD MILLS.
On Nov. 1, 1836, L. D. Camden and Joseph Skidmore were granted leave to build a mill dam aeross the river at Sutton for a water, grist and saw mill. On the same day, Andrew Sterret was granted leave to build a dam aeross the Elk river one mile above town.
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John Sargeant, millwright of Harrison county, Va., built a saw mill near the mouth of Granny's creek in the year 1825. The mill was lifted up by back water from the Elk river and floated off soon after it was built, except one sill which is lying near the foundation to this day, and is still sound.
John Jackson who built the first mill at Sutton, went back to Buek- hannon and his mill was washed away by a very high rise in the Elk river. It is said that James Skidmore who lived on the Poca below Charleston, cap- tured the mill on the Big Kanawha, and rebuilt it on the Poca.
One of the first grist mills was built in the year 1810, by Colonel John Haymond, the founder of the "Bulltown Salt Works." It was a small round log structure, a tub wheel being the propelling power. The buhrs were gotten out on Millstone run. The bolting was done by hand. This primitive mill continued to do the grinding until 1833 when a much better structure was erected in its stead.
Early in the nineteenth century, Andrew P. Friend built a grist mill at a point on Elk river since known locally as Beall's Mill. This was one among the first, if not the first mill built in the county. Many years before the Civil war there was a mill on Elk, opposite the town of Sutton, known as the Jack- son Mill. This mill was washed away and rebuilt afterward. It occupied the site later occupied by the Huffman Mill. This mill was built at the close of the Civil war by James A. Boggs and Benjamin Huffman. Huffman bought Boggs' interest, and became the sole owner. The mill was then known as the Huffman Mill, and did a large business as a grist and saw mill. It also had a, carding machine attached. The carding machine was operated for many years by David Bosely. The mill's business was conducted by Benjamin Huff- man and his son Granville, and was a great benefit to the public. This mill was torn down about the time the Coal & Coke railroad was built to Sutton, and there is nothing now left to mark the place of this old landmark except the fragment of an old dam.
Some years before the Civil war, Morgan Dyer and Edward Sprigg built a mill about one mile above the county seat. They put in buhrs for grinding wheat and corn, a carding machine and an up-and-down saw. This mill was first known as the Dyer Mill, but afterward as the Sprigg Mill. It was washed away by the great flood of 1861.
For many years Adam Gillespie conducted a mill just below the mouth of Bens run. This mill ground wheat and corn, had an upright saw and a bolt operated by hand. These old up-and-down saws were used principally for cutting boat patterns. This mill was afterward operated by his son Griffin Gillespie and finally went to decay.
The mill sites of the Sprigg and Gillespie Mills were said to be equal to any, if not the best, on the Elk river.
About 1830, Asa Squires, Wm. MeCoy, Samuel Skidmore and others built the Union Mill on the Elk river some distance below the mouth of Laurel creek. This was at the head of the flatboat navigation, and did considerable business
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in cutting lumber for flatboats. Union Mill was so named for the reason that different interests were coneerned.
HIaymond's Mill, seventeen miles northeast of Sutton on the Little Ka- nawha river, was built by John Haymond in the year 1808, and was for many years owned by William Haymond who was one of the county's best known citizens. This mill was equipped with buhrs, carding machine and saw. It was run by an overshot wheel, and was considered a very valuable prop- erty. It did more business than any other mill in the county. This property has fallen into different hands since the death of Mr. Haymond. Mr. Milton Johnson from Preston county, came into possession of the mill and put in a roller process, but the mill has since gone down and there is now nothing of value left except the water power.
About four miles above Burnsville, on the Little Kanawha river, there was an old mill which stood for many years, and which was built and owned by Williams Cutlip. The mill has since practically fallen into disuse as all the water mills have served their usefulness. and have been replaced by steam, the roller process and the circular saw. As the people now almost universally buy their clothing ready made, the carding machine is almost a thing of the past:
About the year 18 .... Dr. Samuel Cutlip built a grist and saw mill at the Three Forks of Cedar. This mill stood for many years, and did a considerable amount of business.
