History of Charleston and Kanawha County, West Virginia and representative citizens, Part 10

Author: Laidley, William Sydney, 1839-1917. [from old catalog]
Publication date: 1911
Publisher: Chicago, Ill., Richmond-Arnold publishing co
Number of Pages: 1066

USA > West Virginia > Kanawha County > Charleston > History of Charleston and Kanawha County, West Virginia and representative citizens > Part 10

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

The most of the information concerning the Elk river settlers was furnished by John D. White, who knew almost every one on Elk, in Kanawha County, and he had been learning about people for many years and never forgot anything. It was written down at his dictation and preserved and may be regarded as reliable as one's mem- ory could be.

MRS. MARY INGLES

She was in her young days Miss Mary Draper, and she married William Ingles; she left a son, John. He left a daughter, who was the mother of Dr. John Hale. Draper's Meadows and Ingles' Ferry were located on New river on the frontier. It is stated that some Indians were removed from Williamsburg to Reed creek, in Augusta, and this creek empties into New river above Ingles' Ferry ; this was in 175I. In 1749 Adam Harmon, near Ingles' Ferry, had some furs taken by some Indians. In 1758 there were explorers in the vicinity again.

As a girl she went with her brother, and partook of his vocations; they played,

walked, rode and talked together ; she could cross a ditch or a fence as easily as he, she could stand and jump nearly as high as her head, and she could stand beside her horse and leap onto the saddle unaided.

She married in 1750 and her brother John married Betty Robertson in 1754. At this time the Indians had never been more troublesome than in taking some things that did not belong to them; they had hurt no one. In July, 1755, the Shawnees from Ohio fell upon the people of Draper's Meadows and killed, wounded and captured the entire inhabitants of the settlement. Mrs. Mary Ingles and Mrs. Betty Draper were made prisoners. The Indians started for Ohio with all they could carry away. They went down to Blue Stone, up Blue Stone to the head of Paint creek and down to Campbell creek, where they rested and made salt for several days, which was done principally by the prisoners. After they all reached the Indian town, the prisoners were distributed and Mrs. Ingles' two children were taken from her. It was not long before she gave birth to a little girl which she kept with her.

She was required to make shirts for the men, after a trader had visited them and they had procured the goods, and the war- riors were greatly pleased with her work.

The Indians went into Kentucky to the Big Bone Lick to make salt and they took Mrs. Ingles and a Dutch woman they had captured in Pennsylvania, and the women soon began to consider their chances of escape, after they reached the salt works and had opportunity to talk and had been allowed more time to themselves.

They were inland from the Ohio river about 40 miles below Cincinnati when they made up their minds to make the attempt to return to the home of Mrs. Ingles. They wasted no time in getting ready. They proposed to go toward the Ohio river in the afternoon and after getting to the river, go up it to Kanawha, then up the Kanawha, then up the New river until they reached the old home place. There was no trans- portation; it was necessary to walk each

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step, without any road, through bush and briers, over sticks and stones, across rivers, creeks and branches, without hotel or tav- ern, nothing to eat except what they could gather of nuts, fruits and such wild prod- ucts of nature.

Before Mrs. Ingles left she had another trial, what was she to do with her baby? She either had to leave it, which meant its certain death, or to take it with her. The last was impossible, for she could not carry it ; she either had to abandon the little one or the trip. She took the babe in her arms and tenderly hugged it to her and kissed it and laid it carefully away to sleep and she started, and that was the last she ever heard of it. What an awful undertak- ing for two frail women!

They kept going; each mile lessened the long distance. They recognized places that Mrs. Ingles had seen; they reached the mouth of the Kanawha and afterwards saw the Kanawha Salt works, then the New River. They did not leave the main stream but kept going, growing weaker and more tired and feeble, as the hills grew less steep and high. Finally one day Mrs. Ingles knew she was getting close to her home and she went into some hunter's camp and began to call, and soon she was heard and answered and they came to her and she was at once recognized by Mr. Harmon and some young men.

The old Dutch woman had become crazed and wanted to devour Mrs. Ingles and she had to keep away in front of her. Everything was done for Mrs. Ingles and after feeding and resting her they placed her on a horse and took her home. Just think of it; forty days without fire and tortured by semi-starvation. Mrs. Ingles was actually disappointed that the Indians had made no attempt to recapture her but gave her up as having been destroyed by the wild beasts of the forest. May no other woman ever have the same to suffer and if you wish to read the account more fully, see Hale's "Trans-Allegheny Pio- neers."

