History of Charleston and Kanawha County, West Virginia and representative citizens, Part 3

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 3

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).

From the Cumberland mountain to the "Great Kanawha" is meant the "New River," or what is now known as the New River. Just how far this line to the Kanawha was to be extended depended on the beginning point and where it struck the said rivers. Where it fol- lowed the river and where it found the Gauley Mountain is rather indefinite, and where said mountain struck Harrison county line may have been very clear at the time, but is not so clear now.

The line of Harrison county is found in II Hennings Statutes, page 366, passed in May, 1784, dividing the county of Monongalia by a line to begin on the Maryland line at the fork- ford, on the land of John Goff; thence a direct course, to the headwaters of Big Sandy Creek; thence down the said creek to Tygart's Valley Fork of the Monongahela river; thence down the same to the mouth of the West-Fork river; thence up the same to the mouth of Bigger- man's Creek; thence up said creek to the line of Ohio county and that part of the said county lying south of said line, shall be known as "Harrison," and all the rest shall retain the name of Monongalia.

Ohio county was made in October, 1776,

SCENE ON ELK RIVER, CHARLESTON

VIEW OF CHARLESTON ON KANAWHA RIVER

AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS

from the District of West Augusta, within the following lines, viz :

"Beginning at the mouth of Cross Creek and up the same to the head of the same, then southeastwardly to the nearest part of the ridge which divides the waters of the Ohio from those of the Monongahela, thence along said ridge to the line which divides the county of Augusta from the said district; thence with the said boundary to the Ohio; thence up the same to the beginning; shall be called and known by name of "Ohio county."

The line between the county of Augusta and the district of West Augusta may have been known to some one, some day, but as we never seem to get any closer to anywhere, than when we started, we are going to assume that the lines of Kanawha and Harrison and Ohio were somewhere in the woods and reached the Ohio, perhaps, at some place unknown to any one of the present day.

When Ohio county was formed, its lower line was at the mouth of "Middle Island Creek" and upper line at the mouth of Cross Creek, which is above Wheeling. See January, 1904, West Virginia Historical Mag., page 21-22.

Greenbrier county was formed from Bote- tourt and Montgomery, by a dividing line of Botetourt, beginning at the top of the ridge which divides the eastern from the western waters, where the line between Augusta and Botetourt crosses the same and running thence the same course continued north fifty-five (N. 55 W.) west to the Ohio. Thence begin- ning at the said ridge, at the said lines of Au- gusta and Botetourt, running along the top of said ridge, passing the Sweet Springs to the top of Peter's Mountain; thence along the said mountain to the line of Montgomery county ; thence along the same mountain to the Kana- wha or New river, thence down the same to the Ohio. "And all that part of the counties of Botetourt and Montgomery between and to the westward of said lines shall be known as Greenbrier county."

We are satisfied that Greenbrier was on the north side of the Kanawha river at Charles- ton and Montgomery on the south side. But to locate definitely the lines of Kanawha, we

shall not attempt. We know that Belleville, on the Ohio river below Parkersburg, was in Kanawha and the mouth of Big Sandy, now at the Kentucky line, was in Kanawha county.

We might add that Augusta county was formed from Orange, in 1738, and extended from the Blue Ridge westward indefinitely. Botetourt was formed from Augusta.

One term of the Augusta county court was held at Staunton and another of same court, held in Pittsburg.

Orange county was formed from Spottsyl- vania, which was formed in 1720 and included Fredericksburg on the Potomac.

It might be said that in 1788, neither the legislature, nor any one else, knew much of the geography of the country west of the Alle- henies. There were but few inhabitants and no surveys that would give much idea of the locality of streams, and a mountain is quite indefinite as a land-mark. Consequently, the description in the Acts of the Assembly could be but indefinite.

"Beginning on the Blue Ridge etc.," might do for the eastern or western limit, but for north or south, it amounts to nothing. So with reference to the "Cumberland mountain," and when it comes to the "Gauley mountain," you find no such mountain on the map.

As to the northern boundary of the county of Kanawha it seems as obscure as the south- ern boundary is indefinite. We are not going to say that the boundary was then unknown, but we do say that with all the description given and all the information we have, that any one could locate exactly the boundary lines of the said county; it might, however, be lo- cated in the vicinity of where intended and that might be sufficient, as no one would have been added or excluded.

