USA > West Virginia > Braxton County > History of Braxton County and central West Virginia > Part 9
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CLAY COUNTY.
Clay county was formed in 1858 from Braxton and Nicholas counties; it has 390 square miles.' The Elk river traverses the county from east to west for a distance of over 40 miles. The country contains some small sections of superior farming and grazing lands, but the greater portion of the county is hilly and
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rough with a light soil. The county is rich in mineral products, being under- laid with the Kanawha and Freeport coals, with numerous mining operations along the Elk river. The Coal & Coke railroad runs through the county along the Elk river, a branch road leading from the mouth of Big Buffalo creek some twenty miles up that stream'to the Widen coal field. There is also a branch road up Middle creck for about ten miles, which opens up a new coal field. The county is rich in oil and gas, already having many producing wells. Henry, the county seat, is situated on the Elk river opposite the mouth of Big Buffalo creck 46 miles from Sutton and 54 miles from Charleston. It has a bank, several stores, good High School, new court house and churches. The population is about 450.
JACOB SUMMERS
of Clay county, came from Virginia about the year 1813, and settled on the Elk river. Mr. Summers was a soldier in the war of 1812. Hc married a Miss Davis, and by this union, fourteen children were born.
For his second wife, he married Eleanor Cozad, and seven children were born. Mr. Summers died at the advanced age of eighty-six years, leaving a great many descendants. His twenty-one children lived to become heads of families. His son, David C., is a prominent citizen, serving his countrymen as a member of the Board of Education.
A. J. STEPHENSON
son of Franklin Stephenson, formerly of Nicholas county, and grandson of Samuel Stephenson, came to Clay, county in 1863 and volunteered in Captain Stephenson's State company. He was made Clerk of the Court in 1865, and held the office for about thirty-five years. He accumulated considerable property.
MADISON STEPHENSON
came from Nicholas in an early day. He was the son of Johnson Stephenson. He was extensively engaged in stockraising. This entire family has taken a conspicuous part in the affairs of the county.
CALHOUN COUNTY.
Calhoun county was formed in 1856 from Gilmer. It contains 260 square miles, and was named for John C. Calhoun. Its county seat is Grantsville, 40 miles from Sutton and 22 miles below Glenville on the Little Kanawha river. The first county scat was located at Brooksville at the mouth of Yellow creek and from there it was moved to Arnoldsburgh on the West Fork, and was after- ward removed to its present location. The county is rich in oil and gas deposits, and its lands are excellent for farming purposes.
Colonel Dewees says in his sketches of Calhoun county, that after the death of his parents, he stayed with Danicl MeCune's family. He gives' quite a little history of two or three families that figured conspicuously in the wild regions
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of the West fork of the Little Kanawha. Daniel McCune then lived on what is now known as MeCunes run which empties in the West Fork just below Arnoldsburg, Calhoun county. Daniel MeCune was a son of the old original Peter MeCune, an Irishman, who served as a soldier in the Revolutionary war, and married a daughter of Adam O'Brien, famous as a noted character on the frontier border prior to and during the Revolutionary war, and roamed over the then wilderness comprising the counties of Calhoun, Braxton, Gilmer, blazing the paths that were ultimately to lead the hardy pioneers who were to found homes in the wilderness of eentral and western West Virginia. Daniel MeCune was along with Joseph Parsons, Alexander Turner and Jaekson Cot- trell, convieted of the murder of Jonathan Nicholas, about the year of 1843, they being members of a clan that was organized by an element of pioneers who were early settlers on the West Fork waters, ealling themselves the Hell-fired band, roving from place to place, living in camps and desiring the wilderness country of the West Fork for a paradise for hunters and those who desired. to live a roving life, diseouraging improvement of every kind, such as clearing of land, making settlements, opening up roads, organizing ehurehes and eivili- zation in general. The foregoing parties were all senteneed to the penitentiary at Richmond, Virginia, for eighteen years each, all of whom died exeept Jaek- son Cottrell who on the account of his being only about seventeen years old was pardoned after serving five years, leaving Daniel MeCune in the penitentiary, the other two being dead; in fact, Alexander Turner dying on the road to the penitentiary, near the White Sulphur Springs, in Greenbrier county. Parsons died soon after going to the penitentiary, and MeCune lived two or three years after Cottrell was pardoned. Jackson Cottrell was a son of Thomas Cottrell, whose father in turn was Thomas Cottrell, the old and original Cottrell of all the Cottrells of the West Fork and adjacent territory. Thomas Cottrell married a daughter of Adam O'Brien, and consequently was a brother-in-law of Peter MeCune. Thomas Cottrell had sons, Thos., Andrew, Smith, William, John or Whig, and Silas, together with several daughters all of whom were the prop- agators of a large posterity, which, together with the O'Briens and MeCunes are widely disseminated over eentral West Virginia, an aeeount of which is given on another page.