ABB'S VALLEY

Dr. Hale wrote that pioneer history does not repeat itself. The history of the Trans-Alle- gheny country, which it has but lately passed through and from which the Farther West has hardly yet emerged, can never be repeated. The discovery, exploration, conquest, settlement and civilization of a continent once accomplished, is done for all time. There are no more conti- nents to discover, no more worlds to conquer.

It is not supposed that this country will ever retrogade, but we do not know what will hap- pen. The ruins of mighty empires of the an- cient world are now being visited as curiosi- ties ; people go to see ruins of temples and all sorts of buildings. Who constructed the pyra- mids? Where is Rome or Greece and Babylon, etc? These countries were once great; to be sure they were not Christian countries, but if it depends upon the religion of the people, it may be all to do over; the ratchets of steam, electricity and printing will not of themselves hold the world from going back. But we do not know, and for fear that Indian stories will soon all be lost and no more made, we owe it to Dr. Hale and Dr. Brown that both the story of Mrs. Ingles and that of Abb's Valley can be preserved for the sake of these men and also for the sake of the women.

Abb's Valley was settled in 1771 by Absa- lom Looney. In 1786 Black Wolf and Shaw- nee who had destroyed Burke's Garden, came to the house of Capt. James Moore, who with his brother-in-law, John Pogue, had located there in 1772. They found Capt. Moore on his farm and shot and killed him, then killed two children and Mr. Simpson, a hired man. There were other men who fled for their lives. They made prisoner of Mrs. Moore and her four children, John, Jane, Mary and Peggy. John being feeble was tomahawked and scalped in the presence of his mother. Then Peggy was burned against a tree. It was decided that Mrs. Moore and Jane should be burned in retaliation for the death of some warrior. They were tied to stakes in the presence of the other daughter and Mrs. Evans, and a crowd of savages, and slowly tortured with fire- brands and pine splinters until as an an-

HISTORY OF KANAWHA COUNTY

gel of mercy Death came to their relief. This was the noble Red Man, the oppressed son of the forest, who thus tortured women and young girls to death.

Simon Girty refused to shoot Crawford, when he could have shown no greater mercy. What cruelty not to kill! Mary Moore re- mained a prisoner and for much of the time with a white family who were more cruel than the Indians.

James Moore, Jr., had been captured two years before and had heard of the terrible fate of his father's family and that Mary was still left a prisoner. He managed to communicate with her. In 1789 Mary and Mrs. Evans were ransomed by their friends and restored to their friends in the Valley of Virginia, and James, Jr., not long after, returned to Abb's Valley and died afterwards in 1851. Mary Moore married Rev. John Brown of Rockbridge and had five or six sons, all Presbyterian ministers, one of whom was the Rev. James M. Brown, who was pastor of the Presby- terian church in Charleston, W. Va., for a quarter of a century and whose memory is warmly cherished by all who knew him, or of him.

He has a son, Rev. Samuel Brown, and also another, Rev. John Brown, the first of Green- brier, and the latter of Malden church. It was Rev. Dr. James Brown that found the boy Stuart Robinson and reared and educated him, and who became a distinguished man of na- tional reputation, teacher, preacher and author. Dr. Brown wrote the little book called the "Captives of Abb's Valley" and from this book is this story taken.

THE STROUD FAMILY

About 1772, before or afterward, there was a German, who brought his family and located on the Gauley river. The reason why we can not be more definite as to date, why we can not tell you from whence he came, how many were in his family, and give more particulars of him and family and of his stay on Gauley, is that before any, or many, white people made · his acquaintance, there were some visitors from Ohio, who sought to cultivate his closer acquaintance, and that ended all opportunity for

any others. They made a visit and came away leaving the entire family dead and his home burned to the ground.

He had been somewhat known by some peo- ple near Hacker's Valley and they heard of the distressing story, and they became aroused after it was too late to help the German settler.

There was not far distant a place called "Bull-town" on the Little Kanawha, where an Indian collection of huts, or town, had been made, and these settlers of Hacker's Valley made a visit to the Bull-town Indians and when they came away, there was no Bull-town, nor Indians, and it was as difficult to get informa- tion of the Indians as it was of the German.

It was strange that any one family could ex- pect safety in the neighborhood of Indians who were able to have their own way with white people unprotected; such expectation argues a want of information of the Indian nature and habits.

What the Bull-town Indians expected is possibly as strange-if they had expected to remain in safe proximity to white settlers after the German family had been missed, without any satisfactory explanations having been made.

