USA > West Virginia > Hampshire County > History of Hampshire County, West Virginia : from its earliest settlement to the present > Part 24
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It was not long after land had been farmed and its best grain growing elements extracted until the need of fertil- izers was felt. Among the earliest fertilizers used in this county were lime and ground gypsum or plaster. These enriched the soil to a certain degree, but there was a desire for something that would have a more immediate effect. Something that would have a direct effect on the crop on which it was sown. This led to the use of manufactured fertilizers. As early as 1852 Philip B. Streit and Rev. John M. Harris were using Peruvian guano on their farms on Jersey mountain. This guano was put up in Rich- mond, Virginia, and proved a very excellent stimulus to crops. The acid fertilizers so widely used on our fields today have not been generally used for more than twenty years. When first placed upon the market these fertil- izers sold at from thirty to forty dollars a ton.
In the days of early settlements the matter of soil was of little importance. The pioneer cleared his field and farmed it until the growing qualities of the soil were
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exhausted. But all around him was wooded lands whose soil had never felt the plow, and for the clearing these became his fields. When the country became more thickly settled there was a limit to the acreage of each man. Then the preserving of soils and the reclaiming of those already barren, became a matter of interest. There is, perhaps, no more important matter confronts the far- mer today than the proper care for his newer soils and the reclaiming of now barren tracts. The soil upon our hills and valleys is the accummulation of untold geological ages and its wasteful destruction should not be permitted. When once destroyed it can only be replaced, if at all, by years of careful agriculture and unmeasured work.
Hampshire county has for years been noted as a stock raising center and is even supposed to have been named . after Hampshire in England because the two districts very much alike in the production of fine hogs. As long ago as 1750 droves of hogs were driven from the South branch valley to Winchester to market. Cattle were raised and marketed within a few years after this date. Improved stock have been introduced from time to time and the county yet has many advantages as a stock raising district, though from being more thickly populated there is less range than in the early days of its settlement. Man's progress upwards has been largely due to his sub- jugation of other animals and of plants. The friends he has won have made their own bondage more complete by the added strength they have given their captor. So long as man was content with the meager supplies of flesh he could capture from the forest, and, so long as he depended upon the uncultivated hills and valley to furnish him grains and fruits, his advancement was slow. To his lack of ability to domesticate we may ascribe the backward condition of the American Indian when discovered by the whites. He had no domestic animals, as the horse, cow or hog; his domestication of plants had been limited to corn
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and tobacco, while of tame fowls he had none. The Aryan race are the great domesticators of the earth. The white man has his scores of friendly animals and plants to help him in the struggle for existence. He ranges his stock and tills his fields and plants his orchards. Probably the last phase of agriculture to receive attention in this county was the growing of fruits. Many can yet remein- ber the puny orchards that surrounded the early settler's · cabin, or the chance scrubby tree that stood in the com- mons like a ragged vagrant asking for sustenance. Apples were apparently the first fruit cultivated and there are standing today many trees a half century old. Peaches were next, but chiefly seedling varieties, until 1875, when budded fruit began to be planted as an experiment. There are at present some extensive peach farms in. Hampshire. Those of Harry Miller, near Bethel church, on Little Capon, and then controlled by a stock company, near Romney, are the most extensive. Pears, plums. cherries and quinces have all been cultivated with varying degrees of success for the last half century, but no one has planted extensively of these fruits. The soils of the county seem well adapted to the growing of nearly all fruits that can be raised in the temperate zones. A con- siderable development of this line of agriculture may be looked for in the future.