DISTRICT OF WEST AUGUSTA

The county of Augusta extended westward from the Blue Ridge, without limit, ad infini- tum. Which of course took in that part of Vir- ginia which was made into Kanawha. But the District of West Augusta was not a coun- ty, yet it had a court house and a court was held thereat. It was given a representative in the Assembly and was required to furnish sol-

HISTORY OF KANAWHA COUNTY

diers. Its limits was scarcely known, but the court held at Staunton would adjourn to meet at Fort Dunmore, afterwards known as Pitts- burg, and business was transacted in said court at this place in 1775.

The limit of this district was defined in 9 Hennings Statutes 262, in 1776, and it was

Pittsburg made claim to the forks of the rivers; the Pennsylvanians disputed the claim, saying it was in their state, and a little war was about ready to break out between them, and this was exactly what the Governor of Virginia wished to bring about-a little war between the col- onies.

PITTSBURG

YOHOGANIA CO.

CROSS

OHIO RIVER

CREEK

Wheeling &

GRAVE

IHO MONONGAHELA.

CHEAT

MARYLAND

FISHING

MIDDLE ISLAND

MONONGALIA CO.

WEST FORK

TYGARTS VALLEY.

So. Br. Poto

DISTRICT OF WEST AUGUSTA 1776.

made into three counties, viz: Yohogany, Mon- ongalia and Ohio. Harrison was taken from Monongalia, Kanawha joined on to Harrison, and with it, ran to the Ohio river. Whether any part of Kanawha was in the District of West Augusta or otherwise, we will not now decide, but we know that Belleville, on the Ohio just below Parkersburg, was in Kanawha county. Dunmore and the Virginians about

The description of the boundary line of Kanawha was decidedly indefinite and uncer- tain, both as to its northern lines and as to its southern lines, and badly mixed in the middle. We have a mental reservation as to much that we have written and give it with the under- standing that it may have nothing to do with the boundary of Kanawha.

Kanawha county was a large county when

issnorth fx Potomac

STONE

YOHOGHANY

AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS

made in 1788 and it is not a small one at this time. As we have failed to draw the lines definitely, so we are unable to give the counties that have been taken, in part or in whole from Kanawha, but as it is not easily ascertained we shall give a guess and let it go, viz : Wood, Wirt, Gilmer, Calhoun, Braxton, Webster, Nicholas, Clay, Roane, Jackson, Mason, Boone, Logan, Lincoln, Cabell, Wayne, Mingo, McDowell Summers, Raleigh, Fayette and Monroe. This would not be amongst the smallest states and Kanawha as she is, is not one of the small counties of the state. She has ten districts and they are Big Sandy, Elk, Charleston, Malden, Cabin Creek, Loudon, Washington, Jefferson, Union, Poca -Cabin Creek is a large district almost suffi- cient to make another county. When the state was formed in 1863, the divisions of the counties were called "townships" and the Board of Supervisors were directed to lay off the county as suited them, which was done in Kanawha, making then ten townships, which have remained substantially as the townships were made.

Big Sandy is highest up Elk river on both sides, Elk comes next on both sides of Elk river, Malden is on the Kanawha above Charleston, and Loudon on the south side opposite Malden, and Cabin Creek is the upper end of the coun- ty. Washington is on Coal river and Jefferson

reaches to the mouth of Coal river on the Kan- awha. Union takes the front on the north side of Kanawha and Poca between Union and Elk on the western part of the county.

Besides Charleston with her 23,000 people, there are St. Albans and Sattes, Spring Hill and South Charleston and then up to Kanawha City, just above on the Chesapeake and Ohio railway-Malden, on the opposite side on the K. & M. railway, just above Charleston, then Brownstown or Marmet, Lewiston and Coal- burg, Chelyan, North Coalburg, and from this it is town all the way up, with different names, to the upper line, near Montgomery. And the creeks are full of people, the towns are full of them and when it comes to voting or coming to a circus there seems to be no end of them.

Off to the northwest in Poca, on Poca river, nestles the little town of Sissonsville; up in Big Sandy district at the mouth of Big Sandy, on the Coal & Coke railroad is the town of Clen- denin, where they can find gas and oil anywhere at any time. At one time there was several oil factories making cannel coal oil, until it be- came so common to get oil out of the rocks, the factories ceased therefrom.

While it is usual to give each county one delegate to the House, they find that Kanawha is entitled to six, all of which is here related in order to give some idea of the size of Kana- wha as she is.

