History of Charleston and Kanawha County, West Virginia and representative citizens, Part 11

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 11

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).

Alvah says his father finished his own home in 1799 and there was then only a small clearing and a cabin between his new house and Paint Creek, about where Felix Hansford built his brick house in 1824. The home of Major Hansford was the first frame house built on the Kanawha river and it was built by his father, he doing all the work. Alvah says there were eleven boys and one girl in the family, that he did not get to go to school much-about three months in the winter time-and it does not appear that he did much visiting away from home for he was eighteen years of age be- fore he had been to the "Licks" or Malden as it now is called, and he never was in Charleston until he was twenty years of age, in 1823. It will be remembered that the upper part of the Kanawha Valley was

the most thickly settled. He says he was principally employed in lumbering, cutting saw-logs, building salt boats, etc. He built two salt furnaces on the home place; one furnace was rented out and the other was worked by his father. One furnace was at the mouth of the Meeting House Branch between Crown Hill and Belmont. The other was where the house owned by the Maury Estate stands. They ran the furnace with wood and Alvah was a good chopper. He says that Mr. Oakes was the only better one-this was the father of Ben and Ira Oakes. He says that game was plenty, bear, deer, wild cats, panthers, wild tur- keys, etc.

When he was about nine years old, he heard them talking of the war with Eng- land, the War of 1812. His father was in the Legislature at Richmond, that he went on horseback for seven days. His brother Hiram volunteered and was a Lieutenant and he saw Hiram then at Kelley's Creek in his uniform and he and some soldiers took dinner there before starting off to the war. His grandmother lived at Kelley's Creek and on the hill east of the creek, Morris purchased the place of the children of Mr. Kelly, who was killed there in 1773, and that Mr. Morris gave to each of the children as they became of age, a horse, saddle and bridle.

His father kept entertainment at his home and members of the Legislature and congressmen and persons hunting for lands always stopped with him and his father made some fine peach and apple brandy which he kept on hand until it became superior. His father was a very religious man and was a member of the Baptist church before Alvah was born, and he was never known to swear and would not allow it on his premises, nor would he allow fid- dling and dancing in his house but on Mus- ter day he would set out his brandy after the drilling was over and pretty soon the fighting would begin. The Major was a justice but he took care to be out of the way, as he wanted his men to have their fun.

The James River and Kanawha Turn-

AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS

pike was opened in 1823-4 and the settle- ment was not great, and this road was made only to Huddleston, six miles below the falls for several years. His sister Sarah married William Morris, who lived at the Falls, and Fenton Morris was her only son. That his father leased some coal land at the lower end of the Hansford Narrows to Anderson and Herriman and they shipped coal in 1829. His father would stand guard with his gun in hand while his mother would milk the cows, as the In- dians were strolling about through the valley. coming from Ohio. Albert Galla- tin attended to his own surveys and had the most remarkable memory and made his headquarters with Mr. Hansford.

DANIEL BOONE

This famous pioneer and frontiersman was born near Philadelphia in 1735 and died in Missouri in 1820. He was the son of Squire Boone and Sarah (Morgan) Boone, and George Boone was the father of Squire.

George was acquainted with William Penn in England and when he came to America he sailed for "Penn's Plantation," where there were Friends, called Quakers, of whom he was one. In 1748 Squire re- moved to North Carolina, and there Daniel heard of Kentucky through John Finley and it seemed to suit him exactly.

He was married in 1755 to Rebecca Bryant. She had a cousin, Mary Bryant, and Mary was the grandmother of John L. Cole, the lawyer, surveyor, poet, artist, humorist and antiquarian of Kanawha. Boone was in Kentucky in 1769 and Boonesboro was one of the earliest settle- ments in the new county of Kentucky.

