USA > West Virginia > Braxton County > History of Braxton County and central West Virginia > Part 30
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About the year 1853, a stone cutter named John Spinks, from Nicholas
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county, came to Braxton and made the first tombstones that were put up in the county as far as we have any knowledge. He used a flat rock gotten out on the land of Craven Berry on Berry fork of Salt Lick creek. The same stone was sometimes used for grindstones. Mr. Spinks did very good work. His lettering was very plain. He had a uniform price of ten dollars. After a period of sixty years or more, these stones show but little sign of disintergration. About this time, a Mr. McCoy, from the same county, passed through the country making and hanging gates. This work he did by hand. He went to the woods and split his lumber and posts out of white oak. He dressed his materials with an axe and drawing knife. The gate was mortised together, and the posts were hewn out about ten inches square, made very high and a fancy notch cut at the top. These gates were very strong and lasted for a great many years. His price was three dollars a gate.
Lewis Knight made and erected draw bars. He mortised his posts, mak- ing posts and bars out of white oak. The posts were made high with tenant's initial cut at the top, then a piece of mortised timber went across to hold the posts in position. Each bar rail was numbered and placed so far apart and the letters L. K. cut on each post.
After the Revolutionary war, it is said, there was a test made in Paris, France, of close-shooting guns, and the American squirrel rifle, which shot & patched ball, was declared to be the most accurate shooting gun in the world. In Braxton county, there were some very fine gunsmiths. We remember An- drew Boggs, Israel A. Friend, Wesley Frame and others who made a great many rifles. They were fine marksmen and would test the guns of their own make and those which they would repair for others. We have known marks- men who could bring squirrels from the tallest forest trees, shooting off-hand. On one occasion James Sutton's boys were squirrel hunting and Sylvester wagered with the other boys that he could cut the hair on a squirrel's head which they had treed without killing the squirrel. When he fired the squirrel seemed greatly frightened. He then reloaded his rifle and killed the squirrel, and on examination they found that the first ball had grazed the hide on the squirrel's head. Sylvester won the wager. It was very common to have beef and turkey matches. In a beef match there were six chances-first and second, hind quarter; third and fourth, fore quarter; fifth, hide and tallow; sixth, the lead. The lead was saved by placing the mark in front of a block of wood or tree, and the person winning the last chance had the privilege of cutting the lead out. It often required a close shot to get even the lead, and nothing but a shot driving a plumb center would scarcely ever get a quarter of beef or a live turkey. The rule was to shoot one hundred yards with a rest, or sixty yards off-hand.
Sennett Triplett was one of the earliest settlers of the Elk River Valley. He lived in Braxton (now Clay) county. Triplett was a man of fine intellect, well educated and was far above the average citizen in intelligence. He was
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very plain in his manners and dress. He was fond of hunting and kept a pack of well-trained dogs. Triplett was a surveyor, and was summoned to attend court in Nicholas county in a land suit of considerable importance. When he presented himself in open court he was accompanied by his gun and dogs, and was dressed in buckskin. He wore moccasins and coonskin cap with the tail hanging down his back. He had on the rudest kind of hunting shirt, girded - around his loins with a piece of leatherwood bark, and it is said that when he walked into the courthouse, followed by his dogs and set his gun down in one corner of the room and hung the shotpouch on the muzzle of the gun, the dogs all lay down by the gun. The people were amused and somewhat surprised to see such an outfit. The lawyers thought that the man was demented and consequently not qualified to give testimony, and the side against whom Trip- lett was to give evidence objected. The court said they could question the witness as to his sanity, and the lawyer thereupon asked him who made him. Triplett replied, "I reckon Moses did." Triplett then said to the lawyer, "Who made you?" The lawyer said, "I suppose Aaron did." Triplett, being well versed in Scripture, said, "I have read in the Bible where Aaron made a calf, but I didn't know that the darned thing was bleating around yet." Triplett gave testimony.
When the old Superior Courts were held in the district, a majority of the lawyers of the circuit usually gathered at the county seat where the courts were to be held. It sometimes happened then, as it does now, that strangers coming to a town were exceptionally smart and tried to display it at the ex- pense of others. It happened on one occasion that a citizen of Braxton attended a court held in a neighboring county where there were some young lawyers at- tending court. When they noticed a quiet man sitting in the room where they were, plainly dressed in home-made clothing, they thought to have a little fun by asking him some foolish questions. He answered them in a quiet way. When they had finished he started a conversation with them on a different subject He took an invoice of their general information. He lead them back to Greece and Rome, and inquired about the rulers and conquerors of these ancient coun- tries. Then he asked them about certain fundamental principles of law, Eng- lish jurisprudence and so forth. When he had explained to them things that they did not know and asked them about things that they should have known, they keenly felt their humiliation, and when they had opportunity they in- quired who the gentleman was to whom they had been talking. They were told that he was one of the greatest historians of Virginia, a man of superior learn- ing and exalted character.