About 1825, James Frame built a grist and saw mill fourteen miles below Sutton. This mill did business for a great many years, and was known as the Frame Mill. and the place more recently is known as Frametown.
An old mill which stood at the mouth of Duek creek before the Civil war, built by. was after the war rebuilt by Elliott Mollohan.
The old Boggs Mill, ten miles below Sutton, was built by James Boggs, and operated for several years before the Civil war. At a later date, it was owned and operated by Felix Skidmore.
Samuel Fox owned and operated a mill at the mouth of the Birch on the Elk river.
One among the early mills of the county was owned by Robert Jackson, and was operated by him for more than a half century. This mill was lo- cated on the Little Birch river about two miles below where the turnpike crosses that stream. At this ford, David Jackson owns a grist mill which he has operated for many years.
Wellington L. Frame owns and operates a small grist mill on Buffalo creek, and is using the corn stones used in the old Jaekson mill at Sutton. These stones have been in almost constant use for nearly a century of years.
All the mills on the larger streams of the county have been washed away, and there is nothing left to attraet the passer-by except the indieations of where the dam stood.
Roller mills have taken the place of the old-time water mill. There are
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two roller process mills in Sutton, one in Burnsville, one in Flatwoods and one in Gassaway, each of which is doing a large business. They not only manufac- ture the home grown wheat into flour, but import great quantities of grain into the county, principally to supply the lumber camps.
GREAT FLOODS.
About the year 1825, there came a very great flood in the Elk river. It was known as the Moss flood. A man named Moss lost a great deal of lumber, in the tide, and his creditors lost also. Thomas Green and some other man went on a boat to secure it more firmly to the shore, and while they were on the boat the cable broke, the boat swung out into the middle of the river and took its flight with the surging waters. They had no oars or sweeps, therefore no possible means of escape. The tide was furious and rapid. They started somewhere near the town of Sutton in the forenoon, and landed in Charles- ton before night the same day, where they were rescued on the Great Kanawha. The flood being in the Elk, and the Kanawha being in a common stage, the Elk plowed across the Kanawha, and dashed its waters against the opposite shore. The Moss tide was the greatest up to that time known to the inhabi- tants, and has been exceeded in volume only by the great flood of 1861. It required about five days to push a load of goods from Charleston to Sutton in
a canoe. Two thousand pounds made a good load for two hands. So inured to hardships were the lumbermen of the Elk that they would sometimes push up the river when the ice would freeze to their push poles. They had to un- load their goods at each mill in order to get across the dam.
One of the greatest floods in the Elk river, prior to the flood of 1861, was the Moss tide which is mentioned in another place. The next great rise in this river since the '61 flood, occurred in the year of the "three eights." The water at that time touched the bottom of the wire suspension bridge at Sutton, while the big flood of 1861 ran over the hand railing of the bridge. The water ran down Main street, and was belly-deep to a horse at the head of town. It rose to the top of the front door in the Camden tavern which stood on the corner of Main and Bridge streets. This was the most remarkable flood that had ever been in the Elk river within the history of man. It occurred in April, 1861. The rain had poured down in torrents for several days, and the smaller streams were all out of their banks. The Elk washed away mills, houses, stables, flatboats and fencing, and the driftwood that was carried down stream was an immense quantity.
Andrew P. Friend and his aged wife lived in a small house near the Otter salt works. The tide caught them, and they had to be taken out through the top of the house in a skiff. We remember seeing as late as 1884, a flatboat on the bank of the river in Kanawha county which had been thrown out on the shore and lodged. Some family had made it the foundation of a dwelling house, and were occupying it at that time.
A great deal has been said and written with reference to floods in the great streams of the country. Every now and then, we read an article from
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some alarmist with reference to the best plans to adopt to hold back floods. Some advise the building of great reservoirs to hold the water in check. Others advise that great areas of land should be re-forested at the head of the large water courses, and that in addition, we could have great game reserves, etc., etc.