He was continually engaged in skir- mishes with the Indians and at one time he was captured and taken to Chillicothe and was adopted by a Shawnee chief, "Black Fish," and was made an Indian; but he would not stay so made, for he was, one morning quite early, on his way back to Boonesboro, and he made the trip on one

meal, in three days. He had a brother killed and a son, also another son wounded. In 1774 Lord Dunmore placed him in charge of several forts in the Greenbrier country, while the army marched to the Ohio. He was at Point Pleasant, at the mouth of the Kanawha, in 1786, and he subsequently came to the upper Kanawha and in 1789 was elected to the office of lieutenant colonel of the Kanawha militia and he made military reports through Col. George Clendenin to the Governor. The exact date of his coming to his home above the mouth of Elk, is not known but he was well known when the county was organized.

His house was on the south side of the Ka- nawha river, opposite the mouth of Campbell's creek, and it was a double log house, of two rooms, with a passage between, and a porch in front. Paddy Huddleston and Mathias Van Bibber were both well acquainted with him, as they hunted together and it is stated that they caught all the beavers on the Gauley and Kanawha rivers. He and George Clendenin were elected to the Legislature in 1791, and when he started to attend the session in Rich- mond, he took his rifle and started on foot through the woods for the East, but after re- maining a while, he tired of law-making, shouldered his gun and started back for Ka- nawha Valley and his home.

He seemed to have been eternally on the go, either hunting and trapping or looking for choice land and sometimes making surveys or rescuing a captive. On a line run from Boone court house, or where it was afterwards lo- cated, he ran a line across to the Guyandotte, Twelve Pole creek, and Big Sandy, the Ken- tucky line, and on a tree were cut the names of his party, viz: George Arnold, Daniel Boone, Edmund Price, Thomas Upton and Andrew Hatfield. This was done in 1795.

He made a survey at Point Pleasant in 1791. the original report of which is in the historical rooms in the Annex in Charleston and in Dr. Hales "Trans-Allegheny Pioneers" is a copy of another.

Boone's handwriting is not the most grace- ful and his spelling is not according to Web-

HISTORY OF KANAWHA COUNTY

ster, but you can learn what he is attempting to ty of Kentucky in the legislature of Virginia, tell.

He had a son, Jesse Boone, who lived in Ka- nawha, whose wife was Chloe Van Bibber, and the wives of Col. Andrew Donnally, Col. John Reynolds and Goodrich Slaughter were sisters of Mrs. Jesse Boone.

Jesse was the first salt inspector of Kanawha and continued until 1816.

Daniel Boone resided in Kanawha until 1799 when he decided to go to Missouri. When he decided to go west, the day and date of his departure from the mouth of Elk was given out to the public and the entire country came to see him start in his canoes and Tice Van Bibber went with him to his new home. He lived until September 26th, 1820.

Daniel Boone was one of the remarkable men of his time. He was a pioneer, frontiers- man, explorer, hunter, Indian fighter and pilot of civilization. There have been writers of his history and sketches of his life by Mar- shall, Bryant, Flint, Bogart, Filson, Abbott, Byron, Hale and others. His picture was painted in 1819 by Harding who went from New York to execute the same in Missouri, and his rifle and his trap are on deposit in the Historical Rooms in Charleston.

Simon Kenton once saved Daniel Boone's life, but there is no telling how many lives that Boone saved.

It would have been impossible for Boone to have accumulated much property ; he was going all the time and never remained any- where a sufficient time to accumulate much, but he was doing something for the general good of the country, or rescuing some poor Indian captive, helping to drive back the Indian invader, at all times, both in Kentucky and in Virginia.

While he was a citizen of Kanawha for at least twelve years, there are a great many that do not know that he was ever outside of Kentucky.

Tradition says that Boone was with Wash- ington on the Braddock expedition, that he was in the Shenandoah Valley, in North Caro- lina, Tennessee and Kentucky and Ohio, but never mentions his home on the Kanawha, and the same report says he represented the coun-

in Richmond. We do not know where he was not, but he seems to have been in the right time at the right place and doing the right thing when most needed.

