USA > West Virginia > Harrison County > History of Harrison County, West Virginia : from the early days of Northwestern Virginia to the present > Part 7
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John Hawkins Low, assignee of Patrick McEllroy and Major Tem- plier, 1000 acres on Bull Creek, two miles from its mouth, to include the improvement made in 1774, by said McEllroy and Templin.
John Hadin, 200 acres on Hadin's Mill Run, a branch of Tygart's Valley River, to include his settlement made in 1774.
John Hawkins Low, assignee of John Pierce, who was assignee of John Shoemaker, 400 acres on Bull Creek, to include Shoemaker's improvement made in 1774.
John Sleath, Senior, 400 acres on Hacker's Creek, adjoining lands of John Hacker, to include his settlement made in 1777.
Thomas Nutter, assignee of Edward West, 400 acres on Elk, including his settlement made in 1772.
Daniel McFarland, assignee of James Moranday, who was assignee of Henry Thomas, 400 acres in the main forks of the Little Kanawha, to include his settlement made in 1774.
Henry Castell, 400 acres on the Little Kanawha, adjoining Paul Arm- strong's land to include his settlement made in 1775.
Paul Armstrong, preemption to 1000 acres, on the Little Kanawha, in- cluding his settlement made in 1775.
Richard Yates, assignee of Michael Tegards 400 acres in the forks of. the Little Kanawha, adjoining lands of Henry Castle, to include his settle- ment made in 1774.
George Teter, 400 acres on Tygart's Valley River, adjoining said river, to include his settlement made in 1772.
Henry Enochs, assignee of Richard Jackson, 400 acres on the Little Kanawha, adjoining lands of Richard Lee, to include his settlement made in 1774.
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HISTORY OF HARRISON COUNTY
George Parker, 400 acres on the waters of Cheat River, to include his improvement made in 1781.
Richard Lee, 400 acres on the Little Kanawha, to include his settle- ment made in 1774 adjoining lands of Nathaniel Redford.
Owen Davis, 400 acres on Carter's Run, to include his settlement made thereon in the year 1770, also 1000 acres adjoining in right of preemption.
Thomas Davis, assignee to Owen Davis, 400 acres on the West Fork of the Monongahela River, to include his settlement made in 1774. Also to same 1000 acres adjoining by preemption.
John Hardin, Junior, assignee of Benjamin Rodgers, 400 acres to include his settlement made in 1771 at Hardin's Cove on the waters of Tygart Valley Fork of the Monongahela River.
Richard Merrifield, assignee of Moses Templin, 400 acres on Lost Run, to include his settlement made in 1766.
Noah Hadden, preemption to 1000 acres, about two miles from the mouth of Red Creek, known as Hadens Cabin, to include his improvement made in 1776.
Michael Hagle, 400 acres on Buckhannon River, adjoining lands of Charles Fallinash, to include his settlement made in 1776.
John Hagle, 400 acres on the Buckhannon river, adjoining lands claimed by Michael Hagle, to include his settlement made in 1776.
William Anglin, 400 acres on Tygart's Valley River at Pringles Ford, including his settlement made in 1773.
John Booth, heir of James Booth 400 acres on Booths Creek in the forks of the Monongahela River, to include his settlement made in 1771.
Levy Wells 400 acres on the West Fork adjoining lands of Thomas Reed in the right of having a tenant thereon in 1770, also 1000 acres in right of preemption on the West Fork adjoining lands of Thomas Reed in right of having a tenant settled thereon in 1770.
The records of the Harrison County's surveyors book show that Jona- than Coburn on June 27th, 1785, entered 200 acres on Sycamore Creek to include the Mud Lick, and on October 1, 1785, he entered 200 acres on Coburn's Creek adjoining and between the lands of Henry Runyon, Isaac Davisson and his settlement whereon he now lives.
Not all of the parties receiving these certificates from the commission afterwards perfected their titles but sold and assigned them to others who had the lands called for, surveyed and received patents for them.
Many of the holders of certificates had their lands surveyed in Monon- galia County, and others waited until Harrison County was formed, and had their surveys made in that County.
Many of the settlers did not take up homesteads, preferring to be a squatter on public or private lands, purchase land office treasury warrants and locate them in one or more places, if they saw fit, or buy land from the large land owners.
After the establishment of the Virginia Land Office in 1779 it became so easy to own land that the homestead practically passed out of use.