Mr. Arbogast relates that while he was a member of Captain Stevenson's company that the County Seat of Clay county was called Marshall in honor of Marshall Triplett who was then in the South. He also relates that the late Felix Sutton, who being on his way to Wheeling as a member of the Legisla- ture, proposed that the County seat be ealled Henry, in honor of Patrick Henry, and that a vote of his company was taken and the name was changed from Mar- shall to that of Henry, in 1863.
At an election held at the Walker voting place in Pleasant distriet, Clay county, in 1860, there were, Douglas, Bell, Braekenridge and Lincoln, and as the eustom was at that day, each candidate had a bucket of whiskey at the poll- ing places. The platform of Douglas was that Slavery is Right, but that it
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should exist only where the majority of the people say. The platform of Lin- coln was that Slavery is wrong, but we have it under the law, and it should exist only where the majority of the people say it should.
When George Arbogast stepped up to vote, James Wolter eried the vote and pulled his "specks" down and looked up and said, "George, there is no bucket here for Lincoln, but you drink out of my bueket, the platforms are so near alike, you may be right."
HISTORY OF GILMER COUNTY.
The first white men who stood within the present limits of Gilmer county, were William Lowther, Jesse Hughes and Elias Hughes, the latter of whom was tthe last survivor of the battle of Point Pleasant, fought October 10, 1774. It was in tthe autumn of the year 1772, that these three daring adventurers, whose names are all illustrious in the annals of pioneer history, left the spot where Clarksburg now stands, and traveled up the West fork of the Monongahela river to the place where Weston, the county seat of Lewis county, now stands. From there, they erossed the dividing ridge, and journeyed down Sand eree !: to its junction with the Little Kanawha river, upon the banks of which they halted.
Here was a beautiful mountain river, upon whose rapid current the eye of eivilized man had never before rested, and amid the surrounding hills the sound of his voice had never before been heard. But they must follow its tor- tuous course-its windings like a silver thread-to its junction with some other mighty river, they knew not what. So the journey was continued down the river, and as they proceeded they bestowed the names upon its tributaries which they have borne ever since. The first they reached, from its general course, they supposed was the one which they should have descended from the point near Weston, instead of Sand creek, it being a more direct route to the river which they were now exploring, and they christened it Leading creek. And the next stream was one, the banks of which were fringed with cedar, and Cedar creek was left behind; then one flowed out from beneath lofty pines, and it was named Pine creek; then high yellow clay banks indicated the mouth of another, and Yellow creek was passed; after this, a stream stretehed away into the hills, a long line of its course being visible, and it was called Straight creek; then one flowed in from towards the setting sun, and it was West Fork. From another they drank of its cool, transparent waters, and it has ever since been known as Spring ereek; then the descent continued a short distance, and upon the banks of the river, the course of which they were now traversing, was dis- covered no less a curiosity than a burning spring, and the creek which here discharged its waters was called Burning Spring ereek.
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GILMER.
A NEW COUNTY.
Until the year 1845, what is now Gilmer county, continued to be parts of the counties of Lewis and Kanawha; but in that year the Legislature on the 3rd day of February, 1845, passed a bill entitled "An act establishing the county of Gilmer out of parts of the counties of Lewis and Kanawha."
By the first section of that bill, the boundaries of the new county were de- fined to be as follows: "Beginning at the corner of Braxton county line, situ- ated at the left-hand ford of Three Lick fork on Oil creek; thence a straight line to the fork of the road on Leading creek, between Robert Benson's and Aaron Schoolcraft's; thence with the Ritchie, Wood and Jackson county lines, to a point thence such lines as will embrace all the waters of the said West fork of the Little Kanawha river to Braxton county to the beginning; the enclosed area to form one distinct and new county, and to be called and known by the name of Gilmer county."
The fourth section provided for the location of the seat of Justice.
Section fifth, provided for the holding of the first County Court, as follows : "The Justices of the Peace, commissioned and qualified for the said county of Gilmer, shall mect at the house now the residence of Salathiel G. Stalnaker, in the town of DeKalb, on the fourth Monday in March next."
FIRST COUNTY COURT.