Kanawha county should recognize his great services and recognize him as one of her sons by a monument to his memory. Daniel Boone was a citizen and resident of Kanawha county and we would record the fact and do him hon- or for his services and his great worth.

SIMON KENTON

Simon Kenton was born in Fakrquer coun- ty, Virginia, April 3, 1755; he died in Ohio in 1836. He was of obscure parentage and his education was neglected. At the age of six- teen he had an affray with another and sup- posed that he had killed his adversary. He fled west of the Alleghenies. Here he became acquainted with Indian traders, hunters and among whom was George Yeager. He also knew Simon Girty. He was said to have been engaged by Lord Dunmore and was one of the messengers sent to General Lewis with Girty on the day before the battle. He was the friend and companion of Daniel Boone, whose life Kenton saved in Kentucky. He also was with George Roger Clark at the Falls of the Ohio and elsewhere. He was captured by the Indians and Girty used his influence to save his life. The Mingo Chief Logan prevailed on Draya, a Canadian, to rescue Kenton from the Indians and he was carried off to Detroit and made his escape in 1779, making his way back to Kentucky. Having learned that his Virginia adversary did not die, he went back home in 1782 and brought his father's family to Kentucky and settled near Maysville. He com- manded a battalion under Gen'l Wayne in 1794, was a Brigadier General of Ohio militia in 1805, and was at the battle of the Thames in 1813. He became quite poor and lost his land. He was regarded as second only to Boone as the greatest adventurer of the West. He was given a pension by Congress. He was in Kanawha county with Yeager and Strader in 1771, and was wounded by the Indians, and he returned to the Ohio river and probably

AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS

then went to Fort Pitt and afterwards to Ken- tucky.

He was a bold daring hunter of great endur- ance and sagacity and had great self-reliance in the Indian days of the wild west. He was greatly beloved and treated with great respect everywhere and Kenton county, Kentucky, was named in his honor.

SIMON GIRTY, THE RENEGADE

Old Simon Girty was an Indian trader in western Pennsylvania and he had four boys- Tom, Simon, Jim and George. They lived near Harrisburg, Penn., where the whites and In- dians lived much as Indians lived. One day old man Girty was killed by an Indian. The old man's best friend was a fellow called Turn- er, and he killed the Indian that had killed old man Girty, and then Turner married the wi- dow and the mother of the Girty boys. After- wards the Indians captured Turner and killed him.

Such was the training of Simon Girty, and he grew up to be as much of a savage and more so than any Indian, a cruel, unprincipled man, a traitor to his country, a renegade, a leader of the Indian enemies, a coarse low type of a Benedict Arnold, and the most hated man on the border. There is no doubt of his treachery and blood-thirsty cruelty, or that he led the savages under orders from the British, and to those he regarded as personal enemies he was brutal and cruel in the extreme. He first enlist- ed in the war of the colonies for American In- dependence with the Americans, but afterwards he went over to the British side and was used by them as an Indian interpreter and scout and for making the Indians war against the Ameri- can settlers, when the Indians were disposed to remain neutral. Simon Girty was born about 1740. He had been with Indians in many at- tacks on the settlers. He was present when William Crawford was burned and made no at- tempt to save him and he refused to shoot Crawford when the latter begged him to do so to save him from the torture.

He had been along with Indians in their forays against settlers when men, women and children were killed and he was an Indian among Indians. He was much worse than the

Indians, a mean type of very bad white man. He was at times very abusive, quarrelsome and noisy, and was a complete slave to liquor. Af- ter the Revolution was over, Girty went to Canada and lived to be a half blind, rheumatic, drunken old man and died in 1818.

WILSON HARRIS'S RECOLLECTIONS

Wilson Harris was the servant of Will- iam R. Cox, and he has given his recollec- tions, and although ninety years of age, in some respects has a remarkably clear memory. He says that he was born Oct. 28, 1821, in Amherst county and that he and his mother were brought to Kanawha and their home in Snow Hill Hollow, in the "Licks" on the day he was six years old, 1827.