CHAPTER II

RIVERS

New River-Its Source and Direction-The Yadkin, Roanoke, Tennessee or Holstein-Elk River-The Gauley-Carnifex Ferry and its Associations-Coal River, in Prose and Verse-Tom Swinburn-Development and Prosperity of this Region-Surveys on Coal River-St. Albans-Coal River Railroad-Kanawha River and Tributaries-Cabin Creek; Why so Named.

NEW RIVER

This is a wonderful stream, because water will run down a hill side, and it seems to have always found just such hill- sides to run down, and much of the time and in many places, it is said to have fallen down.

It heads away in North Carolina and keeps coming north on the eastern side of the Blue Ridge, then goes through this Ridge and after finding itself in Virginia, then gets into West Virginia and winds along northward until it meets the Green- brier at Hinton, then its course is westward until it meets the Gauley, and then they lock arms and tumble over, falling about twenty feet, it then gets up with a new name, and is called "Kanawha" and goes along until it finds the Ohio, at Point Pleasant.

"The Way the Water Comes Down at Lodore," is a pretty fair description of the way the New River reaches the Gauley; not only is it like the Gauley, but it is even more so. It is a dangerous stream, even when there is no water in it. A stream that cannot be held within bounds by mountains, that will find its way through the Blue Ridge and the Alleghanies could only be happy while rushing down a hill.

Much has been written about its name and the discussion seems to have settled

down to the fact that its origin is due to an explorer, Mr. Woods having pronounced it a "New One." Col. Abram Woods in 1654 discovered it; some called it "Woods River" and some called it "Kanawha," and some old maps had it marked as "New River," and an old river called "New" seems quite satisfactory to all people that have any knowledge of the stream.

It flows through Patrick, Floyd, Pulaski, Giles, Mercer, Summers, Raleigh, Fayette and Kanawha counties some what, more or less. Within a radius of a few miles, four streams take their rise, their waters inter- locking with each other near the Virginia and North Carolina line; then they bid farewell and flow off each in their respective ways to the four corners of the earth.

New River rises on the slope of "Grand- father mountain," then it strikes out nearly due north, into Virginia.

The Yadkin starts from near the same point and flows nearly south through the Carolinas into the Great Pedee.

The Roanoke, or the Dan branch of it, heads along on the line between Virginia and North Carolina, and flows nearly east, until it joints the Stanton.

The Tennessee, called the Holstein, rises near the same line and makes its way for the west.

So in the northern part of the state will

AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS

be found another nest of rivers, the James, the Potomac, the Monongalela, Tygart's Valley, Greenbrier, Gauley, all start from near the same point and proceed in oppo- site directions to the four corners of the world, so to speak, and in the Kanawha will be found water from both of these heads of streams.

The country through which the New River flows is called the New River Canyon.

While our state was taken from Virginia, which is called "East Virginia" and our State "West Virginia," the western part of East Virginia is further west than any part of West Virginia, and our New River is as old as any of them.

ELK RIVER

This stream heads up in the Alleghenies, in Pocahontas, near the head of the Gauley and all other rivers, and its general course is much the same as that of the Gauley; it reaches the Kanawha river about forty miles below the Kanawha Falls; the mouth of the Gauley and about sixty miles from the Ohio river where the Kanawha empties its waters.

The Elk is rather a quiet stream and makes its way along peaceably and well behaved, though some times it gets on a "high" and frightens some people that do not desire to become "wet."

Although the Elk starts near the Gauley and runs in near same course, the lay of the land through which they run must be quite different. In Webster, at one place there is only a hill between them, but the Gauley started up much higher than does the Elk, and it is said that "the Gauley looks down on the Elk," so to speak, and should a tunnel be made through the hill, the Gauley would tumble into the lap of Elk.

Besides Pocahontas and Webster, Elk river flows through Clay and Kanawha counties.

The Elk is a good railroad stream, really at times has some water and when Elk and Gauley rise at the same time, it makes the Kanawha boom.

The Elk has some good land, good farms,

good timber and coal and other minerals thereon and is a stream to be proud of.

How it ever came to be called "Elk" we have not been told; perhaps it was because they found things thereon, "a little dear," or perhaps it was to furnish the order of Elks with some peculiarities.

GAULEY

This stream heads up in the mountains of Pocahontas county near the head of the Potomac, James and Monongahela, and it passes through the counties of Pocanontas, Webster, Nicholas, Kanawha and Fayette, and joins the New River just above the Kanawha Falls, from which confluence the stream is called the Kanawha.

As a river it is totally unfit for naviga- tion ; it is falling all the way down and at no one place can it be called "the Falls of Gauley." Start a pine log down the Gauley, by the time it reaches the New River it cannot be recognized as a log for lumber, but if one was searching for kind- ling-wood, he would know it immediately.