In compliance with the above section, the first County Court ever held in Gilmer county, convened at the residence of Salathiel G. Stalnaker, on the 24th day of March, 1845. The following Justices, each holding commissions from his Excellency, the Governor of the Commonwealth, composed the Court, viz: Benjamin Riddle, Michael Stump, Beniah Maze, Barnabas Cook, Samuel L. Hays, Alexander Huffman, Salathiel Stalnaker, Currence B. Conrad, Wil- liam Bennett, Philip Cox, Jr., Robert A. Benson, Joseph Knotts, John F. W. Holt, James N. Norman and William Arnold.
Jonathan M. Bennett, was appointed by the court as Prosecuting Attorney for the County.
Michael Stump was appointed surveyor for the County.
Salathiel G. Stalnaker was appointed as Commissioner of the Revenue.
Joseph Knotts and Benjamin Hardman were granted license to celibrate the rights of matrimony.
James M. Camp was appointed Clerk, protem.
GLENVILLE, THE COUNTY SEAT.
Is situated on the north bank of the Little Kanawha river, 27 miles south- west of Weston and 125 miles from Parkersburg. It was laid out by S. L. Hays on lands belonging to William H. Ball, in the year 1845, and made the
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county seat the same year. It was named by Colonel C. B. Conrad, the name being suggested by the glen or valley in which it is situated. The place had before that date been known as "The Ford," for the reason that the old State road leading from Weston to Charleston here crossed the Little Kanawha. The first merchant was Jesse Miller. The town was incorporated by act of the legislature in 1871. There are at present four general mercantile stores, one book store, two drug stores, two newspaper offices (Gilmerite and Crescent), two blacksmith shops, one wagon shop, one barber shop, one flouring mill, one saw mill, two churches, one public school, one normal school, two hotels, and a population in 1910 of 500.
THE GLENVILLE NORMAL SCHOOL.
The State normal school at Glenville was established by an act of the legis- lature, passed on the 19th day of February, 1872, and was opened for the ad- mission of students on the 14th day of January, 1873. The building, donated by the citizens of the town, to the State, is fitted up with the best modern school furniture, and stands on a three acre lot which has been improved and beauti- fied by the State. The site of the school is an excellent one in all respects. Al- though within the corporate limits of Glenville, it is on an eminence outside of the town, where it readily receives the pure air and bright sunshine of this notably healthful climate.
WEBSTER COUNTY.
The movement for the formation of a new county out of parts of Nicholas. Braxton and Randolph began in 1848. In compliance with the law of Virginia. a notice was posted on the front door of the court house of the three counties concerned, stating the intention of the citizens to ask the General Assembly for the creation of a new county. Thomas Miller took the notice to Braxton county and Adonijah Harris posted the notice in Nicholas.
The act creating Webster county provided that:
The court house or seat of justice of said county of Webster shall be located on the farm of Addison MeLaughlin at the Fork Lick on the Elk river, between the said river and the Back fork of same; which said seat of justice shall be known by the name of Addison.
The following persons, to-wit, Samuel Given, Thomas Cogar, William Given, and Thomas Reynolds shall be and are hereby appointed commissioners, a ma- jority of whom may act, for the purpose of selecting a site for a court house, jail and other public buildings for said county of Webster, who are hereby re- quired to meet at Fork Lick on the first day of March, 1860.
The following county officers were elected on the fourth Thursday in May, 1860: Sheriff, Walter Cool of Holly district; clerk of the County Court, and also clerk of the Circuit Court, Albert. J. Baughman of Glade district ; commis- sioner of revenue, Thomas Cogar of Fork Lick district, and attorney for the Commonwealth, David Lilly of Randolph county. The following Justices of
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the Peace were elected : Fork Lick district, William G. Gregory, Adam G. Hamric, Ezra B. Clifton and David Baughman; Glade district, Edward Morton, Arthur Hickman, Thomas M. Reynolds and Enos Wecse; Holly district, Wil- liam H. Mollohan, A. G. J. Burns, Christopher C. Cogar and Ezra Clifton. Thomas M. Reynolds was elected presiding justice of the county court by the other justices at their first meeting.
The first Court House was destroyed by fire on the seventeenth day of June, 1888. The board of supervisors employed Patrick Carr to build a jail. All governmental funetions were suspended during the four years of the Civil war. Neither taxes were collected nor courts held.
But one election was held in Webster county within the Civil war period, and but one officer was elected. Moreover, polls were opened at but one pre- cinct. William Gregory, at that time, lived at the mouth of Leatherwood, and the election was held in his residence in 1863.