That the furnace was run by Mr. Luke Wilcox, and that he remained at the fur- nace until Mr. Cox removed to Charleston in 1830, where he purchased a farm of seventy-five acres on the rear of the town, and which was reached by what was known as "Coxes Lane," now known as Capitol street. Mr. Cox died in 1843 and his widow afterwards built the brick house which was occupied by her family, after- wards by Col. J. N. Clarkson, then by John Slack, Sr. The wife of W. R. Cox was a Miss Hedrick and their children were Charles, William, George, and Frank, and Mrs. Cornelia Gillison, Miss Mary Ann and Miss Elizabeth. That Mr. Cox was a very active busy man, a kind hearted, generous man to his family and especially to his ser- vants. His son Frank in appearance was the image of his father.

Major James Bream was a salt maker and Wilson Harris says he worked for him, that the Major was a tall stout man, an out-spoken, kind-hearted old gentlemen, an Englishman and a Presbyterian and was the wealthiest man in the Valley. His manager was William Graham. "Peter" was his driver and "Terry" his gentle old horse.

Col. Joseph Lovell was a lawyer, a salt maker and a merchant. His furnace was on the South Side about a mile above the

HISTORY OF KANAWHA COUNTY

upper ferry, and his residence was on Vir- building, a tavern kept by James Wilson, ginia street in Charleston, and he sold his place of business to James A. Lewis, where now the twelve-story building has been erected. Col. Lovell was an exceeding kind, frank, familiar-spoken man. He be- longed to the Breams family.

Col. Andrew Donnally ran a furnace on the South Side. Also and among the other salt makers that he remembers were Mr. Prudy, Mr. Nash, Mr. Steele and Mr. Don- nally, Mr. Dickinson and Mr. Shrewsbury, Mr. William Tompkins and others. Gen- eral Ruffner's furnace was in Tinkerville. Daniel Ruffner kept a stage stand, a tav- ern and stable, where .Mr. Silas Ruffner afterwards lived.

Commencing on the river bank, Wilson says he remembers the house of Mr. Gar- reau, the hatter, then on the corner of Truslow street was Mr. Brigham, then Dr. Patrick, then the lower ferry, then the Gos- horn tavern kept by Silas Cobb. Mr. Hutt had a grocery; one of his daughters mar- ried Cobb, and another daughter married Judge Dunbar ; he lived above Court. John and William Goshorn did business on the bank below Court street. Mr. Williams made furniture, just above Alderson street on the bank. he used horse-power to run his lathe. Next came the tailor shop of John and William Truslow; Dr. Rogers had a drug store on the bank and then came the store of Mr. Shrewsbury where afterwards the Goshorns kept. Then there was a Mr. Hutt's tailor shop where Mr. Beller kept after the war. George and Frank Allen kept hardware, where Fisher and Fruth does now; Frank Noyes, kept drv goods where Mr. Ward lately kept ; William Brigham, clerk, was located on corner of Summers : John Welch. dry goods. above Summers and Mr. Fred Brooks had a mill just above the wharf boat. Then Thomas Whitteker ; then Davis Estell. dry goods: then Aaron Whitteker, general store: then Jas. A. Lewis, dwelling: then the post office in a frame building, replaced with a brick, built by W. Gray. Above Capitol street on the bank was a frame

father of Lewis Wilson; then the residence of a Presbyterian minister, Rev. M. Cal- houn about where the telegraph office is now. Wallace Whitteker's residence, then Mr. Cunningham's residence, the Mrs. Haycock ; Mr. Trudgeon, a carpenter. Dr. Watkins lived above and Mr. J. H. Fry the sheriff, was above.