After some years of investigation, and viewing the matter from a different point of view, we conclude that the opposite of the common theory advanced is correct. In the first place, it is claimed that the forest is an aid in producing rainfall. If this be true, and there is reason to believe that it is, there will be more water to be disposed of by flowing away in a regular channel which would add to the volume of the flood. Again, every one who is at all familiar with the forest knows that the leaves lay flat like shingles on the roof, and that the rain glides off more rapidly than it would over sod or plowed lands. We have often observed with what difficulty a sheet of water after a hard rain would pereolate through a sod field or meadow. The grass holds it back to a far greater extent than forest leaves. Then between the periods of rainfall, the sun and air dry the surface and this native reservoir has to be supplied by the next shower, while in the forest the dampness keeps the natural reservoir full, there being but slight absorption, and every shower flows rapidly into the stream and augments the great floods.
The streams, big and little, in central West Virginia, and we presume it is true elsewhere, rise more slowly after rains than they did thirty or forty years ago, for since that time the forests of those sections have been removed, and a greater portion of the improvement of the lands have been made. Far better for the safety of the inhabitants of the lower valleys if every acre of the forest lands was in sod or plowed fields. The sun and air would absorb a very great portion of the rainfall. The great reservoirs that have been advo- cated by some as a means of holding the waters in check are no more praeti- cable, in our opinion, than it would be to build great sheds to stop the storms that occasionally sweep across the country, or the Chinese wall which marks the folly of an ancient people.
Forty years ago, or before the greater portion of the lands on Granny's ereek, and its tributaries and adjoining streams were cleared, it was common to have floods after every dashing rain. The rain would soon fill the channel and overflow the banks, but since the lands have been eleared the streams rise more gradually, and the height of the tides comes from two to three hours later after the rainfall. The same principal holds good along the larger streams. If the grass and weeds will hold the showers in check, as they fall, and retard their flow in the smaller streams, the branches of the timber growing along the banks of the streams will retard the rapid flow of the water along the greater water courses, and in this way lessen the destructive tendencies of these rivers.
Horaee Greeley, in speaking of the obstinacy of water, said that often at the head of a small stream or overflow, you might change its course by holding a hand aeross its channel. So we conclude that it is not the forests, neither is it great reservoirs, that bring safety to the inhabitants from floods, but it is the tiny blade of grass, the porous condition of the surface. the air that sweeps
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over the smooth, open lands, and the gentle but all-powerful rays of the sun that raise the surplus rainfall from the earth by evaporation, and holds the waters and the floods in check.
The flood of 1917 which occurred on March 12, exceeded that of 1896 by one foot, and lacked eight feet of being as high as the spring flood of 1861.
The flood of 1917 wasted much faster than the flood of 1861 which seemed to carry its full volume of water to its mouth whilst that of 1917 was greatly reduced in volume before it reached Clay. Some of the upper tributaries of the Elk were about as high as they were ever known, indicating the fact that the heaviest rains must have been nearer its source.
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CHAPTER IX.
Prominent Men of Central West Virginia; Men of Great Strength; Church Organizations and a History of Each Church.
PROMINENT MEN.
A few of the more prominent citizens of central West Virginia prior to the Civil war, as we recall them :
Allen G. Caperton of Monroe county, a self-made man, practiced law in Nicholas, Braxton and adjoining counties. He was a U. S. Senator from this state in the seventies.
Samuel Price who practiced law in Braxton, was a man who, like the great majority of the men of prominence in West Virginia, rose from a condi- tion of poverty to positions of honor and responsibility. Mr. Price was one of the able men of this state. He was a native of Greenbrier county, and grew up contemporary with Moses Tichonal who was a native of Preston county and became a minister of much prominence in the M. E. Church. By his own efforts and close study, he became a Greek and Latin scholar. He was a man of great eloquence and power in the church. Like Lincoln, he was a rail splitter in his youth. He split on a wager, 1600 rails in one day. The timber was chestnut, and it had been cut and hauled out in the cleared land. Price and Tichonal both pursued their studies by the light of the pine knot. Price said that he intended to make as good a lawyer as Tichonal was a preacher, and both succeeded to a marked degree of learning and prominence in their chosen professions.
Jonathan M. Bennett of Lewis county was a man of superior native abil- ity. He held several positions of honor and trust.
