History of Charleston and Kanawha County, West Virginia and representative citizens, Part 46

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 46

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).

can, as yet, only be estimated say about two thousand. Reading tables have been arranged at which all persons making research and in- vestigation have free use of books, maps, pamphlets, etc. It may be said that when catalogues and finding lists have been com- pleted, the people of the state will be much pleased with the collection.

THE MUSEUM SECTION OF THE DEPARTMENT -RELICS, CURIOS, COINS, GEOLOGICAL SPECIMENS, ETC.

Relics .- Here the archaeological collection is extensive and very interesting. The "stone age" or "flint age" refers to that period of prehistoric time-that age of the world- when men were without metals and they used the hardest substances around them from which to construct their implements and uten- sils. Among these stones were granite, chalce- dony, jasper, jade, obsidian and flint. From these by art all their own, they made celts, axes, mauls, hammers, pestles, wedges, adzes, chisels, gouges drills, perforators, scrapers, blades, spear and lance heads, arrow points, pipes, discoidals, bi-caves, game-stones, orna- ments, and the ceremonial forms used in their religious rites.

Students of archaeology have divided the continent into a number of archaeological areas, each distinguished by distinctive forms of implements and utensils, that the whole field may be more systematically studied and the results more accurately compared and classi- fied. West Virginia lies in part in three of these divisions-that is in the Potomac Area, the South Appalachian Area and the Ohio Valley Area. The state in Archaeology, like its history, is an unworked field, little having been done, as yet, save to destroy with vandal hands the mounds scattered here and there over its whole extent-the monuments of a vanished race.

It is stated that in North America there are now 4,500 archaeological collections in which there are estimated to be more than 2,000,000 objects. Of these collections, that in this de- partment is one of the very best, and now it attracts much attention from scholars and from all who see it. It is arranged and

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classified in 18 show cases and consists of 52 grooved axes; 16 grooved hammers or pound- ers; 31 pestles of various sizes and forms; 28 net-sinkers and plumb-bobs; 138 discoidal or disk-stones, 18 of which are bi-cave in form, five being perforated; seven stone balls, that is having the spherical form; 4 egg- stones; 15 hematite half ovals; 387 celts of various sizes and materials; 13 adzes; 56 chisels and gouges; 189 drills; 135 per- forators; 1,514 arrow-points, triangular in form, used in war; 3,264 arrow-points with shoulders, notches and barbs; 162 arrow- points with shoulders, notches, barbs and in- dented bases; 93 arrow-points with serrated edges; 9 arrow-points (bird) diminutive in size ; 35 spear-heads with concave or triangular bases; 105 spear-heads with square bases; I,I33 spear and lance heads without shoulders, notches or barbs, but with base in the form of a stem or shank; 56 knife-blades; 326 scrap- ers; 115 oval blades-that is having oval ends; 108 gorgets, ornaments, and cere- monials; 10 implements for which no use has been assigned; 89 broken blades not classified ; 52 pipes and fragments thereof; 387 unfin- ished implements and 2,064 cores, flakes, spalls, and fragments from the quarries-a total of 10,510 objects, or specimens, in the collection.

These implements, utensils, weapons, pipes, and ornaments have no place in history, for neither in blood, manners, speech, nor law, have the people who first used them left a mark in the land in which they lived. But they possess a peculiar interest to the student for whom they shed additional light upon the con- ditions of life among by-gone people. They indicate to him the upward steps toward civil- ization.

Curios, Coins, Geological Specimens, etc .- This division attracts much attention and is of great interest. Of curios alone there are about 500, all of which are suggestive, at- tractive objects. They are placed chiefly in show-cases-26 in number-and a list of them would fill many pages. There are early land warrants; commissions of pioneer soldiers and civil officers on the frontier ; old portraits ; stationery of the civil war and other times; bonds, shells, old books, natural curiosities ; implements of pioneer times and articles of household goods illustrative of life a hundred years ago. The collection is suggestive of war and peace, of both the olden and more recent times. There are guns, pistols, swords, fragments of shells, and bullets from many battle fields; pikes brought by John Brown to Harper's Ferry, and specimens of Chinese, Mexican, and Indian handiwork; rare medals, etc.

Of the curious kinds of money, coins repre- senting the circulating medium of many na- tions; nearly four hundred specimens of pa- per money, largely illustrative of old State Bank issues before the Civil War, and of the fractional currency made North and South during that struggle. In addition there is an entire case filled with bills of the Confederate States, representing many issues, and aggre- gating several thousand of dollars.

Of the geological specimens there are about one thousand. Many are fossils and petre fac- tions; while others represent almost every known variety of mineral substances.