The mountains of Gauley come close to the stream and give the appearance of the stream having cut its way through, and that it was not long in the cutting. The mountains are high, rough and rocky. Where the name for this stream was found, is unsettled, and in this respect it is much like the stream itself.

Once, a long time ago, there was a Ger- man family settled on this stream some where, but the Indians wanted scalps and they took them, and burned the home. The name of the family was "Stroud" and there was nothing unusual in this case, only that the white people did not anticipate their prob- able fate for remaining unprotected.

There is a place on this stream known as "Carnifax Ferry" which has become his- toric. Rosecrans and Cox, U. S. A. found Floyd and Wise, C. S. A. near this ferry and Gual Cox attacked General Floyd and they made the hills boom with their can- nonade during the day, and that night Floyd got away from there, leaving some pine logs in the place of his cannon "to fool

HISTORY OF KANAWHA COUNTY

the Yankees." Floyd and Wise would not aid each other and this was exactly as Gen- eral Cox desired, and the place with its as- sociations, was ever recognized as an amus- ing military joke. The river is not much of a stream for fish nor for water.

COAL RIVER

To compare the quality and beauty of rivers is not a new matter. "Are not Abana and Pharpar rivers of Damascus, better than all the rivers of Israel?" This was said about 2800 years ago, and may we not ask now whether Coal river is not the best in the world? Listen.

We have Tom Swinburn for the state- ment, as to the origin of this river, and hav- ing accepted this statement, cannot now repudiate the same altogether, and Tom, really, does know some things and we can be assured of the poetry of the authority given, and thus he said in the West Virginia Historical Magazine for July, 1902:

" God dropped Coal River round the hills about

" In West Virginia. Told it to get out

" As best it could. And then forthwith began

" Its search to find out where its channel ran." * * * * *

" Coal River is not like New River's way-

" But moves in quiet peaceful gait along-

" Its current running neither swift nor strong,

" With sleepy mien as though it mattered not

" When, where or how it reached its goal or what

* " Should happen on the way. * *

" Coal River runs not so, but turns away "Upon its heel and smiling seems to say

"'Oh I can find another way perhaps'-

"Like some great vine spread out upon the ground

" Coal River reaches all the region round-

" Snake-like, it winds, then forks and forks again, * * *

" Its thousand branches branch again * * * * *

" This whole extent uncursed by any town

"Unmanned by any factory of smoky frown;

" No railroad jars the startled sleeper's peace * *

" Nor steamboat problem *

"In vain were all attempts to wake her up

"Or break the spell of her lethean cup,

" Tho' charmers charmed so wisely and so long,.

" She'd heard the singing of the Siren song.

" Ask T. L. B. what years he spent

" In weaving facts and figures, wisely blent,

" What stacks on stacks of pages sown broadcast? * * * * *

" Coal River will wake up for good, at last. * * * * *

" I take a snap-shot at Coal River-now-"

T. S.

Tom Swinburn, the Coal river poet-law- yer, brought up on this stream, knew it and its people well, and all its beauty doth he tell, how that it is in no way to compare with New River or Gauley, nor really with any other streams,-it's best of all.

This stream heads in Releigh county on the south side of the Kanawha and New river, and reaching "its goal," at St. Albans, on the Kan- awha river, twelve miles below the mouth of Elk

"The Marshes of Coal" means the head wa- ters of Coal river. It starts in a great coal field, and never leaves the same; that is, it keeps within a wonderful coal field all the way.

To do justice to the coal and timber on this stream in a description would be impossible, and if justice were approached, the reader would become incredulous and be like the man who refused "to believe the fish story."

Coal river is indeed a wonderful stream and waters a great country. It is in the heart of the greatest coal field in the world, with many kinds of coal, cannel and bituminous, and perhaps it may sound like a "fish story," but there is a vein of coal 22 feet thick on coal river.

As for timber there is more timber of the best quality than can be found elsewhere in any discovered country.

It is true that we have read pages on pages, "stacks on stacks" of Maj. Thomas L. Broun's description of Boone county lands on Coal river, but his facts have awakened the world and there is now more development going on, to get this wealth, railroads rivalling each other to get there first, and lands are proving that the half has not been told.

General Rosecrans was at the head of the Coal River Navigation Company, which built locks to boat out cannel coal, but while he was fighting it out, during the Civil war, the river washed out the improvements and lately they have substituted a railroad for boats.