The West Virginia Fish Commission .- An act was passed February 20, 1877, creating this commis- sion for the purpose of encouraging the culture of fish and the stocking the streams of the state. The first commis- sioners were, Major John W. Harris of Greenbrier, Hon. Henry B. Miller of Wheeling, and Captain C. S. White of Hampshire. These were appointed June 1, 1877, for a period of four years. The commission organized July 17, 1877. by electing Major Harris president, Captain White secretary, and H. B. Miller treasurer. In the summer of 1877 Captain White purchased of Charles Harmison the
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Maguire Springs near Romney, and erected and equipped a hatchery at a cost of seven hundred dollars. The com- mission also purchased the Maguire Springs, including one-fourth acre of land for five hundred and fifty dollars. In 1879 Major Harris resigned and N. M. Lowry was ap- pointed in his stead. H. B. Miller was then elected presi- dent. In 1880 the grounds were greatly improved. New ponds were constructed and the grounds about the hatchery enclosed by a tight seven foot fence. A house for the manager of the hatchery to use as a dwelling was built in 1885. In June of 1885, Hon. L. J. Baxter of Brax- ton county, was appointed commissioner, succeeding Mr. Miller. C. S. White was made president. In June of the next year M. A. Manning of Summers county, was ap- pointed commissioner, vice N. M. Lowry, removed from the state. Mr. Manning removed from the state the next year, and Hon. James II. Miller was appointed in his stead. This year the ponds were much enlarged. In 1889 N. C. Prickett, Esq., of Jackson county, was appointed in place of J. H. Miller. In the year 1391 a new hatching house was built and equipped, an addition was made to the dwel- ling. The ponds were also repaired and enlarged. The following persons have been managers at the hatchery: From June. 1878, to May. 1880, Z. N. Graham; from Octo- ber, 1830, to January, 1881, R. G. Ferguson; from January, 1881, to August, 1881, W. H. Maloney; from July, 1883, to February, 1886, William Montgomery; from April, 1886, to April, 1895, F. P. Barnes. Before Z. N. Graham was appointed manager, and during other intervals, when there was no manager, Commissioner White served in that capacity.
In the year 1877 and for some years thereafter it was confidently believed by United States Commissioner Baird and all leading fish culturists that the California salmon, a fish of fine quality, could be successfully introduced into our streams, and at his request the first and most expen-
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sive efforts of the West Virginia commission were made by hatching and depositing in adjacent streams large num- bers of this fish. This hatching was successfully accom- plished by Captain White in charcoal troughs of his own design and manufacture. The salmon did well in the South branch and Potomac and went to the sea. Numbers of them were caught all the way from Romney to Wash- ington. High hopes were entertained that this experi- ment would prove a success, but to the surprise of all in- terested in fish culture, the salmon never returned to our streams to spawn nor to any other stream entering the Atlantic ocean, although they invariably return to streams entering the Pacific. It will be interesting to give some figures showing the work done by the commission. In the years 1877-78 about 675,000 salmon, 100,000 trout, 1,200 black bass, most of them large enough to spawn, were dis- tributed. In the years 1879-80 there were distributed 360,000 salmon, 165,000 shad, 600 carp, 2,000 gray bass and 1,400 native fish (black bass, pike, perch, jack and blue catfish), together with large numbers of mill-pond roach, as food for the bass. In 1881 and 1882 the commission put out 18,500 land-locked salmon, 7,000 trout, 2,000 carp, 600 black bass, 125 silver perch, 25 pike perch.
The appropriations since that time ($500 a year) have been so meagre that the work of the commission has been devoted almost entirely to the raising of carp and native fish, and food fish for the bass. The streams of the state are now pretty thoroughly stocked with these fish. New river, Gauley and Greenbrier rivers, with their tributa- ries, have been supplied with black bass until now they contain great numbers of these fish. Many depleted trout streams have been restocked and many streams have been supplied with small food fish for the bass. In 1893 the legislature failed to make any appropriation for the com- mission nor have succeeding legislatures done anything. All that is now done by the commission is to care for the
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state houses and ponds and furnish carp as they are called for.
Farmers' Alliance .- The only organization of agri- cultural people in this county that has met with success is the National Farmers' Alliance and Industrial Union. In the spring of 1889 W. B. Parham was commissioned by Colonel Barbee of Virginia, to come to Hampshire county and lecture at the same time, perfecting local organizations of the Alliance. Mr. Parham accordingly labored here in the spring and summer of 1889, meeting with considerable success and bringing into life many sub-divisions of the organization. In answer to a call these local sub-divisions of the Alliance sent delegates to Romney Tuesday, July 23, 1889, at which time the county Alliance was organized. There is a store at Romney which is under the control of the Alliance. Shares are issued to members of the organ- ization only, and a board of directors have the management of the enterprise. The present officers of the Alliance in this county are, Dr. J. W. Shull, president; David Fox, vice-president; John Breinig, secretary; Geo. M. Haines, chaplain; L. H. L. Henderson, lecturer; Joseph H. Clem, assistant lecturer.