It is related that Cato, a colored man, who belonged to John D. Sutton, brought with him when he came to this country, a little poke of apple seeds, which he planted near the mouth of Granny's creek, about where the B. & O. depot now stands. From this little nursery were started the first orchards in this section of the country. Cato's wife's name was Milly. They lived in a cabin near the mouth of Granny's creek. They had been given their freedom.
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They were honest and industrious and lived to a good old age. How thoughtful in this old colored man to plant in a wilderness the seeds that produce, from generation to generation, the most delicious fruit. and thus perpetuate the names of Cato and Milly. Mrs. Naomi S. Young, a now aged lady, has in her possession the old broadhoe with which Cato and Milly cultivated their truck patch and little nursery, and also a wooden box in which they kept their little valuables. Mrs. Young calls it the "Milly box."
Some historians claim that Logan and Tecumseh were born in the Hackers Creek valley. Hackers creek is a stream of considerable size traversing a rich and beautiful valley, and empties into the West Fork river near where the his- toric Jackson mills are located. If the great strategist Stonewall Jackson was born and grew to manhood near these waters, and if the historian be correct that this seetion sent forth from savagery to the battlefield such splendid warriors as Logan, the white man's friend, and Tecumseh, a born leader of men, surely no other spot, embracing but a few miles of territory, can claim such distinction of honor as the birthplace of these renowned warriors.
MINNIE BALL FOUND IN THE HEART OF A DEER.
Shortly after the close of the Civil war, Arch Hickman, Fielding McClung, Colonel Ruffner, of Charleston, Homer A. Holt, John G. Morrison and John Shawver went deer chasing on Rays Knob of Little Beaver, in Nicholas county. Judge Holt had no gun but was armed with a Colt's revolver. The parties stationed themselves at the different points at which the game might pass. It was not long after the dogs were started in the chase, until a large buck came by Judge Holt's stand. He commenced shooting and the last shot from his revolver struck the butt of one of the deer's horns and knocked it down. The deer sprang up and before it got out of gunshot range Fielding MeClung killed it. In dressing the deer, which seemed to be a very old one, they discovered an old scar in its side. When they opened the deer Colonl Ruffner discovered a wound in the point of its heart, and lving there encased in the interlining was a minnie ball. The ball was not battered, and evidently had been a spent ball. It was said that Judge Holt was so animated over the chase and over his success in pistol shooting that he wanted to further continue the chase.
Charles Perkins had a little saw mill about two miles above what is called the Gulf on the Elk, and something like ten miles above the old Union mill property. Mr. Perkins built a flat boat and loaded it with walnut lumber, and when the tide came, he "cut it loose," in the parlance of the lumbermen. Acting as steersman, and with his bowhands, he dashed down the turbulent, swollen Elk. He was twelve miles above the navigable waters, and as he ap- proached the head of the island, he tried to hold his boat to the right, but the heavy current drew him to the left, amid the swirls and rocks. Seeing his condition, and being powerless to control his craft, as well as frightened, the dauntless Charles and his crew leaped into the water and swam to shore, while
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his boat with its valuable eargo of black walnut himber dashed amid the swirls and played upon the seething, maddened waves, coming out below the Gulf unharmed, only to dash on without a steerman to direct its course, and at last plunged against an island below which rendered it but a broken mass. Some of the heavy boat lumber was used by Isaac Skidmore in building a stable.
HOOP SKIRTS.
About the year 1868 or 1870, hoop skirts went out of style, same having been fashionable sometime in the 50's. This style became very popular and was universally adopted by all classes. No lady would think of being presentably dressed without a hoop skirt. They were said to be cool and pleasant, and caused a wonderful inflation of the lower garments. They were made of the best of spring steel and very light. They enlarged from the waist to the bottom of the skirt. The hoops were placed a few inches apart, and were held in place by a network that was strong and durable. Each steel hoop was covered with cloth; the usual price of a good elass of hoops being about $3.00. They were sometimes inconvenient in time of wind storms, and would occasionally envelope the entire upper part of the body. The fashion was very popular as well as stylish and beeoming.