There seems to be no question of the exis- tence some where, some time, on the Gauley river, of such a family and of such Indians, but all that is now tradition-an echo of what has been. There is no history, no monument. This world was not large enough for all the parties to the story, and there is nothing more to tell. "Stroud's Glades" is a locality some where on Gauley.

LEWIS TACKETT

There were several of this name that came to the Kanawha Valley with the Clendenins and Lewis was just the kind of a man to make an Indian shudder. He was strong, athletic and brave, and was not afraid of the devil, were he in the shape of an Indian. The Tack- etts made a settlement near the mouth of Coal river where they found it necessary to con- struct a fort, and the name of Tackett's creek was given in honor of his family, who were Indian fighters. Lewis Tackett was given the contract to construct the county jail, and also

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the privilege of killing all the wild animals, in- cluding Indians, that his inclination dictated.

The Indians, however, captured him on one occasion and started with him to Ohio, and after going down the Kanawha to about where the Knob Shoals are, they were moved with a desire to hunt for a deer, and so they tied Lewis to a pine tree, expecting him to remain until they returned. There came up a storm while they were gone, and made wet the thongs by which he was fastened and he was able to work loose and made his escape, and did not go to Ohio but went back up the Kanawha. This pine tree was known for many years as "Tackett's Pine" and was a land mark for the steamboat pilots on the river until a few years ago.

Lewis and Samuel Tackett and John Young then built the Tackett's Fort. There was a Polly Tackett who became a Mrs. Rider, and whose daughter Hannah, became Mrs. Mines, who lived to be quite old and was known by everybody about Coal's Mouth. John Young's wife was a Miss Tackett.

John Young came to the Kanawha about the same time that the Clendenin settlement was made. His wife was "Keziah," a daughter of Lewis Tackett.

There seems to be some unconsistency as to dates in connection with Young and the Tac- ketts going to Coal Mouth; some have said it was in 1786, some in 1788 and some later.

There is one known fact, however, which is that John Young and wife and a very young baby were in the fort when it was attacked by a number of Indians, and Young became satis- fied that the fort would be taken, and while it was quite dark and during a storm, Mr. Young picked up the bed with the mother and child and made haste to his boat and to the fort at Charleston, and strange to say that neither the mother nor the child suffered any harm from the exposure. The said child was Jacob; the mother lived to a very great age and Jacob was living but a few years since. He lived to be eighty years of age.

ANNE BAILEY

Anne Bailey! There was but one of the name and no other of like character and

fame; she was the heroine of the pioneers of the Kanawha Valley and it is both fit and becoming that her history should be preserved in the history of this county. This is no fancy sketch, no imaginary out- line of a supposed being, but the plain facts of a well established and well known wo- man, who lived on the outposts of civiliza- tion.

She was an English girl, born and edu- cated in Liverpool, and her maiden name was Anne Hennis. She was born in or about 1742 and her education was limited; her father was an old British soldier. Her age is obtained by the fact that Lord Lo- vat was executed in 1747, and Anne says she was present and was five years old.

The manner in which she arrived at Staunton, Va., is not very clearly shown, and the accepted story is about like this : That her parents died and she was left alone in the world, that she knew she had friends or kindred by the name of Bell that had gone to Virginia and she determined to follow them and she went aboard of a ves- sel about to sail and remained aboard and was brought to Virginia. This was in 1761 and by some means she heard of the Bells being in Staunton, Va. and she found her way there, and they gave to her a home and a welcome.

In Augusta county, she met with Richard Trotter, who was a soldier defending the border from the incursions of the Indians. He had been with Braddock in 1755, and he escaped and lived to return to Staunton and here he married Anne Hennis in 1765. In 1767 they had a son born, whom they called William and who was in later years the support and blessing of his mother Anne Bailey.

The Dunmore war came on in 1774. and Richard Trotter was one of the soldiers that fought in Andrew Lewis's.army, on the Ioth of October, 1774. at Point Pleas -- ant, and then and there he was wounded, and died and there buried.

When she heard of her husband's death. she was thirty-two years of age, a widow. with a son, seven years of age, but she de-

HISTORY OF KANAWHA COUNTY

termined to make the Indians suffer for her loss and to avenge his death. She left her son with a neighbor Mrs. Moses Mann, while Ann entered upon a career which has no parallel in Virginia history.

The Revolution was at hand and Indians were aiding the British and she had be- come a Virginian. She started out as a recruiting agent and her appeals in behalf of the defenseless women of the border per- suaded men to enlist. She went from the Roanoke to the Potomac, and she became acquainted all along the line.