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CHAPTER XXVII.
REMINISCENCES OF WASHINGTON.
BY HU MAXWELL.
Allusion has been made in other chapters of this book to the fact that George Washington earned on the the South branch his first money, which became the foundation of his fortune. It is not amiss to enter more fully into de- tails of the great man's visits to Hampshire, when he was a mere youth, and before he had won the justly-deserved fame of after years.
"His greatness he derived from heaven alone, For he was great ere fortune made him so; And wars, like mists which rise against the sun, Made him but greater seem, not greater grow."
It is the purpose in this chapter to give extracts from Washington's diary and letters, referring to the South branch and neighboring country. Early in the spring of 1748 he made the acquaintance of Lord Fairfax, who had but lately arrived from England to take possession of his vast estate in Virginia. He sent Washington, who was just past sixteen years of age, to examine and survey the lands. George William Fairfax accompanied him. On March 18, 1848, Washington entered in his journal: "Thomas Beckwith's on the Potomac. We agreed to stay till Monday. We this day called to see the famed warm springs, and camped in the field all night." These springs are at Bath, in Morgan county. There was high water at that time, and the party did not venture to cross the river, but on March 20, Washington writes: "Finding the river not much abated, we, in the evening, swam our horses over
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to the Maryland side." March 21, "Traveled up the Maryland side all day in a continual rain, to Colonel Cre- sap's, over against the mouth of the South branch." March 25. "Left Cresap's and went up to the mouth of Patter- son's creek. There we swam our horses over the Potomac and went over ourselves in a canoe and traveled fifteen miles, where we camped." March 26, "Traveled up to Solomon Hedges', one of his majesty's justices of the peace in the county of Frederick, where we camped." The next day the party reached the South branch, and on March 28, this entry was made: "Traveled up the South branch about thirty miles to Mr. J. R.'s (horse jockey), and about seventy miles from the mouth of the river." It is proba- ble that Washington overestimated the distance from the mouth of the river by about ten miles. It is not likely that the distance had been measured at that time. On March 30 he wrote: "Began our intended business of laying off lots." On April 4 he made an entry showing the kind of people who then lived there, and who were all squatters on the lands of Lord Fairfax, or at least on land claimed by him; but some of them considered the land as their own, and in after years suits were brought to quiet the title, some of the suits remaining on the court dockets unde- cided for a generation. On April 4 he writes: "We were attended with a great company of people, men, women and children, who followed us through the woods, showing their antic tricks. They seem to be as ignorant a set of people as the Indians. They would never speak English, but when spoken to they all spoke Dutch."
To judge from this, the country must have had a consid- erable population at that time, and this population was largely German. It is also interesting to note that many localities then had the names by which they are still known, such as Patterson's creek, the Trough and South branch Many years after that this river is given the Indian name, Wappacomo, in deeds and other public records, and one
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might be led to suppose it had no other name; but the journal of Washington shows that in 1748 it was called South branch, the same as now. While surveying in the vicinity of Moorefield Washington boarded at Mr. Van Meter's, a relative of an influential family of the same name which has ever since been identified with the inter- ests of Hardy and Hampshire counties. It appears that, although Washington made his headquarters at Van Me- ter's he slept in a camp; for, on April 7, he records that he slept at the house of a man named Casey, and says it "was the first night I had slept in a house since coming to the branch." On April 8 Washington wrote in his journal: "We breakfasted at Casey's, and rode down to Van Meter's to get a company together, which when we had accomplished, we rode down below the Trough to lay off lots there. The Trough is a couple of mountains, impassable, running side by side for seven or eight miles, and the river between them. You must ride round the mountains to get below them." The surveying below the Trough was completed in a couple of days, and on April 10 Washington wrote: "We took our farewell of the branch and traveled over hills and mountains to Coddy's, on the Great Cacapehon, about forty miles." This Coddy was none other than Caudy, a well-known pioneer who was a noted Indian fighter in after years, and from whom Candy's Castle was named, It is interesting to note how Washington spelled Capon. He was not a very accurate speller, but usually spelled words as they were pronounced, and it is tolerably conclusive evi- dence that Capon was then pronounced as Washington spelled it. For the various spellings of the word, the reader is referred to the chapter in this book on early lands and land owners. From Capon, Washington and Fairfax proceeded home, and closed their business in Hampshire for that time. The report to Lord Fairfax proved satisfactory, and Washington was appointed public surveyor. That office was then somewhat different from
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what it is now. Fairfax owned all the land, or at least had a perpetual lien on all of it, and there was no "public," so far as a surveyor's duties extended.