Milton Humphrey relates that as the Confederates were making a retreat through Gauly county, he planted a battery on a hill near a farm house, and that an old man, a little girl and three young ladies came out. At the same time, the Federals were planting a battery on another hill. Humphrey told the old man that they ought to get out of the way as they were going to be fired on. The old man said he reekoned not, and just then a shell burst im- mediately over them, and the little girl began to scream. The old man picked her up and ran to the house, but Humphrey noticed as he picked the child up that her white garments began to stain with blood. The three young ladies dressed in hoop skirts ran to reach the house, and became lodged in the doorway.
Before the Civil war, it was very common for the men to comb their hair forward, parting it behind, wearing a roach in front, wearing the hair long, except the roach which was combed back or made to stand up. Following that style, the hair was still worn long and combed back so as to lay back of the ears, leaving bare the temples. It was much easier thus to keep the hair in po- sition. As you would go forward or face the wind, it naturally fell back. The present style is to part the hair on one side of the forehead, eombing it over to one side, and it is also worn much shorter. A few young men part their hair in the middle; this style is neither fashionable nor becoming, but may be useful in keeping the head balanced.
A SMALL, CHILD.
The smallest ehild born in the state, of which we have any knowledge, was Ruth Avilla Given, daughter of E. S. Given, of Cedar Creek, Braxton eounty.
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Ruth weighed at her birth a little less than two pounds, and at four months her weight had inereased to six pounds. At five months she had gained in weight until she tipped the scales at seven pounds. Her mother died when she was three weeks old and she is being raised on Pratt's food and is being eared for by her aunt and sister, who say that when Ruth was born an ordinary teaeup would eover her head and neek to her shoulders. When we held this little one on our lap she looked up with an intelligent and inquiring gaze, as mueh as to say, "Am I to be the subject of a historical sketeh?" We thought what a frail human bark that the mildest tempest might destroy. How insig- nifieant and helpless to enter the battle of life when the seas are lashing the shores with maddened fury and the strong are striving for the mastery.
SMALL PEOPLE.
Ezra S. Rexroad, son of William and Sarah J. Curry Rexroad, is per- haps the smallest man that West Virginia has ever produeed. Ezra was born in time of the Civil war, and is now fifty-three years of age. His greatest weight has never exeeeded sixty-five pounds, and sixty pounds is his usual weight. He married Elizabeth MeCray who tips the seales at one hundred thirty pounds, or a little more than double the weight of her husband. They own a good farm on Fall run of the Little Kanawha. Mr. Rexroad is an expert teamster, and follows teaming and farming. They have no ehildren.
A PROGRESSIVE FAMILY.
Wm. M. Campbell who married a Miss Lockard, beats the record. Just nine months to a day after the birth of one of her children, she gave birth to a set of twins.
An Englishman, traveling in Virginia in its early settlement, said that so rieh and virgin the soil, so eharming the atmosphere, so majestie the moun- tains and lofty the forests, that every hut in America was as full of the native offspring as the birds' nests in the forests were of young birds ..
Whilst the forests and the cabins are gone, we still have the mountains and the atmosphere, and what was true of the eabin is true of the more modern dwelling.
EARLY AND LATE MARRIAGES.
Henry Rittenhouse of Lewis eounty in his eighty-second year married for his seeond wife a Miss Wilfong of Braxton eounty. She was about thirty years of age. There were two children born to this union who are now about grown. Mr. Rittenhouse died in his eighty-eighth year after a long and busy life, leav- ing a valuable estate to be divided among his ehildren.
Abram Reager of Upshur eounty in his eighty-first year married the wid- ow Hall.
The widow Burk married for hier third husband a man named Mesenger. She was eighty-one or two years of age.
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Mary Beamer married her second husband in her seventy-third year.
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Thomas Colter, a minister of the M. P. church, and for many years a won- derful pedestrian, walked from his home on Ben's run to Riehwood, a distance of forty miles in one day, carrying forty pounds of books, and at another time, he carried a bushel of seed-eorn from beyond Gauley river to his home in this county, an equal distance.
SLAVE-HOLDERS.