The appropriation for expenses is $15,000 annually. In addition to Mr. Virgil Lewis, there are seven employees-four male, three female.

CHAPTER XXI

CHRONOLOGICAL RECORD

Chronological Record of Events Along the Border-Dates of Battles, Sieges, and Settlements -- Wealth of Charleston and Kanawha-Concluding Remarks.

By John P. Hale.

Believing that dates, systematically ar- ranged, very much aid the general reader in understanding the relation of facts to each other and help the memory to retain them, there is herewith given a table of dates, chronologically arranged, of the more impor- tant and interesting events that have occurred along the New-river; Kanawha and tribu- taries, relating to their early settlement and after history. To get early historical dates with accuracy is no easy task, and those who have tried it know. This trouble arises from the fact-heretofore stated-that those who made the history did not themselves record it at the time. This was generally done years after, either by themselves, or by their friends from their dictation, after the dates-never much regarded by them-had become some- what dim and uncertain. Those who have en- joyed the pleasure of listening to the interest- ing traditions of old, as related by the linger- ing members of the rear guard of a genera- tion now past and gone, those whose expe- riences dated back to the primitive days of border life, cannot fail to remember how often they used this almost stereotyped phrase, "in an early day," in recounting the incidents of "the long, long ago," away back in the dim distant past. "The good old times," which they remembered with so much interest and pleasure. forgetting, or but dimly remember- ing. the dangers and hardships which accom- panied their daring but successful. and there- fore pleasureable, adventures. Their goings

and comings and their doings were not guided by fixed rules nor programmes, nor cramped and fettered by cold records. They had a con- tempt for calendars and a negligent disregard of dates. Facts they remembered, and could relate with minutest detail; but they neither knew nor cared whether the events related oc- curred five or ten, or twenty years earlier or later: all they knew or cared to remember was, that they occurred "in an early day"- in the dim, indefinite and distance-enchanted past. We have taken great pains, however, to examine and compare dates, as given by all the authorities. records, traditions and other sources available, and believe that the accuracy of those given below may be relied on with reasonable certainty.

1654. Col. Abraham Wood was the first to cross the Blue ridge, and the first to discover New river, and to name it "Wood's river."

1666. Capt. Henry Battle was the next to cross the Blue ridge. It is possible that he was in the Kanawha valley, as he says he fol- lowed a westerly flowing river for several days to near where a tribe of Indians made salt.

1727. Cornstalk was born in this valley. Col. J. L. Peyton, in his valuable history of Augusta county, says he was born 1747, with- in the present limits of Greenbrier county, but the date is probably too late by twenty years, as his son. Elinipsico, was old enough to be a commanding officer under him at the battle of Point Pleasant, in 1774.

1730. John Salling, captured on James

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river, crossed New river on his way to the Cherokee towns. He was probably the first white man to cross it.

1734. Orange county was formed, and embraced this and all Virginia territory, west of the Blue Ridge.

1738. Augusta county, covering all west- ern Virginia territory, was formed, but was not organized until 1745.

1744. Rapin DeThoyer's may issued, giv- ing wild guesses at the geography of the great west.

1748. Dr. Thomas Walker and party crossed New river westward, and were the first, from this direction, to penetrate into Kentucky.

Draper's Meadows' settlement, the first west of the Alleghenies, was made by the Ingles and Draper families.

1749. The Loyal Land company, organ- ized by Walker, Paton and others, based on a grant of 800,000 acres of land, lying north of the North Carolina line and west of the mountains.

"In April, first Indian depredation west of the Alleghenies, upon Adam Harmon, one of the Draper's Meadows settlers.

"A lunatic from about Winchester wan- dered across the mountains westward. He was much surprised to find the waters flowing westward, and reported the fact on his re- turn."

1749. Capt. DeCeleron, a French engineer, planted an inscribed leaden plate at the mouth of Kanawha, claiming all the country drained by the river for the French crown.

1750. William Ingles and Mary Draper were married, at Draper's Meadows, the first white wedding west of the Alleghenies.

"Jacob Marlin and Stephen Sewell, influ- enced by the account of the lunatic, settled on the waters of Greenbrier, in what is now Pocahontas county. W. Va. They occupied the same camp for a time in peace and har- mony; but, one being a Catholic and the other a Protestant. they quarreled on religious sub- jects and separated: the seceder taking up his abode in a hollow tree, within speaking dis- tance of his late associate. Every morning, when they got up, they exchanged salutations

across the way and that was the last com- munication of the day. They were thus found by Col. John Lewis, who came to survey lands on the Greenbrier in 1751. Soon after this, Martin returned to the settlements; Sewell came, alone, down to New river, about Sewell mountain and creek, which bear his name, and was there killed by the Indians.