Tradition has long maintained, and many people believe it, that the bottom lands of the South branch in Hampshire county, both above and below Romney, were laid off into lots by George Washington. Such, however, was not the case. This part of the county was surveyed prior to Oc- tober 19, 1749, by James Genn, in the employ of Lord Fair- fax. It was originally the purpose of Fairfax to retain the level land along the South branch and the adjacent hills, as a manor; but he changed his mind and offered the land for sale.
In the fall of 1753 Washington passed through Hamp- shire, on his way to the upper tributaries of the Ohio, on his mission from the governor of Virginia to the French in that country. The next year he was in the county again, on his way with troops to build a fort where Pitts- burg now stands. In 1755 he passed through the county again, accompanied by General Braddock, on the ill fated expedition which met disaster on the bank of the Monon- gahela. The road by which this army marched is yet to be seen in some parts of Hampshire county. It passed through Spring gap, and crossing the Potomac near the mouth of Little Capon proceeded to Cumberland on the Maryland side of the river. After Braddock's defeat the Indians became troublesome along the frontier. On October 11, 1755, Washington wrote from Winchester to the governor of Virginia saying: "The men I hired to bring intelligence from the South branch returned last night with letters from Captain Ashby, and other parties there. The Indians are gone off." This refers to an Indian incurson a short time before. "It is believed their numbers amounted to about one hundred and fifty, that seventy-one men are killed and missing, and several houses and plantations destroyed. I shall procced by quick
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marches to Fort Cumberland in order strenghen the gar- rison. Besides these, I think it absolutely essential to have two or three companies of rangers to guard the Poto- mac waters. Captain Waggoner informed me that it was with difficulty he passed the Blue Ridge for crowds of people who were flying as if every moment was death. He endeavored, but in vain, to stop them, they firmly believ- ing that Winchester was in flames." It can thus be seen that the Indian warfare must have been savage when seventy-one men on the border, perhaps nearly all of them in Hampshire county, were killed in a few days. On November 18, 1755, Washington wrote: "I think, could a brisk officer and two or three sergeants be sent among the militia stationed on the South branch, they would have probable chance of engaging many, as some were inclined to enlist at Winchester." On April 7, 1756, Washington wrote: "Mr. Paris, who commanded a party, is returned. He relates that upon the North river he fell in with a small party of Indians whom he engaged, and after a contest of half an hour, put them to flight." Washington states that he had just sent an officer and twenty men to reinforce Edwards' fort on Capon. Again on April 22, 1756, Wash- ington wrote to the governor of Virginia: "Your honor may see to what unhappy straits the inhabitants and my- self are reduced. I see inevitable destruction in so clear a light that, unless vigorous measures are taken by the assembly, and speedy assistance sent from below, the poor inhabitants that are now in fort, must unavoidably , fall, while the remainder are flying before the barbarous foe. Ashby's letter is a very extraordinary one. The design of the Indians was only, in my opinion, to intimi- date him into a surrender; for which reason I have written him word that, if they do attack him, he must defend the place to the last extremity, and when bereft of hope, to lay a train to blow up the fort, and retire by night to Fort Cumberland."