Judge Nathan Goff, G. W. Atkinson, Senator John E. Kenna, Senator Chilton.
Samuel Hays of Gilmer county represented his district in Congress. He had but slight early advantages-little save his native ability.
Mathew Edmonson of Lewis county was an able lawyer, also Judge Homer A. Holt, Henry Brannon, John J. Davis, Jackson Arnold, John Brannon and Colonel Withers, author of "Border Warfare."
Michael Stump and Conrad Currence of Gilmer county were prominent men. Governor Johnson of Harrison county.
Judge Gideon Camden, B. W. Byrne, Johnson N. Camden, Joseph A. Alder- son and many others were as able in statesmenship and learning at the bar or in the pulpit as the men of the present day.
Among noted ministers from this section of the state were Peter T.
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Lashley, Asbury Mick, Prof. R. A. Arthur, Daniel H. Davis, Rev. Richmond, T. S. Wade, John and Alpheus Reger, Rev. Dr. John S. Stump, Levi J. Huffman, C. Warman, M. L. Barnett, and many others faithful and true that space forbids us naming.
A STORY OF PERSONAL STRENGTH.
The settlers, brought together and held by the paramount feeling of mutual protection against savage. forays for so many years, and inured to hardships indescribable, were very remarkable in their endurance and strength. The fireside conversations of the early, bold and hardy inhabitants consisted mainly in relating each to the other and to the members of their respective families their trips of bold adventure, successes or failures of hunting expedi- tions and personal feats of strength and endurance. Numerous were the in- stances, when a band of hunters would return from the chase with a deer, a piece on their strong backs held in position by the hands grasping either leg of the game. One man alone is said to have killed a deer for every day in the month of January of which record he was justly proud, and gave him good reasons to boast of his hunting ability. But the most remarkable authentic story of personal strength we have from tradition is this: Philip Reger, who had done some very valuable scouting work for the settlement, and his com- panion, Samuel Jackson, on an occasion after the year 1795, went out to Big Skin creek for the twofold purpose of ascertaining the possibility of savage presence and incidentally killing what game might cross their path. Hidden in the thick underbrush on these waters to evade observation, Reger was bitten by a rattlesnake which is very venomous; these dangerous serpents were very numerous among the rocks and thickets of this woody country. Soon after the fangs of the poisonous reptile had entered Reger's flesh he became blind, and fearing that exertion on his part would cause a dangerous state of heat to his body and facilitate the fatal spreading of the poison, the two scouts were in a dilema how the snake-bitten man should get back to the fort. Jackson was an exceedingly bold, strong man. knowing no limitations of his endurance and power, and he proposed to take no chances and carried Reger to the fort. On the back of this strong man, Reger with their two guns, and the snake which had thrown its deadly fangs into him, rode triumphant for eight miles into the fort. Arriving at the fort and pursuing the superstitious remedy known to them for snake bite, the reptile was cut open and the raw flesh was applied to the poisonous wound. The remedy failed. Reger says, "I threw it away. It was so cold it seemed painful." Another and better cure of re- moving poison was adopted. But history can furnish fewer instances of greater strength and endurance than that of Jackson on this occasion.
John Short was a soldier in the Confederate army. His parents lived for several years in Braxton county. He was a man of very remarkable strength. His weight was nearly three hundred pounds, and it was said that he could lift the end of an eighty foot boat gunwhale off the ground, a feat which perhaps four ordinary men could not perforni.
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James Wyatt and his brother William were great rail-makers. James eut his timber on one oceasion, it being white oak, and made one thousand rails in four days. He also made his maul and wedges. This was a feat in rail-making seldom, if ever, equaled. It was before the cross-cut saw was used for cutting rail timber.
Wm. Stout, who was a fine mower with a scythe, at one time, in one day, on a wager, mowed four acres of grass. He fixed up two first-class scythes and placed a grind stone in the field, hiring two men to grind and whet his blades. In this way he had nothing to do but to swing the sharp, keen scythes. Being a very strong man and an expert mower, he won the wager.
John G. Morrison, when a young man, cradled seven acres of oats in one day. That was a feat in cradling grain that required a man of splendid nerve and endurance to accomplish.