"Dr. Thomas Walker made his second trip with a second party, crossing New river and going up Peak creek, Cripple creek, Reed creek, over to Holston, to Clinch, to Cumber- land gap, etc. Returning, he came along the Flat Top mountain, by the present site of Pocahontas, down to New river, down New river to Greenbrier, up Greenbrier and An- tony's creek, over the mountains, and by the Hot and Warm springs, home."

1751. Thomas Ingles born to William and Mary at Draper's Meadows; the first white child born west of the Alleghenies.

Col. John Lewis and son, Andrew, survey- ing lands on Greenbrier river, which they so named from the green briers which greatly an- noyed them in their surveying; and the county was named from the river.

1752. Peter Fontaine, a surveyor, by or- der of the governor of Virginia, made a map, giving what was then known of the western part of the state. The map shows how little was known.

1753. Col. James Patton and William Ingles taking up lands, under the "Loyal Land Company," on Peak creek and in Burke's Garden.

1754. Ingles' Ferry located and settle- ments about it begun.

"James Burke settles in Burke's Garden and is murdered by Indians.

"Two families settle on Back creek, opposite Draper's Meadows.

"James Reed settles and names the first 'Dublin,' of this neighborhood.

"A McCorkle family and colony of Dunk- ards settle at Dunkard Bottom, near Ingles ferry.

"Two families settle on Cripple creek, a few miles above.

"One family settles at or near the head of Reed creek.

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"All these being on the west side of New river."

1755. Draper's Meadows settlement at- tacked, and all present massacred or captured.

1755. Mary Ingles and Bettie Draper, the first white persons ever in Kanawha valley.

"Mrs. Ingles and Mrs. Draper help make the first salt ever made by white persons in Kanawha, or elsewhere west of the Al- leghenies."

1756. Settlements again made west of New river.

"Vass' fort built under direction of Capt. Hogg, and advice of Col. George Washington. "A stockade fort built at Draper's Mead- ows, under direction of Capt. Stalnaker.

"Vass' fort captured by a party of French and Indians, and the inmates murdered or taken prisoners."

1756. The New river lead mines were dis- covered by Col. Chiswell, and operations be- gun.

1760. An Indian raiding party surprised by William Ingles, and others, near Ingles' ferry: six or seven Indians killed, and a few escaped. One white man killed. This was the last Indian raid or trouble that occurred in that region.

"Selim, the Algerine, of remarkable history, passed up the Kanawha valley in search of the white settlements to the east. Selim was a wealthy and educated young Algerine; he was captured in the Mediterranean by Spanish pirates; was sold to a Louisianna planter, escaped, made his way up the Mississippi, and up the Ohio. Somewhere below the Kanawha he met with some white prisoners; and a woman among them told him, as best she could in sign language, to go toward the rising sun, and he would find white settlements. As it was just about this time that an Indian raid had been made through this valley over to the Jackson's river settlements, and captured the Renix family and Mrs. Hannah Dennis, I think it is possible, and even probable, that they were the prisoners he met, and who told him of the eastern settlements. At any rate, he turned up Kanawha then Greenbrier, etc .. and was finally discovered, nearly naked, and on the point of starvation, not far from Warm

Springs, and kindly taken care of. Through a Greek testament in possession of some min- ister who saw him, it was discovered that he was a good Greek scholar; and thus com- munication was opened up between him and the minister who understood Greek. Selim studied English, became a Christian, returned to his home in Algiers, was repudiated by his parents because he had given up the Moslem for the Christian religion. He returned to America, heart-broken, and finally died in an insane hospital."

1762. Archibald Clendenin, and others settled on Muddy creek and the Big levels, now Greenbrier county.

"Ingles' ferry established by law-the first on New or Kanawha rivers."

1763. Mrs. Hannah Dennis, having es- caped from Indian captivity, made her way up through this valley, and, after great suffering, reached the Muddy creek settlement.

"Soon after this, a large Indian raiding party, under Cornstalk, passed up the valley to Greenbrier, and exterminated the Muddy creek and Big levels settlements."

1764. Capt. Paul, pursuing a returning raiding party of Indians with prisoners, sur- prised them in camp at the mouth of Indian creek. on New river, killed several and recov- ered the prisoners.

1764. Matthew Arbuckle, a hunter and trapper from the Greenbrier region, passed down the Kanawha valley with peltries, to a trading post at the mouth, and returned, being the first white man to do so.