At this election Benoni Griffin was elected a member of the house of dele- gates for the fourth delegate district, composed of the counties of Webster and. Pocahontas. But few citizens, besides a number of Federal soldiers, cast their votes. Many of the voters did not know that an election was being held. The following persons voted: William G. Hamric, William McAvoy, Addison Fisher, James Green, James M. Cogar, Addison Dodrill, Benjamin Hamric, William G. Gregory and James Wooddell.
The second general election held in the county of Webster occurred on the fourth Thursday of October, 1865.
The following county officers were elected: Sheriff, William G. Gregory; Prosecuting Attorney, David Lilly; Surveyor of Lands, Bernard Mollohan, Recorder, Joseph Dodrill; Assessor, Arthur Hamric; Clerk of Cireuit Court, Isaac Mynes. Lilly and Mynes could not prove their loyalty to the Union from 1861 to 1865, therefore they were ineligible. Robert Irwine, Judge of the Cir- cuit Court, appointed Robert G. Putman to fill the place of Lilly, and Adam Gregory that of Mynes.
The following were elected as Supervisor for each of the three townships: Fork Lick, James Hamric; Glade, Thomas Reynolds; Holly, John E. Hall. Reynolds was elected president of the Board of Supervisors at their first meeting.
ISAAC GREGORY.
One of the very prominent and early settlers in Webster county was Col. Isaac Gregory, who built a two story log house just above the mouth of Beaver run on a hill overlooking Gauley in the year 1800. A large crowd of people came from Bath and Greenbrier counties to the hanging of the crane, and at that time it is said the first meeting of Free Masons in central West Virginia was held in the house. Col. Gregory becoming dissatisfied with his location moved to Elk river five miles above Webster Springs. He raised a company of soldiers in 1813 to fight the British. He reared a large family of children.
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WILLIAM HAMRIC.
Wm. Hamric, a son-in-law of Col. Gregory, lived on Elk river. He was a noted hunter and kept a well trained pack of dogs, and it is related that he sometimes killed as high as fifty hears and one hundred deer in one season.
WILLIAM DODDRILL.
Wm. Doddrill settled on Birch river near Boggs in 1799; he came from Greenbrier county and was a tailor by trade. The Hamrick and Doddrills raised large families that scattered over Webster county and other portions of the country.
Some of the early and most prominent pioneer families of Webster County are the Hamricks, the Doddrills, the Gregorys, the Arthurs, Cogars, Givins, Cools and others, who bore the hardships of pioneer life, raised large families, and established churches and schools. Men and women of character, who set an example to a generation of noblemen, who were to follow in their footsteps and impart to their country and state a name that is as firmly established as the lofty hills upon which they dwell.
NICHOLAS COUNTY.
Nicholas county was formed in 1818 from Kanawha, Randolph and Green- brier counties and has 720 square miles. Summersville, the county seat, has a population of about 350; real estate assessed at $92,335 and personal property assessed at $148,140. Its altitude is 1894 feet, and is beautifully situated on two small water courses which empty into Peters creek and Muddlety creek. It is surrounded by a beautiful flat country and on many of the streams are wide bottom lands. The town has one newspaper called the Nicholas Chronicle, edited by A. L. Stewart; two Methodist churches, one Baptist, one Presbyterian and one Catholic; has fine county buildings, one very fine bank building made of native stone, and some very elegant private residences. The distance from Sut- ton is 36 miles, from Gauley Bridge 31 miles and from Charleston 75 miles.
Standing in the publie lot is a handsome monument erected by George A. Alderson in memory of the Morris children, killed on Peters creek in May, 1792, Betsy 14, Peggy 12, daughters of Henry Morris. The Monument is dedi- cated to the pioneers of Nicholas county.
Some of the early settlers of the county are the MeCues, the Hutchinsons, Raders, McClungs and Hamiltons. One of the very early settlers of the terri- tory now embraced in Nicholas county was Benjamin Lemasters, born in 1751, died in 1837. He was a Revolutionary soldier and his wife, Rebecca Martin Lemasters, was born in 1759 and died in 1844; they were married in 1778 or '79, and lived together for 59 years. Their children were Jennie, who married Charles Boggs, Polly, married James Boggs, Nancy, married John Boggs, Cath- erine, married David Given, Agnus, married Frame; Betsy, married
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James Robinson, Charity, married John Stephenson, Kasiah, married Abraham Campbell, Rebecca, married Joseph Rader. Thus we see this large family of girls married into prominent and respectable families. They reared large fam- ilies from whom are many descendants of prominence.