There were also a class of squatters and rovers who would make a clearing, build a cabin without troubling themselves about perfecting a
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HISTORY OF HARRISON COUNTY
title, but would sell their improvement to some one else and move to another location where the hunting was good.
The Surveyor's Office for Harrison County was opened for business in the fall of 1784 at Clarksburg and by the end of the year eighty different tracts of land were returned as surveyed and entered on the books of the office.
In the year 1785 nine hundred and sixty surveys were made. In the ycar 1786 three hundred and thirty five were made.
This indicates quite an increase in the population for the time men- tioned.
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HISTORY OF HARRISON COUNTY
Indian Tribes.
The Indian tribes that brought death and destruction to the Virginia frontiers had their villages in what is now the State of Ohio.
The Wyandottes occupied the Valley of the Sandusky river, the Delawares on the Tuscarawas and Muskingum Rivers, the Shawnees along the Sciota, their principal towns being in the neighborhood of Chillicothe, the Miamas on the Great and Little Miami Rivers, the Mingoes in the neighborhood of Steubenville, the Ottawas along the valleys of the San- dusky and Maume Rivers and the Chippewas along the Southern shores of Lake Erie.
From these strongholds they would send out their war parties against an almost defenceless settlement and after striking a blow would quickly return to their homes with what little plunder they could carry with them.
The settlers always held to the theory that the proper policy was to at- tack the Indians in their villages and by their destruction bring the war home to them and thus break up their excursions on the frontier.
Their appeal to the State and National authorities were many and loud for protection. Both of these authorities had all they could do while the war of the Revolution was on, and after it was over the country was almost exhausted of men and money, and for this reason the frontier was pretty much left to take care of itself.
It was not until after the adoption of the Constitution of the United States and when the strong hand of Washington was endeavoring to weld discordant States into an authority resembling a nation, that any great efforts were attempted to break the power of these savages on their native heath, and while meeting with defeat at first, finally succeeded in destroy- ing their military strength by the brilliant action of Big Timbers under the command of Mad Anthony Wayne in 1794.
The expeditions against the Harrison County frontier were chiefly made by the Shawnees, Mingoes, Delawares, and Wyandottes. The Shawnees were the most persistent in their hostilities perhaps from their being somewhat closer to the scene of action.
The trails generally pursued by these war parties in their attack on the West Fork Settlements led up the Little Kanawha to the mouth of Leading Creek, just below the present town of Glenville, thence up that creek to its head waters, thence over the divide to the waters of Freeman's Creek, or some other tributary of the West Fork.
Raids were sometimes made up Middle Island Creek and thence over on to the waters of Ten Mile Creek.
The Indian was always suspicious of the white man, and as soon as his untutored mind grasped the idea that the newcomers had come to stay and that he would be dispossessed of his country he naturally went to war, and from that time down to quite a recent period he has protested and resisted in vain the encroachment of the whites upon what the Indian con- sidered his own.
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HISTORY OF HARRISON COUNTY
Early Indian Troubles and Dunmores War.
The first murders committed by the Indians on the territory of West Virginia west of the mountains of which we have any account was that of the two brothers Eckarly's, trappers and hunters, which occurred on Cheat River in what is now Preston County in the year 1753. This was the opening tragedy that for a generation stained the forest aisles of West Virginia with blood.
Robert Files and David Tygart in the year 1753 as given by some writers, the Border Warfare gives the date as 1754, moved with their families from the South Branch of the Potomac following a trail across the mountain to the East fork of the Monongahela River. Files located at the present site of Beverly in Randolph County at the mouth of the Creek, which still bears his name, and Tygart built his cabin two miles above and on the river, which for many years was known as Tygarts Valley River, and in the valley which still bears his name.
Discovering that a well traveled path, known as the Warriors road, used by the Indians ran up the valley near their cabin, determined them to abandon their settlements and return East of the mountains. But they delayed too long. At a time when all the family of Files were at home except one boy, a party of Indians returning from the South branch, inhumanly murdered them all. Young Files being close by and hearing the noise of the attack, approached near enough to discover what was taking place, ran for Tygart's cabin and gave the alarm. Tygart hurriedly gathering his family together managed to escape from a similar fate and reached the settlements on the South Branch in safety.