Having come up Front street along the bank, as near as his memory served him, he now will proceed down the street on the opposite side. Bradford Noyes lived where Mr. J. Q. Dickinson now lives; a Mr. Fitzhugh lived where Mr. Rand after- wards lived; (that Mr. Fitzhugh went around on the Ohio river to Ravenswood.) Mr. Ruby lived next; Judge G. W. Sum- mers lived on the corner, and next below was a vacant lot; Mr. Fred Brooks lived below on corner of Brooks, (this was the old Clendenin Fort, a hewed log weather- boarded house) and below this lived Col. Smith. Then lived Aaron Whitteker and then came Col. Andrew Donnally, where John Goshorn afterwards lived. Judge Dunbar afterwards came up street and his residence was below Col. Andrew Don- ally's. Dr. Patrick's residence was next below: then Jas. C. McFarland, then John P. Hales on the lot on which the old stone clerk's office was. Then came Rev. Dr. Brown's next below Hale street; then Mr. William Brigham, then Dr. Cotton's two- story brick; then, on the corner of Capitol, there was a store kept by Brooks Brothers. Just below Coxe's lane was the Bank of Virginia, J. C. McFarland, Samuel Hanna, and John M. Doddridge, the officers. In the rear of this bank was the office of Dr. Putney. The upper ferry was kept by Capt. Jas. Wilson. After J. A. Lewis, Mr. Norris Whitteker was postmaster and the office was where Mr. Burlew's Hardware Store is now. Then came the old "Kana- wha House" on the corner of Summers street, kept by a Mr. Withrow, then by Aaron Whitteker and then by John G. Wright ; and here was the stage office, and here was killed Mr. Kenna by the Lewis

AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS

brothers. This house was burned at the get, but he is reliable as far as his disposi- time of the retreat of Col. Leghtburn dur- ing the war, and the Bank of Virginia and others were also.

Below - Summers was a Mr. Brigham's store, then Dr. Patrick's residence, then was the law office of Judge Summers, then the Beech Hotel, then a tavern by Mr. Ben Anderson, then a vacant lot to Alderson street. then a tavern by Orestes Wilson, then Samuel Beech's shoemaker ship, then George Wade, a baker, then a hotel be- longing to Mr. John Truslow, then a store- house kept by Adam Wright, then a hotel, which Mr. O. Wilson. also kept. Then we reach the Court House square, the Clerk's office which was taken care of by A. W. Quarrier. John and Alex Dryden, as assistants; then the George Bender, Sr., Charles Gabhart, and Mr. Hull, the black- smith's which was replaced by Mr. Lang- horn. the furniture maker, then the store and residence of C. J. Botkin, then Bob Snyder's baker shop, then Mr. Saunder's residence, a two-story log; then a brick the Farley House, which was said to be- long to "Stocking Leg Wilson" -- the only name ever heard given to him.

one-storv where Mr. Fox lived, and then ' ington; that immediately below was for Capt.

Next below Clendenin street came the mill built by Mr. William Rand and the only other house on this street, was down on the Point-a brick house where lived Mr. Charles Brown. the ferryman at the ferry across Elk river : his sons were Tally and Pitt and Porus. This Mr. Brown has some property up Elk near the mouth of Magazine and he was with the Browns and Slaughters buried there.

Wilson Harris has always been a good natured colored man, with good ideas of propriety and good manners and one whom the people have always been will- ing to receive in their houses. He has acted as nurse in the best families, and perhaps attended at the death bed of more men than any one person in the town. He is unwilling to say anything that he does not think is absolutely true. Of course, he may be mistaken : he may for-

tion to tell the truth goes; and even if it should be true, if not proper to repeat, it can not be had from him. He is now nearly ninety years old and time is bending him down some little but he is as ever, kind, gentle, and true to the nature of a gentle- man.

COALSMOUTH

S. P. Capehart says that it was in 1786 that Lewis and Sam Tackett and John Young came to Coalsmouth and erected a fort half a mile below Coal river, and a few hundred yards back from the Kanawha river. That they did not pretend to own the land. The creek that empties into Coal river was known as Tackett's creek, and that it was in 1789 when the Indians came from Ohio and captured the fort and Polly and Hannah Tackett made their escape.