There were but few colored people in this eounty at any time prior to the emancipation. The following list will show the names of those who owned slaves :
Asa Squires, John D. Sutton, Jackson Singleton, Dr. John L. Rhea, Wm. Bell, C. E. Singleton, James M. Corley, William Hutchison, Elijah Squires, Ad- dison Mclaughlin, John P. Byrne, Phillip Duffy, William Morrison, John S. Camden, William Fisher, P. B. Adams, Samnel Skidmore, William Haymond, John C. Taylor, John W. White, Benjamin Conrad, Daniel Conrad, John Con- rad, Peter Conrad, B. F. Fisher and Uriah Duffield. William Morrison and Elijah Squires liberated their slaves.
Braxton county has had but few colored people within its borders. Wil- liam Bell brought a family of slaves to Braxton when he settled here. This family has been noted for their honesty, piety and industry. They have main- tained to this day a reputation that commands respect among all classes. Mo- man Rhea, one of the progressive farmers of the county, has accummulated con- siderable property, and is noted for his acts of kindness. He is one of the very few remaining persons of the county who was brought up in bondage.
DANIEL BOONE.
Daniel Boone, son of Squire Boone and grandson of George Boone, eame from England in 1717, and settled near Philadelphia. He was a Quaker and sought the colony established by William Penn. Squire Boone settled near Reading, Pa., and here in a log cabin, Daniel was born, Nov. 2, 1734, and it is said that at the age of twelve, Daniel was the owner of a gun and was a marks- man of great skill, and when he was about fifteen years of age, his parents re- moved to Linville creek near Harrisonburg, Va. It is said that settlers from Pennsylvania were buying choice lands in that neighborhood at ten cents an acre. At or about this time, John Lincoln, grandfather of the President, was living there. The Boones went to North Carolina in 1757, and before Daniel Boone was twenty years old he beeame a soldier and in 1754 marched to Win- ehester, Va. He was a teamster and blacksmith in the Braddock expedition, and eseaped the disaster there, by mounting a horse.
He was married in 1756 to a Miss Bryant with whom he lived for 57 years. About 1769, Boone, with some other companions, went to the wilds of Kell-
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tucky to hunt game. In 1774, Boone was commissioned a captain of militia by Governer Dunsmore at the head of a band of settlers.
Boone established on the 6th of April, 1775, the settlement of Boonesbor- ough. In 1777, he was a Justice of the Peace, and in 1780, he was 'Colonel of Militia. He was three times a member of the Virginia Legislature.
During 14 years, Boone was a resident of West Virginia. He lived in Kanawha County, and was in 1789, Lieutenant Colonel of Militia, and repre- sented Kanawha in the Virginia Legislature, and was Deputy Surveyor. He went to Missouri, and when past eighty years of age, he visited the prairies of Kansas and Nebraska, roaming night to the foot of the Rockies.
His last days were serene, and he was taken care of by his grandchildren. He died September 26, 1820, without illness, at the age of about 86. At that time Missouri was about to become a state, and the Constitutional Convention was sitting, and as a mark of respect, adjourned for one day.
Daniel Boone was the father of five sons and four daughters. Two of his sons were killed by the Indians.
THE LINCOLNS OF ROCKINGHAM.
Rebecca Lincoln, who married Matthew Dyer, was related to the war president. The family is of New England origin, and its pioncer settlement in Rockingham was on Linville Creek. In 1785, there is mention of John, a deputy surveyor, and of Jacob, a constable and deputy sheriff. In 1782, a Thomas Lincoln was married to Elizabeth Kessner. The father of the president, was also Thomas, and he was born in Rockingham. In 1781 he went with his father, Abraham, to Kentucky, where the parent was killed from ambush by an Indian in 1786, the Indian being promptly shot dead from the cabin window by a son about twelve years old. He was perhaps the same Abraham who is mentioned in the Rockingham records about 1780.
In 1903, Mrs. Mary Elizabeth Lincoln Pennypacker told that some time prior to the Revolution, John Lincoln came from Pennsylvania and bought land on Linville creek. The place is a short distance below Wenger's Mill. The house now occupied by Mr. S. M. Bowman ,built about 1800 by Captain Jacob Lincoln (1751-1822), is at or near the original Lincoln homestead. The old Lincoln graveyard is nearby on the hill.
John Lincoln had five sons, Abraham, John, Jacob, Thomas and Isaac. Jacob (Captain Jacob), grandfather of Mrs. Pennypacker, was the only one of the five to remain in Virginia. Abraham, with his little son Thomas, aged about four, went in 1781 or 1782 to Kentucky. Abraham Lincoln, later Presi- dent, was born in Kentucky, February 12, 1809, when Thomas was about thirty- one years of age. The family of Boones of which Daniel was a boy about fifteen years of age, William Bryan who married a Boonc, Henry Miller who was a cousin to Boone and a hunter and trapper, a family or more of the Friends and others, settled on Linville creek.