It was not until the year 1772 that a second attempt was made to settle in Tygart's Valley. Among the early settlers that took up lands there were the names of Hadden Whitman, Wamsley, Warwick, Nesson Stalnaker, Riffle, Westfall and Wilson.
Thomas Decker and others settled at the mouth of the creek which still bears his name in Monongalia County, but the little colony was set upon in the Spring of 1759 by a party of Delawares and Mingoes and de- stroyed, some few of them escaping.
After the termination of the war with France Pontiac the great chief of the Ottawas organized a conspiracy to capture all the English Forts along the Great Lakes and located in the Country East of them. This was so carefully planned that it came very nearly being successful. The fort at Detroit was the only one that was not captured and hundreds of lives were lost on the frontier settlements and Fort Pitt itself was surrounded and beseiged in the year 1763.
Col. Henry Boquet an officer of the British Army was sent with a large force over the route made by General Forbes in 1758, relieved Fort
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HISTORY OF HARRISON COUNTY
Pitt and conducted an expedition into the Indian Country, burnt their towns and entered into a treaty of peace with them in 1764.
From the time of this treaty up to the year 1773 there was peace up- on the border and settlements were made along the waters of the Monon- gahela.
Captain Bull was a Delaware Chief whose original village was on the head waters of the Susquehannah River in N. Y. He had been prominent in urging his people to take part in Pontiac's conspiracy against the whites in 1763.
Sir William Johnson, Superintendent of Indian affairs, caused him to be arrested and imprisoned for some time but he was finally discharged.
Captain Bull with five families of his relatives moved to the Little Kanawha about the year 1767 and settled at a place callel Bulltown by the white settlers. This was at a salt spring about a mile below the present Bulltown Post Office, Braxton County.
A German by the name of Stroud, who had settled on Gauley River had his family murdered during his absence in 1772 by a party of Shawnees.
A party of settlers from the settlement on Hacker's Creek under the pretense that these murders had been committed by Captain Bull's people, in this year attacked and killed the entire village at Bulltown. William White, William Hacker, Jesse Hughes and John Cutright are said to have been with the party.
Among the Indians who were friendly to the whites was one known as Bald Eagle, who frequently visited the settlements in West Augusta, and went on hunting and fishing expeditions with the settlers among whom he was always a welcome visitor. In one of these visits in 1774 he was dis- covered alone by Jacob Scott, William Hacker and Elijah Runner, who reckless of the consequences, murdered him simply because he was an In- dian. The body was propped up in a canoe with a piece of corn bread thrust in his mouth, and the canoe launched on the Monongahela River. The canoe floated near to the shore below the mouth of George's Creek, was discovered by a Mrs. Province, who had it brought to the bank and the body decently buried.
Early in the year 1774 the canoes of the white traders were robbed on the Ohio River by Indians, and Indians were killed in retaliation until finally the family of Logan, a Mingo chief of great influence was murdered by a party of reckless whites while they were peacefully in camp.
These occurrences aroused both the settlers and the Indians and what is known as Dunmore's war broke out and continued with occasional in- termissions for twenty years.
John Murray the Earl of Dunmore was then the royal Governor of the colony of Virginia at Williamsburg, and by reason of urgent appeals from the settlers west of the mountains organized an expedition against the Indians beyond the Ohio.
General Andrew Lewis led the column that moved by way of the Greenbrier Country, and on the 10th of October, 1774 fought the combined Indian tribes under Cornstalk, a Shawnee Chief, at the mouth of the Big
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HISTORY OF HARRISON COUNTY
Kanawha now Point Pleasant, and defeated him with heavy loss on both sides.
Lord Dunmore commanded the northern column which marched by the way of Fort Pitt to the Sciota River, where at Camp Charlotte near Chillicothe, Ohio, he negotiated a treaty of peace with the tribes in that neighborhood in November 1774.
The treaty was observed for a time but the murder of Cornstalk by the troops stationed at Point Pleasant and the breaking out of the war of the Revolution, and the instigation of British officers, again let loose the savages on the Virginia frontier and their predatory forays continued until 1795.
Cornstalk, the Shawnee chief who commanded the Indian army at the battle of Point Pleasant, came to Lord Dunmore's camp and entered into a treaty of peace with the whites.
He was not only a great warrior but had the reputation of being a skilled forest statesman, orator, and a wise ruler of his people.