There was a survey of land made for Wash- ington at the mouth of Coal river. In 1786 there began a settlement, made by the Tacketts, Lewis, and perhaps others. John Young was with them and they erected a house, called

AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS

"Tacketts Fort," below the mouth of Coal river, and a few hundred yards back from the Kana- wha river.

Capt. Teays made a survey below Coal river. It was in 1847 that improvements were begun on the stream to make it navigable, which during the Civil War, were about destroyed, it being decided that they were too expensive to be kept up. St. Albans is the present name of the town at the mouth of Coal; it seems to have had several names since it began, and there is much enterprise and business going on at this point of Kanawha county, besides the changing of names.

The Coal River railroad starts from this point and reaches Boone court house, and there will be branches of the railroad up each of the forks and branches of the river.

KANAWHA RIVER

It has long since been settled that this river extends from the confluence of the New River with Gauley to the Ohio river, about one hun- dred miles. Much might be said for the Kan- awha, but it should be seen to be appreciated. From the mouth of the Gauley, it spreads out wide, and when it reaches the falls, it falls per- pendicularly about twenty feet. The Kanawha seems to be made up of pools, deep places with a ridge or shallow place between; at least this was the contour of the river before the U. S. government took charge of it, and now with the improvements placed therein, it is pool all the way down. Large boats, with many barges of coal, can navigate the river with ease at any time of the year, while before it was difficult to have a boat of any size pass up or down in the summer, with or without a load.

Too much can not be said for the Kanawha river improvement, and the shipping facilities are perfect and satisfactory in every respect. But for the drawback imposed on the river by the people of Virginia, in washing the ore, which renders the water muddy, it would be the most beautiful and the most subservient stream in the world, while muddy water is not attractive, nor healthy, and drives the fish away.

The Kanawha is fed by numerous creeks, all the way down to its mouth and then there is also the Elk River, Coal River, and some call

"Pocatalico" a river; it borders on the line be- tween a river and a creek; it is almost too large for a creek and hardly large enough for a river.

CABIN CREEK, WHY SO NAMED-PAINT CREEK

The main facts are clear, but the details are uncertain : One Mr. Flynn, some say Patrick and others say John, came from somewhere, sometime, and it is said he went up a short dis- tance from the mouth of a creek, on the Kana- wha, and there on a branch he built his cabin and there took his family. He had a wife, a son John, some say William, and a daughter Rebecca, and the branch on which his cabin was built was called Flynn's Wet Branch (some say Dry Branch) and 'tis said that the Indians came, and took away John and Rebec- ca, and all the rest, with the cabin, were de- stroyed, some say in 1774, which probably was too early. John and Rebecca were made pris- oners and taken to Ohio somewhere and John made his escape and returned to Kanawha. Rebecca afterwards married an Indian warrior, who had a daughter which was called Eliza- beth and Elizabeth afterwards married Simeon Jarrett, of Monroe county, from whom de- scended a numerous posterity.

John May, of Petersburg, desired to take de- positions in Kentucky and he had a clerk, Mr. Charles Johnson, and in February, 1790, they started by way of Kanawha and caught up with George Clendenin and Jacob Skiles and others going to the Kanawha. Mr. May purchased a boat at Kelly's Creek, and on this boat, May, Johnson and Skiles, started for Maysville, or Limestone, as it was called, leaving the mouth of Elk went to the mouth of the Kanawha and there they were joined by John or William Flynn (perhaps John William), Dolly and Peggy Fleming, sisters, from Pittsburg, and they all started for Limestone, Ky. At the mouth of the Scioto, two white men hailed them and begged to be taken aboard as they were escaped prisoners, and they were induced to land and the Indians rushed down on them and all were caught. May and Dolly were shot and killed, Skiles was caught, as were Peggy and Flynn, captured, being wounded. The white men who decoyed the boat were Devine and Thomas. Flynn was burned. Skiles made his

HISTORY OF KANAWHA COUNTY

escape. Peggy was redeemed and sent back to Pittsburg. Johnson wrote an account of his captivity, called "Johnson's Narrative." He was sold to a Frenchman, taken to Niagara, then sent home by way of New York and Richmond, to his home. Skiles was a Kanawha surveyor and owned much land. He belonged to the Ramsey family. Mrs. Spelman of Charleston was related to the Mr. Charles Johnson and this is the history of Cabin Creek. The only wonder being that nearly all the creeks were not so named.

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History of Charleston and Kanawha County, West Virginia and representative citizens, Part 3

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