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THÉ COURTSHIP OF GEORGE WASHINGTON.
Beautifully situated on the banks of the Pamunkey, is the mansion known as "The White House." It stands on the site of the one in which Washington was married. From Custis' Life of Mrs. Martha Washington, we extract the account of his courtship and marriage:
It was in 1758 that Washington, attired in a military uniform dress, and attended by a body servant, tall and militaire as his chief, crossed the ferry called William's, over the Pamunkey, a branch of the York River. On the boat touching the southern or New Kent side, the soldier's progress was ar- rested by one of those personages who give the beau ideal of the Virginia gen- tleman of the old regime, the very soul of kindness and hospitality. It was in vain the soldier urged his business at Williamsburg, important communications to the governor, etc. Mr. Chamberlayne, on whose domain the militaire had just landed, would hear of no excuse. Colonel Washington was a name and character so dear to all Virginians, that his passing by one of the castles of Virginia, without calling and partaking of the hospitalities of the host, was entirely out of the question. The colonel, however, did not surrender at dis- cretion, but stoutly maintained his ground till Chamberlayne, bringing up his reserve, in the intimation that he would introduce his friend to a young and charming widow, then beneath his roof, the soldier capitulated, on condition that he should dine-only dine-and then, by pressing his charger and borrowing of the night, he would reach Williamsburg before his excellency could shake off his morning slumbers. Orders were accordingly issued to Bishop, the colo- enl's body servant and faithful follower, who, together with the fine English charger, had been bequeathed by the dying Braddock to Major Washington, on the famed and fated field of Monongahela. Bishop, bred in the school of European discipline, raised his hand to his cap, as much as to say, "Your or- ders shall be obeyed."
The colonel now proceeded to the mansion, and was introduced to various guests, (for when was a Virginia domicil of the olden time without guests?) and, above all, to the charming widow. Tradition relates that, they were mu- tually pleased, on this, their first interview-nor is it remarkable; they were of an age when impressions are strongest. The lady was fair to behold, of fas- cinating manners, and splendidly endowed with worldly benefits. The hero was fresh from his early fields, redolent of fame, and with a form on which "every god did seem to set his seal, to give the world assurance of a man."
The morning passed pleasantly away, evening came, with Bishop, true to his orders and firm at his post, holding the favorite charger with one hand, while the other was waiting to offer the ready stirrup. The sun sunk in the horizon, and yet the colonel appeared not. " 'Twas strange, 'twas passing strange;" surely he was not wont to be a single moment behind his appoint- ments-for he was the most punctual of all men.
Meantime, the host enjoyed the scene of the veteran at the gate, while the colonel was so agrecably employed in the parlor; and proclaiming that no visi-
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tor ever left his home at sunset, his military guest was, without much difficulty, persuaded to order Bishop to put up the horses for the night. The sun rode high in the heavens the ensuing day, when the cnamored soldier pressed with his spur his charger's side, and speeded on his way to the seat of government, where, having dispatched his public business, he retraced his steps, and, at the White House, the engagement took place, with preparations for marriage.
And much hath the biographer heard of that marriage, from the gray- haired domestics who waited at the board where love made the feast and Wash- ington the guest. And rare and high was the revelry at that palmy period of Virginia's festal age; for many were gathered to that marriage, of the good, the great, the gifted, and they, with joyous acclamations, hailed in Virginia's youthful hero a happy and prosperous bridegroom.
"And so you remember when Colonel Washington came a courting of your young mistress?" said the biographer to old Cully, in his hundredth year. "Ay, master, that I do," replied the ancient family servant, who had lived to see five generations; "great times, sir, great times-shall never see the like again !" "And Washington looked something like a man, a proper man-hey, Cully ?" "Never seed the like, sir -- never the like of him, though I have seen many in my day-so tall, so straight! And then he sat on a horse and rode with such an air! Ah, sir, he was like no one else. Many of the grandest gentlemen, in the gold lace, were at the wedding; but none looked like the man himself." Strong, indeed, must have been the impression which the per- son and manner of Washington made upon the "rude, untutored mind" of this poor negro, since the lapse of three-quarters of a century had not sufficed to effaee it.
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