Richwood, a large lumber center, is situated on Cherry river, 65 miles from Sutton and at the terminus of the B. & O. railroad in Nicholas county. It has a population of about 5,000. Besides large lumber plants, there is a pulp and paper mill, one of the largest tanerics in the world, a elothes pin and tray factory, extract plant, and other industries. Richwood's total wealth is about $6,000,000.
Curtin is situated at the mouth of Cherry river on Gauley river, 55 miles from Sutton, on the B. & O. railroad. Lumber is the chief industry, one of the large plants of the Pardee & Curtin Lumber Company being located there. General G. W. Curtin established the town, which has a population of about 400, and an assessed valuation of $800,000. Hominy Mills, another large plant of the Pardee & Curtin Lumber Company, is situated on Hominy creek at the mouth of Grassy creek, about 60 miles distant from Sutton. The popula- tion is about 300.
Tioga, on the head of Strouds creek, with a population of 300, is another one of the large manufacturing centers of the county.
POWELL'S MOUNTAIN.
Powell's Mountain, situated in Nicholas county, is one of the greatest ele- vations in the central part of the state. It is the source and fountain of several water courses, the Big Birch river, Powell's ereek, Strange ereek, Buffalo, Muddlety, Beaver, Glade creek, MeMilian's creek, Antiny, Poplar and other smaller streams have their sources at the base of this mountain. It is about nine miles across the mountain by way of the Weston & Gauley Turnpike which erosses near its summit.
Powell's Mountain is 2,552 feet above sea level at its highest point on the pike, but its greatest elevation is 3,015 feet between Beaver and Stroud's creek, and from one of its elevated peaks, it is said the valley of the Ohio can be ob- served, sixty miles in the distance.
The general quality of the land on Powell's Mountain is thin on the Birch and Powell's creek side. There is very little first-class farming land on its tributaries, but on the streams flowing from the southwest side of the mountain, there is some fine land.
Underlying this great mountain and along its water courses on either side. is a wonderful deposit of eoal, and was once covered with a magnificent forest of timber. Near the summit of this mountain, Henry Young, a southern soldier, was approaching the Turnpike from a patlı leading up the mountain, and as he stepped out into the open space in the road, he came in full view of a regi- ment of Federal soldiers eoming up the pike. Young refused to surrender or save himself by flight; undaunted even in the presence of an entire regiment.
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he stood his ground until he fell. Some years since, his friends assembled ai; the lonely grave on the mountain near where he fell, and erected a monument to mark the resting place of this daring citizen.
FORMATION OF LEWIS. SETTLED IN 1780.
In 1816, while John McWhorter and E. B. Jackson were Representatives of Harrison County, an Act was passed creating a new county, the boundary as follows :
Beginning at the head of the left hand fork of Jerry's Run, thence a straight line to Kinchelo Creek; thence up said creek to the dividing ridge; thence a west course to the Wood County line, to include all of the west part of Harrison, to the mouth of the Buckhannon River; thence up straight line to the beginning.
This county was named in honor of Col. Charles Lewis. At the time of its formation it included 1754 square miles, but has been reduced to 400 square miles. The Act directed that the first court should be held at Westfield, and named the following Committee to locate a County Seat: Edward Jackson, Elias Lowther, John McCoy, Lewis Maxwell and Daniel Stringer.
The first Court. held March 10th, 1817, the Rev. Henry Camden, Elijah Newlon, James Keith, Samuel Jones, Jacob Lorentz, Payton Byrne, George Bozarth, John Hardman, Abner Abbott, Wm. Peterson, Wm. Simms, Wm. Hacker, John Mitchell, John Jackson, Daniel Stringer, John Bozorth, Wm. Powers, John Hacker, Thomas Cunningham. and Philip Regar, each a Justice, met at Westfield and resolved themselves into the first Court of Lewis.
The first lawyers admitted to the Bar were Samuel E. Davison, George I. Davison, James McCauley, Jonathan Jackson, (father of Stonewall) and James Pindell.
Wm. Martin and Thos. I. Hacker were appointed Deputy Sheriffs and George Bush Surveyor. Robert W. Collins was appointed Deputy Clerk.
Westfield is located on the West Fork River, about five miles below Weston. The next Court was held in April, at the home of a Mrs. Newlon. It was then ordered that on the farm of Henry Flesher was the most suitable place for the Court. This farm was near the mouth of Stone Coal, east side of the river. It was ordered that the next court should be held there, and be called Preston.
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