Polly married a Mr. Rider and Hannah Mor- ris was her daughter. Stephen Teays settled at Coalsmouth in 1800, on the lower side of Coal, where he kept a tavern and a farm. The survey above Coalsmouth was made for Wash- Teays.

Morris Hudson came from Pennsylvania in 1808 and bought from Two and Three-quarter Mile creek and built a large double log house. His sons were David Jesse and Samuel and they lived there until the death of their father. Jesse took the upper, and Samuel the lower part of the land. Jesse had six girls and two boys and Samuel had two girls and six boys.

In 1816 Col. Philip R. Thompson came from Culpepper and purchased the Washington land up to Hudson's. Samuel T. Washington mar- ried a Hudson. Col. P. R. Thompson was a son of Rev. John Thompson. There were B. D. Thompson. Philip R. Thompson, John, Robert A., Francis, Benjamin S. Thompson, and William, and daughters, Mrs. Eleana B. Thornton, Mrs. Eliza R. Fry, and Sara E., M. A. Thompson, Berseder Dand, Jesse and Sam- uel Hudson. There were Mrs. Sarah Philson, Nancy Hudson and Mrs. Abigail Jones. There were the Hudsons and Thompsons on the up- per side and the Teays and Lewis family on the lower side of Coal river. John Lewis, a grand-

HISTORY OF KANAWHA COUNTY

son of Gen. Andrew Lewis, bought large tracts below Coal, built a large brick dwelling, which he called Valconlon, and here brought his wife, a daughter of Andrew Donnally; and John brought also his brothers William and Samuel Lewis.

There was a James T. Teays and a Stephen Teays. John Capehart married a daughter of Stephen Teays, and Stephen P. Capehart was a son of said marriage, born 1832. The post office was called Coalsmouth.

Col. Thompson laid off some lots and streets and sold some and called the place "Phillipi."

Morris Hudson gave the lot and built the church for the Episcopalians, and Mrs. Stephen Teays built a log church for the Methodists and retained the title-this was in 1820-and the brick Episcopal edifice was built in 1825. This was some distance above Coal.

Samuel Benedict, in 1856, bought part of the Thompson tract and laid it out in lots and streets and called it Kanawha City. The post office remained the same-Coalsmouth.

When the Chesapeake & Ohio Railroad was being constructed the Central Land Company purchased the Benedict-Cunningham land, in- cluding Kanawha City and made that a town and called all St. Albans, and there was the end of Coalsmouth, Phillipi, Kanawha City, and the old name for St. Albans. Coal river had been improved sufficiently by 1847 so that they could ship cannel coal to New Orleans. General Rosecrans was president of the Navi- gation Company.

The Chesapeake & Ohio Railroad was fin- ished in 1872-3. There was a Coal river boom on Coal river to catch and hold logs. Then there was a Coal river railroad built and which is now running, further mention of which may be found elsewhere in this volume.

TOBACCO A LEGAL TENDER

When the Colony of Virginia first settled on the James, among the many curious things they saw, was the Indians smoking tobacco. Upon examination they found that it was a broad leaf weed, that was cultivated, and taken care of until it reached a certain stage of de- velopment, when it was cut and dried and pre- pared for use, and then smoked in a clay pipe.

One of the peculiarities was that many of them smoked the same pipe and they all seemed to enjoy it.

- The colonists began to use it and they became fond of it and shipped some of it to England and the English too, became disposed to use it. Perhaps because it was an Indian custom, it was adopted in London. In 1616 it is said Governor Yeardly introduced it into England and there they began to call for it. There be- gan to be a demand and the colonists sent it to them, and thus began trade and commerce in tobacco. King James wrote against its use and said that it produced imbecility, etc., but the trade increased. In 1769 it was said there were one 20,000 shipped to London.

Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.

History of Charleston and Kanawha County, West Virginia and representative citizens, Part 11

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