1766. Butler and Carr hunted and trapped about the heads of Bluestone and Clinch.

"Col. James Smith, Joshua Horton, Uriah Stone and William Baker passed by New river and Holston settlements, and explored the country between the Cumberland and Tennes- see rivers."

1767. Butler, Carr, and others, settled families about the heads of Clinch and Blue- stone.

1768-69. George Washington, R. H. Lee, F. L. Lee and Arthur Lee petition King George for two and a half million acres of Western lands, for "The Mississippi Com- pany."

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1769. John Stewart, Robert McClennahan, Thomas Rennix and William Hamilton set- tled in the Greenbrier country, about where Frankfort now is.

1770. George Washington (says Collins' history of Kentucky), surveyed for John Fry 2,084 acres of land at the forks of Big Sandy, the present site of Louisa. Washington was also at the mouth of Kanawha the same year, looking after his own lands and his agent, Col. Crawford, is said to have been with him.

"Camp Union, or Fort Savannah, now Lewisburg, was built."

1771. Kenton, Yeager and Strader, the first white men to camp in Kanawha valley, settled about the mouth of Two-mile creek of Elk river.

"Absalom Looney, from Looney's creek, on James river, settled in Abb's valley, on the Bluestone."

I771-72. Col. Andrew Donnally built "Donnally's Fort"; Col. John Stewart, "Fort Spring"; and Capt. Jarrett, the "Wolf creek" or "Jarrett's Fort," all in the Greenbrier country.

1772. The medicinal virtues of the Green- brier white sulphur waters first tested by the whites. It had long been a famous elk and deer lick, among the Inians.

"A German, named Stroud, settled in the glades of Gauley river, where his family were murdered by the Indians."

1773. Tradition ( from Ballinger, the recluse,) of the -highest water ever known in New river or Kanawha.

"Walter Kelly, a refugee from South Caro- lina, settled at the mouth of a creek nineteen miles above Charleston, now Kelly's creek.

"Col. Thomas Bullitt,' Thomas Alsbury, Joshua Morris, John Campbell, and, perhaps, others were in this valley, looking up lands.

"Kenton, Yeager and Strader were attacked at their two-mile camp by Indians, Yeager being killed, and the other two wounded.

"The McAfee brothers, McCown, Adams, and others, from the New river settlements, joined by Col. Bullitt, Hancock Taylor and others on Kanawha, go to Kentucky to locate and survey lands. Bullitt surveyed Big Bone Lick, July 5th; McAfee brothers and Han-

cock Taylor, the site of Frankfort, July 15th; and Bullitt, the site of Louisville, August 5th.

"John and Peter Van Bibber, Rev. John Alderson, and Matthew Arbuckle, came down through the Kanawha valley from the Wolf creek fort.

"The Kanawha burning spring was first discovered by these parties, on this trip."

1774. William Morris settled at the mouth of Kelly's creek, on Kanawha, Leonard Mor- ris at the mouth of Slaughter's creek, John Flinn on Cabin creek, and Thomas Alsbury, and perhaps others, at points lower down. The family of John Lybrook, on Sinking creek, now Giles county, was attacked by Indians; five of the children were murdered, and Ly- brook narrowly escaped by secreting himself in a cave.

"In the same neighborhood, Jacob and John Snidow, and a smaller brother, were captured and taken to the Indians country. Jacob and John made their escape and returned, not long after; but the boy remained among them until he was completely Indianized; and, although he afterward came home on a visit, he re- turned to the Indians, and spent his life with them.

"A Miss Margaret McKinsie was, also, captured; she remained a prisoner eighteen years, when she was recovered and returned to New river; she married a Mr. Benjamin Hall, and lived to a very old age."

1774. Capt. Stewart, of Greenbrier, was notified of the impending danger of an In- dian outbreak and he dispatched runners (tra- dition says Hammond and Pryor) to notify the few settlers on Kanawha.

"Walter Kelly was killed at the mouth of Kelly's creek (Kanawha), Col. Field nar- rowly escaping.

"Gen. Lewis' army, about eleven hundred strong, left camp Union (now Lewisburg), for Point Pleasant, September IIth, piloted by Capt. Matthew Arbuckle."

1774. Daniel Boone was left in command of three frontier garrisons (probably camp Union, Donnally's fort, and Wolf creek or Jarrett's fort).

1774. Gen. Lewis' army arrived at Point Pleasant, September 30th.

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HISTORY OF KANAWHA COUNTY

"October 9th, three messengers arrive in camp, with dispatches from Lord Dunmore, changing the plans of the campaign. No one authority mentions the names of all the mes- sengers, but Mccullough, Kenton and Girty, one by one, are mentioned by several authors, and I have seen no other names mentioned by any.