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The Captain Ashby named in Washington's letter was John Ashby, grandfather of General Turner Ashby and of . Captain Richard Ashby, both of Hampshire county and both killed while serving in the confederate army. In Washington's letter of April 22, 1756, he speaks of a fight on Patterson's creek: "A small fort which we have at the mouth of Patterson's creek, containing an officer and thirty men guarding stores, was attacked by the French and Indians. They were as warmly received, upon which they retired." Two days later he wrote another letter from Winchester in which he said: "The inhabitants are removing daily, and in a short time will leave this county as desolate as Hampshire, where scarce a family lives. Colonel Martin has just sent me a letter from Fort Hope- well on the South branch. They have had an engagement there with the French and Indians. The waters were so high that, although Captain Waggoner heard them engaged, he could send them no assistance. You may expect, by the time this comes to hand, that, without a considerable reinforcement, Frederick county will not be mistress of fifteen families. They are now retreating to the securest parts in droves of fifties. Fort Cumberland is no more use for defense of the place than Fort George at Hampton. At this time there is not an inhabitant living between this place and Fort Cumberland except in few settlements upon the manor around a fort we built there, and a few families at Edwards' fort on Cacapehon river, with a guard of ours, which makes this town ( Winches- ter) at present the uttermost frontier."
This is a gloomy picture of Hampshire as it existed in the darkest hour of the French and Indian war. When Washington drew that picture he did it with all the facts before him. Only two small clusters of families between Winchester and Cumberland! One of these were seeking protection at Fort Edward on Capon, the others at Pear- sall's fort, which stood on the bluff overlooking the present
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bridge across the South branch, about half mile south of Romney. It is no wonder there is a blank place in the court records of Hampshire county from June 11, 1755, till 1757. Nobody was left in the county to hold court. It is interesting to learn from this letter of Washington that he built the old fort which stood almost on the site of the present town of Romney.
In 1770, on October 9, Washington visited Romney and remained over night in the town, the next day proceeding upon his journey to the west to look at large tracts of lands on the Monongahela and Kanawha rivers. The house in which he spent the night stood on lot number ninety-six, at present owned by S. L. Flournoy of Charleston, West Virginia.
CHAPTER XXVIII.
INDIAN DEPREDATIONS.
BY HU MAXWELL.
Elsewhere in this volume will be found chapters dealing with Indian wars in general, as they affected the state. The present chapter will be devoted to depredations which took place within the limits of Hampshire county, or near its borders. No tribe of Indians occupied and claimed this part of West Virginia when it first became known to white people; but large and small parties of the aborigines fre- quently occupied it temporarily, and no doubt sometimes remained for a considerable time. Indians from Pennsyl- vania on the north, North Carolina on the south and Ohio on the west often hunted along the South branch and over the neighboring mountains, and also in the valley of Vir- ginia. And in time of war Indians from these same locali- ties made incursions into Hampshire and adjacent sections, often murdering many people. These war parties usually came from Ohio and western Pennsylvania. A complete record of their murders does not exist, but a conservative estimate of the number of persons killed by the savages in Hampshire county from 1754 to 1765 would reach one hun- dred, and in addition to these, many were carried into cap- tivity and never returned. There is no lack of evidence that the valley of the South branch was once the home of Indians. Their numerous graves attest this fact. Flint arrowheads in abundance were formerly found, usually on ridges overlooking the valley, and in the vicinity of springs where villages were probably located. Excavations in the graves a century ago occasionally revealed bones or entire
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skeletons in a tolerable state of preservation. This was proof that no great time had passed since occupants of the graves had been laid to their final rest. Under favorable circumstances a skeleton may lie in a grave one hundred years, or probably longer, without total decay. There are accounts of skeletons and bones of giants dug from some of these graves, but these stories should be accepted with caution. That there have been giants in the world is well known, but authentic history records no race of giants. Individual Indians may have been abnormally large, the same as individuals of other nations, but doubts may well be entertained whether so many of them existed in the vicinity of the Potomac as old stories relate. It is said that a jawbone was plowed up near Moorefield which would pass over the outside of a common man's lower jaw; that it contained eight jaw teeth on either side, and that they sat transversely in their sockets. A bone of that size would have belonged to a man eight or nine feet high. That there were eight jawteeth on either side may safely be set down as a mistake. Another jawbone of enormous size is record- ed as having been discovered near Martinsburg. The skeleton of a giant is said to have been dug up near the Shannondale springs. On Flint run, in Shenandoah county, the thigh bone of a giant is among the discoveries claimed. It was three feet long. This would indicate that the owner, in life, was fully nine feet high. The catalogue of large bones might be continued almost indefinitely, but they do not deserve a place in history because of the ele- ment of exaggeration attending their description.
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