Then she began to carry messages to the soldiers westward, to Fort Fincastle on Jack- son's river, Fort Edward on the Warm Spring Mountain, and, in 1778, Fort Savannah at Lewisburg in Greenbrier county, which was the most western outpost except Fort Randolph at Point Pleasant.

Somewhere she met John Bailey, who was one of a band of rangers employed to scout the country and to then notify the people and the forts. This John Bailey had no doubt heard of Ann. Time had had its usual ef- fects and John gained her ear and she lis- tened to him as she did to Richard, and they went together to Lewisburg, and met the Rev. John McCue, and if an opportunity was given, no doubt but that there were in attendance upon the marriage, many sol- diers, that wished Bailey and Anne a safe and happy life. On the 3rd of November, 1785, they were married and through the offices of Rev. John McCue, at Lewisburg Anne Trotter became Anne Bailey, and in the marriage record book No. I, page 7, in the county court clerk's office of Greenbrier county will be seen the evidence of the above facts.

It was when the Clendenins came to the Kanawha Valley and constructed the fort, at the mouth of Elk river, in 1788, that there were others came with them and John and Ann Bailey came along to help garrison this fort. She was always ready to go, or to do, and she knew no fear; she was ready and willing to ride to any quarter of the country, and she handled her rifle equal to any Indian or any scout. When in the fort, she was the best of

the nurses, and always ready to lend a helping hand. She often took messages to Fort Ran- dolph, sixty miles down the river, with little or no road, and not a house between the forts. She had to make the trip in two days, and with one night on the road, and a cave was usually adopted by her for her shelter. At other times Anne Bailey went on the road to Lewisburg one hundred miles from the Clendenin's. Col. Geo. Clendenin was commander-in-chief of Kanawha, and Daniel Boone was lieutenant colonel of the same county, and gave in his re- port the following account :

" For Kanawha 68 privates, Lenard Cooper, Captain, at Point Pleasant, 17 men, John Morris, Jr. Insine at the Bote yards 17 men. Two sypes or scutes will be necessary at the pint to sarch the banks of the river at the crossing places. More would be wanting if they could be aloude. These spyes must be compoused of the inhabitence who will know the woods and waters from the pint to Belleville 60 milds, no inhabitence, also from the pint to Elk 60 mildes, no inhabitence, from Elk to the Bote yards, 20 milds, all inhabited."

This was written by Lt .- Col. Daniel Boone, December 12, 1791. The "Bote Yard" was at the mouth of Kelly's creek.

From Point Pleasant to Elk there were no inhabitants, while from Elk to Kelly's creek, where they built boats, it was all inhabited in 1791.

It was in this year that a body of Indians was said to hover near the Clendenin's fort and in the preparation for defense, it was as- certained that there was but a small quantity of powder remaining and they could with- stand an attack but a short time. To Lewis- burg some one must go for a supply and the sooner the better, and men were needed, so Anne Bailey said she herself would go. And it was but a short time before she was on her way, and as soon as a good horse could well go the one hundred miles, she went and re- ported at Lewisburg the purpose of her trip.

Her horse was fed and rested, and another horse was sent with the ammunition and they returned with the powder to Fort Clendenin. The trip had been made, the magazine supplied and the garrison felt competent to take care of itself, and no one was hurt, but the trip made was one of danger, hardship and worry. Had the Indians started to go to Greenbrier they would have met her and neither she nor the

COYLE & RICHARDSON BUILDING, CHARLESTON

HOTEL RUFFNER AND VIEW OF HALE STREET, CHARLESTON

KANAWHA HOTEL, CHARLESTON

ALDERSON-STEPHENSON BUILDING, CHARLESTON

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powder nor the horses would have reached the fort, and the story would have become known because of the want of powder.

" The succor thus so nobly sought

" To Charleston's Fort was timely brought

" While Justice on the Scroll of Fame

"In letters bold, engraved her name-Anne Bailey."

John Bailey died about 1802, Indians had ceased to come any more, after 1794 and the influence of civilized life spread abroad over the county, and no more was there need for a squad or a gun, nor for fear nor a fort.

She remained in Kanawha and after the death of Mr. Bailey she became a regular ex- press company for the East to the settlement in the West, bringing anything that could be carried on a horse, medicines, small packages, doing business from Gallipolis to Staunton.