"There is a tradition that, for some insolence on the part of Girty, on this occasion, Gen. Lewis caned him over the head and drove him out of his tent.

"October Ioth, the ever memorable battle of Point Pleasant was fought.

"October 12th, Gen. Lewis crossed his army over the Ohio and started to join Lord Dun- more before the Indian towns.

"Capt. Mathew Arbuckle was left in care and command of the wounded and the garrison at the Point."

1775. Gens. Washington and Lewis "took up" 250 acres of land at and embracing the famous Kanawha burning spring.

"Rev. John Alderson cut out the first wagon road across the mountains as far west as the Greenbrier.

"Thomas Ingles settled on Wolf creek of New river."

1776. Robert Hughes, the first settler at the mouth of Hughes creek, Kanawha, was captured by Indians, and remained two years a prisoner.

1777. Cornstalk, Elinipsico, Red Hawk, and another Indian murdered at Point Pleasant.

1777. Augusta, Botetourt and Greenbrier Volunteers, under Col. Skillern, march to Point Pleasant, to join forces under Gen. Hand, from Fort Pitt, but Hand's forces did not arrive.

"Lieut. Moore, and three men, killed by a small party of Indians, near the fort, at Point Pleasant-Fort Randolph."

1778. Fort Randolph (Point Pleasant) was besieged by a large force of Indians. Having failed to take the fort, they started up Kanawha toward the interior settlements. Capt. McKee, then in command, called for volunteer "runners," to go to the Greenbrier settlements and warn the settlers of the ap-

proach of the Indians. Hammond and Pryor at once volunteered and, being rigged out in Indian disguise, by the "Grenadier squaw," then at the fort, acting as interpreter, they reached the settlement safely, and their timely notice, no doubt, saved a terrible massacre.

"Donnally's Fort was attacked, in May, by the Indian party above mentioned; but, hav- ing been forewarned by Hammond and Pryor, and reinforced by volunteers from Camp Union, under Stewart and Lewis, they successfully resisted the attack; the Indians retired with considerable loss.

"Thomas Ingles settled in Abb's valley." 1780. Thomas Ingles resettled Burke's Garden.

"An Indian raid into Greenbrier resulted in the killing of John Pryor, one of the brave messengers, and Hugh McIver, and the cap- ture of their wives; also, Henry Baker and two Bridger brothers, and an old man, named Monday, and his wife, were killed, and the wives and children of Thomas Drennon and Mr. Smith made prisoners.

"A little later, William Griffith, his wife and daughter, were murdered, and a son, a lad, taken prisoner. This was the last Indian raid made, or murder committed. in the Greenbrier country.

"The trail of this last raiding party, only two in number, was discovered and followed by John Young, Benjamin Morris, William Arbuckle and Robert Aaron, as they passed down Kanawha, crossed Elk and went up Lit- tle Sandy: their camp was discovered on a fork of Sandy; they were fired on, one was killed and one escaped: the lad, young Grif- fith, was recovered. The one killed proved to be a white man, disguised as an Indian. The fork on which he was killed was, from this circumstance, called White Man's fork of Aaron's fork ( from Bob Aaron) of Little Sandy.

"A Mr. Carr and two children murdered near the mouth of Bluestone, and a woman at Culversom's Bottom."

1782. Thomas Ingles' family captured, and part murdered, in Burke's Garden.

"Lewisburg established as a town, with Samuel Lewis, James Reid. Samuel Brown.

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Andrew Donnally, John Stewart, Arthur Matthews, William Ward and Thomas Edgar, trustees.

"Thomas Teays, captured below the mouth of Coal river, taken to Ohio and condemned to be burned, with Col. Crawford. He was recognized and saved by an Indian, with whom he had hospitably divided his salt, when sur- veying in Teays' valley, the year before.

1784. James Moore, Jr., captured in Abb's valley.

1785. Captain John Dickinson located five hundred and two acres of land at and about Campbell's creek, including the "Big Buffalo Lick," or Salt Spring.

1786. The first wagon road, called "Koontz's new road," was opened from Lewis- burg to Kanawha river. Its route was by Muddy creek, Keeney's Knobbs, Rich creek, Gauley, Twenty-Mile, Bell creek and Camp- bell's creek, with side trails down Kelly's creek and Hughes' creek to the "Boat Yards."

"James Moore, Sen., of Abb's Valley, and two of his children killed, and the balance of the family made prisoners."

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History of Charleston and Kanawha County, West Virginia and representative citizens, Part 46

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