Colonel Benjamin Wilson, who for many years was a resident of Har- rison County, and a prominent man of affairs on the frontier, was a mem- ber of Dunmore's staff on this expedition and was present at the council. In remarking on the appearance of Cornstalk Colonel Wilson as stated in the Border Warfare, said "When he arose he was in no wise confused or daunted but spoke in a distinct and audible voice without stammering or repetition and with peculiar emphasis. His looks while addressing Dun- more were truly grand and majestic, yet graceful and attractive. I have heard the first orators in Virginia, Patrick Henry and Richard Henry Lee, but never have I heard one whose powers of delivery surpass those of Cornstalk on that occasion."
In the Spring of 1777, Cornstalk visited Fort Randolph which had been erected at Point Pleasant, then commanded by Captain Matthew Ar- buckle, to inform him that the Indians were preparing to make war on the frontier.
During Cornstalk's visit at the fort one of the soldiers of the garrison while out hunting was killed by an Indian. This so enraged the soldiers that they arose in mutiny and murdered Cornstalk who was then in the fort, the guest of the commanding officer.
This cowardly act caused deep regret and excited the just indignation of all conservative people on the frontier towards the inhuman mob.
The Shawnees were a warlike tribe and the frontier of Virginia suffered a bloody retaliation for this barbarous act, and they broke upon the settlements with such fury that this year, 1777, was known as the bloody year of the three sevens.
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HISTORY OF HARRISON COUNTY
Indian Wars.
The result of this renewing of hostilities between the Indians and whites was first felt in Harrison County in the summer of 1774.
Death of Brown and capture of Robinson and Hellen.
On the 12th day of July 1774 as William Robinson, Thomas Hellen and Coleman Brown were pulling flax in a field on the West side of the West Fork River opposite the mouth of Simpson's Creek, a party of eight Indians, among whom was Logan, afterwards the celebrated Mingo chief, warrior and orator, approached unperceived and fired at them.
Brown fell instantly, his body perforated by several balls and Hellen and Robinson unscathed, sought safety in flight. Hellen, being then an old man, was soon overtaken and made captive, but Robinson, with the elasticity of youth, ran a considerable distance before he was taken, and but for an untoward accident might have effected his escape.
Believing that he was outstripping his pursuers and anxious to ascer- tain the fact, he looked over his shoulder but before he discovered the In- dian giving chase, he ran with such violence against a tree that he fell stunned by the shock and lay powerless and insensible. In this situation he was secured by a cord, and when he revived was taken back to the place where the Indians had Hellen in confinement, and where lay the lifeless body of Brown. They then set off to their towns, taking with them a horse belonging to Hellen.
When they approached near enough to the Indian village on the Muskingham to be distinctly heard, Logan gave the scalp halloo and sev- eral warriors came out to meet them, and conducted the prisoners into the village. Here they passed through the accustomed ceremony of running the gauntlet, but with far different fortunes. Robinson having been pre- viously instructed by Logan, who, from the time he made him his prisoner, manifested a kindly feeling towards him, made his way with but little in- terruption to the council house, but poor Hellen from the decrepitude of age, and his ignorance of the fact that it was a place of refuge, was sadly beaten before he arrived at it, and when at length came near enough he was knocked down with a war club before he could enter. After he had fallen they continued to beat him with such unmerciful severity that he would assuredly have fallen a victim to their barborous usage, but that Robinson at some peril for the interference, reached forth his hand and drew him within the sanctuary. When, however, he had recovered from the effects of the violent beating which he had received, he was relieved from the apprehension of further suffering by being adopted into an In- dian family.
A council was next invoked to resolve on the fate of Robinson and then rose in his breast feelings of the most anxious inquietude. Logan
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HISTORY OF HARRISON COUNTY
-
assured him that he should not be killed; but the council appeared deter- mined that he should die, and he was tied to the stake. Logan then ad- dressed them and with much vehemence insisted that Robinson too should be spared, and had the eloquence displayed on that occasion been less than Logan is believed to have possessed, it is no means wonderful that he ap- peared to Robinson (as he afterwards said) the most powerful orator he ever heard. But commanding as his eloquence might have been, it seems not to have prevailed with the council, for Logan had to interpose other- wise than by argument or entreaty to succeed to the attainment of his ob- ject.
Enraged at the pertinancy at which the life of Robinson was sought to be taken, and reckless of the consequences he drew the tomahawk from his belt and severing the cords which bound the devoted victim to the stake, led him in triumph to the cabin of an old squaw by whom he was immediately adopted.