In all these transactions she was honest to a cent and was trusted by all and every one to make purchases for them and made pay- ments, etc., and while perhaps no church mem- ber she was a good woman and observed the Sabbath day and said her prayers and was re- ceived and welcomed into all the families.

The last time she was known to have been in Charleston was in 1817. Her son William Trotter married Mary Ann Cooper, a daugh- ter of Capt. Leonard Cooper of Mason coun- ty, and for whom Cooper's Creek was named. William settled in Ohio near Gallipolis and in- sisted on his mother coming and making her home with him, but she was opposed to going into Ohio, and this was not unnatural. She knew everybody on the Virginia side and all were her friends while on the Ohio side they were all strangers. The people of Gallipolis were French and she being English was not so familiar. She had no home of her own and she felt that she must go with him. He built for her a small house near his own where his family was. She had become old and died No- vember 22, 1825, being 83 years of age, and was buried near her home.

William Trotter was a land owner, and a justice and died in 1831. Their children were Philip, born 1801, who lived in Lawrence county, Ohio; Elizabeth, born 1803, who mar- ried William C. Irion, and left sons and daugh- ters; John, born 1805; William, born 1807;

Mary, born 1811, who married James Irion. Davis, born 1816, married Jas. Sarah Knight; Sarah, born 1816, married John Gilmore; Phebe, born 1818, married John Willey; Jane born 1820, married J. S. Northrup; Nancy, born in 1822, married Francis Strait.

The remains of Anne Bailey were removed to Point Pleasant by the Daughters of the Revolution and buried near the Monument to the Soldiers who fell on the Ioth of October, 1774, and when you see this monument you will naturally think of Anne Bailey. In the lower part of the then county there was a cave known as "Anne Bailey Cave," and in the upper end of the county there is a branch known as "Anne Branch." And said names were given on account of her having used those places for shelter. There is a descendant of Anne Bailey now in Charleston, Mr. Simeon Irions, who has aided us in this article. She is described as having had a fair complexion, hazel eyes, a rather undersized but perfect form, a sweet disposition, and a mind strong and vigorous, and was always and at all times perfectly fearless and made herself at home with the pioneers.

There should be a monument to Anne Bailey erected by the women of this part of the state and especially from Kanawha Valley. She was ever ready to give herself or either of her husbands or both of them for the good of the settlers in this valley and such devotion and sacrifice should be remembered. "Cornstalk" has his monument and the soldiers of General Lewis have their monument and it is time that Anne Bailey should have her monu- ment also.

ALVAH HANSFORD'S RECOLLECTIONS

In 1884 Alvah Hansford gave to Col. W. H. Edwards of Coalburg, a long talk and was drawn out as to many things of the long ago-and the Colonel wrote it down.

Alvah was an old bachelor who had lived pretty much as he pleased and he never hesitated to express himself, and he had no inclinations either to suppress or enlarge the facts. He was born in 1803, on the Kanawha near the mouth of Paint Creek, was a son of Major John Hansford, and his

HISTORY OF KANAWHA COUNTY

home was at St. Albans and his death was in 1886.

Starting at Paint Creek and going down the Kanawha river, the first house below was that of John Harriman's, a log house where now is the brick house occupied by Mr. Shaver. Near where William Pryor now lives, then John Milburn resided. James Pryor, the father of William, lived on an Indian mound, near Mr. Buck's home. The next house was built by a Mr. Johnson, near where the late James John- son lived. These were all the houses from Paint Creek to Cabin Creek and it was all in forest except a small clearing at each house. From Cabin Creek to Slaughter's Creek there was no one living, and just below Slaughter's Creek lived Mr. John Starke. On Paint Creek there were no residents.

Going east from Paint Creek, the only occupant of the bottom was John Jones, and his house was near the site of John B. Johnson's house, now in Dego. Dego was formerly known as Clifton, and later known as Pratt. John Jones's farm was not a very large one, but it grew. The road east continued up the Kanawha and New . River and crossed Cotton Hill, leaving the river, going southward and again came to the river and crossed to the north side, at Boyer's Ferry.

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History of Charleston and Kanawha County, West Virginia and representative citizens, Part 10

Author: Laidley, William Sydney, 1839-1917. [from old catalog] Publication date: 1911 Publisher: Chicago, Ill., Richmond-Arnold publishing co Number of Pages: 1066

Author: Laidley, William Sydney, 1839-1917. [from old catalog]
Publication date: 1911
Publisher: Chicago, Ill., Richmond-Arnold publishing co
Number of Pages: 1066