About the year 1880, we were harvesting a crop of wheat in the field ad- joining John G. Young's farm and opposite his house. David Minis, a colored man, was binding. There was to be a circus in Sutton on the 4th of July, and on the morning of the 3rd the temperature fell and it remained very pleasant all day. Minis wanted to go to the show, and we wanted to finish cutting wheat that day, so we agreed to finish the field. We had a splendid cradle made by Philip Rogers, which we called "Yellow Bets." We cradled and gripped the grain and Minis bound. At intervals we would stop and shoek up, and when we finished in the evening we had eut, bound and shocked one hundred and three dozen. We both enjoyed the circus on the following day.
William Fisher cleared a hundred aeres of land one season.
John Stout, his son Michael, Daniel J., and Wm. Stout, had the contract, and on an average they grubbed an acre a day.
James McCray was a great worker, and cleared land, doing a great deal of work in the Flatwoods country.
In an early day there were some remarkably strong men in Braxton eounty and central West Virginia. We recall the names of Andrew Boggs, William Gillespie, James Carr, William Delany and others. These men were very large, weighing considerably over two hundred pounds, museular and hardened by toil.
It was related that William Gillespie had a cow to fall in a well, and he went down, tied a rope around her body, stood at the top of the well and pulled the cow out. Gillespie would lift the end of a boat gunwale to his knees, this ordinarily requiring four men to raise it off the ground.
Martin Delany fought a black bear in Charleston on a wager. When they came together, Delany struck the bear in the side just behind the shoulders and killed it with one blow. An Englishman from Richmond, Virginia, hear.
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ing of Delany's great strength, rode horseback the entire distance from Rieh- mond to Delany's home in Greebrier county, found Delany in the field and challenged him for battle. Without mueh ceremony, the challenge was ac- cepted, and the battle of the giants began. Delany was the vietor. After he had given his antagonist a good thrashing, he threw him over the fence into the road. The defeated pugilist said if he had his horse, he would return. At this, Delany took the horse and threw it over the fence also. The English- man returned a sadder but a wiser man. It was said that Martin Delany's ribs had no parting. They were a solid sheet. He died and was buried near the mouth of the Big Birch river.
Andrew Boggs was a gunsmith and made prize guns for expert marks- men. In comparing his great strength with that of ordinary men, it is said that he would place a handspike under a log and let a good strong man take one end of the spike and he the other. When the load would become too heavy for the other fellow, he would put his arm around the log and pull it over on his hip and carry it along with ease. It is related that he at one time went into a den of bears on the Little Kanawha river, after stationing some men at the mouth of the den. He chased the bears out, and at the sight of the bears the men lost their nerve and ran. Boggs came out greatly infuriated at the loss of the game, and threatened dire punishment for what he considered rank cowardice.
jacob Stump, one of the old citizens of Giliner county, whose weight was never over one hundred fifty-five pounds, went deer hunting, accompanied by his wife who was a large strong woman. He sneceeded in killing two yearling deer. He tied their feet together as was the custom, and slung them across his shoulder. On their return they found Steer creek considerably swollen, and as it was some distance across the stream the old hunter, with his two deer across his back, took his wife in his arms and with rifle in hand, landed that most precious cargo safely on the home shore. Mr. Stump raised ten children whose aggregate weight was over two thousand pounds. Some of his sons possessed remarkable strength. Melvin, whose weight at birth was three pounds, grew to be a man weighing two hundred twenty-four pounds. He was so fleet that he eould outrun an ordinary horse for a hundred yards or more. Lemuel, another son, whose weight was two hundred forty pounds, nearly a hundred pounds heavier than his father, shouldered at the mouth of a threshing machine six bushels of wheat and carried it for a distance of one hundred and fifty yards. One of Mr. Stump's daughters married Rev. Daniel Huffman. On one occasion she requested him to butcher a hog. Upon his failure to do so, she waited until he retired then proceeded to kill the hog herself. She dressed it up and when Mr. Huffman arose the next morning and went out in the yard, he found his hog hanging up neatly dressed and ready to be salted down. The hog netted about two hundred pounds.
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