After this, so long as Logan remained in the town where Robinson was, he was kind and attentive to him, and when prepared to go again to war got him to write the letter which was afterwards found on the Hol- stein at the house of a Mr. Robinson, whose family were all murdered by the Indians. Robinson remained with his adopted mother until he was re- deemed under the treaty concluded at the close of the Dunmore Campaign.
The note referred to above is given by DeHass as follows :
Captain Cresap :
What did you kill my people on Yellow Creek for? The white people killed my people at Corestoga, a great while ago, and I thought nothing of that. But you killed my kin on Yellow Creek, and took my cousin pris- oner. Then I thought I must kill too, and I have been three times to war since, but the Indians are not angry only myself.
July 21, 1774. CAPTAIN JOHN LOGAN.
The celebrated speech of Logan which for generations has been re- gardcd not only as a sample of the oratory of an untutored savage but as a specimen of natural eloquence that will compare favorably with the say- ings of the great orators of any land, was uttered at a treaty held by Lord Dunmore the Governor of Virginia at Camp Charlotte on the Sciota in Ohio when negotiating a treaty of peace with the hostile Indian tribes, after the battle of Point Pleasants, October 10, 1774. The speech is as follows :
"I appeal to any white man to say if he ever entered Logan's cabin hungry and he gave him not meat; if he ever came cold and naked and he clothed him not. During the course of the last long and bloody war Logan remained idle in his cabin, an advocate for peace. Such was my love for the whites that my countrymen pointed as they passed and said, "Logan is the friend of the white men."
"I had even thought to live with you but for the injuries of one man. Captain Cresap, the last Spring, in cold blood and unprovoked, mur- dered all the relations of Logan not even sparing my women and children.
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HISTORY OF HARRISON COUNTY
There runs not a drop of my blood in the veins of any living creature. This called on me for revenge. I have sought it. I have killed many. I have glutted my vengeance. For my country I rejoice at the beams of peace, but do not harbor a thought that mine is the joy of fear. Logan never felt fear. He will not turn on his heel to save his life. Who is there to mourn for Logan? Not one."
The following declaration of William Robinson is published in Jeffer- son's notes in Virginia edition of 1801 :
THE DECLARATION OF WILLIAM ROBINSON.
William Robinson of Clarksburg in the County of Harrison and State of Virginia, subscribed to these presents, declares that he was in the year 1774 a resident on the West Fork of the Monongahela River, in the County then called West Augusta, and being in his field on the 12th of July, with two other men, they were surprised by a party of eight Indians, who shot down one of the others and made himself and the remaining one prisoners ; this subscriber's wife and four children having been previously conveyed by him for safety to a fort about twenty-four miles off; that the principal Indian of the party who took them was Captain Logan; that Logan spoke English well and very soon manifested a friendly disposition to this sub- scriber and told him to be of good heart that he would not be killed, but must go with him to his town where he would probably be adopted in some of their families, but, above all things, that he must not attempt to run away; that in the course of the journey to the Indian town he generally endeavored to keep close to Logan, who had a great deal of conversation with him, always encouraging him to be cheerful and without fear, for that he would not be killed, but should become one of them, and constantly impressing on him not to attempt to run away : that in these conversations he always charged Captain Michael Cresap with the murder of his family; that on his arrival in the town, which was on the 18th of July, he was tied to a stake, and a great debate arose whether he should not be burnt; Logan insisted on having him adopted while others contended to burn him; that at length Logan prevailed, tied a belt of wampum around him as a mark of adoption, loosed him from the post and carried him to the cabin of an old squaw where Logan pointed out a person who he said was this subscriber's cousin, and he afterwards understood that the old woman was his aunt and two others his brothers, and that he now stood in the place of a warrior of the family who had been killed at Yellow Creek; that about three days after this Logan brought him a piece of paper and told him he must write a letter for him, which he meant to carry and leave in some house where he should kill somebody; that he made ink with gun powder and the subscrier proceeded to write the letter by his direction, addressing Captain Michael Cressap in it, and that the purport of it was to ask "Why he had killed his people?" That some time before they had killed his people at some place (the name of which the subscriber forgets) which he had forgiven, but since that he had killed his people again at Yellow Creek, and had taken his cousin, a little girl, prisoner, that therefore he must war against the whites; but that he would exchange the subscriber
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