USA > West Virginia > Monongalia County > History of Monongalia County, West Virginia, from its first settlements to the present time; with numerous biographical and family sketches > Part 17
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Once again, after a stormy and laborious era, Mr. Willey is in the private walks of life. He resumed the practice of his profession immediately on his return home in March, 1871. He for the second time delivered the address at the decoration of the soldiers' graves at Morgantown, on the 30th of May of the same year. In June following, he read an elaborate paper before the Historical Society of West Virginia on the Geographical History of Monongalia County. In July of the same year, he wrote a series of
213
STATE OF WEST VIRGINIA.
articles to The West Virginian at Fairmont, at the request of the editor, opposing the call for a convention to amend the Constitution of the State.
The convention was called by a popular vote, and, with- out his solicitation, he was called by the people of his county to represent them therein. He took no very active part in its deliberations, but maintained a dignified and watchful interest in all the proceedings. When the Com- mittee on Taxation and Finance reported to the body the provisions as now found in sections five and six of Article X of the Constitution, and these had been adopted in commit- tee of the whole, Mr. Willey not deeming them sufficiently explicit on the subject of the unsettled financial status ex- isting between the States of Virginia and West Virginia, offered to amend the report by adding thereto as an ad- ditional section to the Article the following :
"An equitable proportion of the public debt of the Common- wealth of Virginia, prior to the first day of January, in the year one thousand eight hundred and sixty-one, shall be assumed by this State ; and the Legislature shall ascertain the same as soon as may be practicable, and provide for the payment thereof."
This was the clause in the Constitution of 1863, under which the State had been admitted into the Union, and Mr. Willey strenously maintained that a sense of fairness and political integrity required the people of the State to retain and fully recognize this obligatory provision. The amend- ment was rejected by a vote of twenty ayes to forty-six noes.
When the report of the Committee on ' Bill of Rights and Elections was under consideration, he moved to amend the amendment of the committee of the whole by inserting at the end of section sixteen which, as reported, closed thus : "The people of this State have the inherent, sole and exclusive right of regulating the internal government and police thereof," these words : "But every citizen of the State owes paramount allegiance to the government of the United States." This Amendment was also rejected, by a vote of seven to fifty-six.
73
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HISTORY OF MONONGALIA COUNTY.
The convention did not complete its work and adjourn until the 9th day of April, 1872, but Mr. Willey, being in delicate health, asked leave of absence for the remainder of the session on the 30th of March previous, which was reluctantly but unanimously granted. He then arose and in a very impressive manner addressed the body as follows:
"Mr. President, after consultation with my political friends and associates in this body, I have their unanimous concurrence in of- fering the resolutions which I shall presently send to the chair. Before doing so, however, I beg to be indulged in submitting & remark or two.
"The authority of the United States Government is now restored and recognized in every State in the Union. Every vestige of or- ganized and armed resistance to it has been destroyed ; and from the lakes to the gulf-from the Atlantic to the Pacific-its laws and its officers have unobstructed operation. The great fundamental principles claimed to be necessary to consolidate, secure and per- petuate its authority, have been incorporated in the National Con- stitution, and are everywhere acknowledged as the supreme law of the land. This Convention has inserted such an acknowledgement in the instrument which it is proposed to submit to the people of this State as their organic law. The organization of the State itself has been accepted as valid; and every gentleman on this floor stands pledged to its integrity. Moreover, in the language of the President of the United States, in his late annual message,-
"'More than six years having elapsed since the last hostile gun was fired between the armies then arrayed against each other-one for the perpetuation, the other for the destruction of the Union-it may well be considered whether it is not now time that the disabilities imposed by the Fourteenth Amendmend should be removed. That amendment does not exclude the ballot, but only imposes the disability to hold offices upon certain classes. When the purity of the ballot is secure, majorities are sure to elect officers reflecting the views of the majority. I do not see the advan- tage or propriety of excluding men from office merely because they were before the rebellion of standing and character sufficient to be elected to positions requiring them to take oaths to support the Constitution, and admitting to eligibility those en- tertaining precisely the same views, but of less standing in their communities.'
"Influenced by such considerations, the popular branch of the National legislature has, on several occasions, passed amnesty bills less or more general in their terms and character ; some of which are now on the calendar of the United States Senate awaiting con- sideration.
"Mr. President, the past cannot be recalled ; it has gone into the province of history, by whose impartial record all men and all par- ties must ultimately abide. While we may not wisely reject the lessons it would teach to all thoughtful men, yet our especial duties and responsibilities relate to the present and the future. But the
STATE OF WEST VIRGINIA. 215
interests of neither the present nor the future will be promoted by cherishing needless animosities, personal or political. For myself, I desire to see all the causes of such strife removed-forever re- moved. Sir, I love peace and those inoral and intellectual achieve- ments which can be accomplished only in times of peace. I abhor war and all its inseperable atrocities ; and to-day and here, on the eve of sundering those personal and social relations with the inem- bers of this body, which, although they have been brief, have been uniformly cordial and kind, I can and do, with the deepest sincerity of heart, repeat the language put by Shakespeare into the mouth of Henry IV. of England :
"' No more the thirsty entrance of this soil Shall daub her lips with her own children's blood ; No more shall trenching war channel her fields, Nor bruise her flowerets with the armed hoofs Of hostile paces: those opposed eyes, Which, like the meteors of a troubled heaven, All of one nature, of one substance bred- Did lately meet in the intestine shock And furious close of civil butchery, Shall now in mutual well-beseeming ranks, March all one way ; and be no more opposed Against kindred, and allies ; The edge of war, like an ill sheathed knife, No more shall cut his master.'
"In all free governments, political parties are inevitable ; perhaps they are necessary. Properly controlled, they contribute to the public welfare; unregulated by reason and patriotisin, they will again, as they have done in time past, lead to the direst calamities.
"Mr. President and gentlemen of the Convention, henceforth let our only strife be the noble emulation of the statesman, seeking who can best promote the peace and advance the prosperity of our beloved young State, and of our common country. I now perform what I have no doubt will be my last act of public life, in offering the resolutions which I send to the chair :
" Resolved, That in the opinion of this convention, without dis- tinction of parties, the time has come when it would be wise and judicious that all political disabilities growing out of any connec -. tion with the late civil war should cease in West Virginia ; and our Senators and Representatives in the Congress of the United States are hereby requested to use their influence in securing the passage of an act of Congress removing all such disabilities.
"Resolved, That copies of the foregoing resolution, with the ayes and noes recorded in the vote thereon, be transmitted by the President of this Convention, to our Senators and Representatives in Congress, to be laid before the Houses to which they respect- ively belong."
The resolutions were unanimously adopted.
1
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HISTORY OF MONONGALIA COUNTY.
The remarks and the resolutions are entirely in accord with the magnanimity of Mr. Willey's character, and were a fitting close to a career of great activity in a field in which the fiercest human passions had been stirred, and had been allayed in blood, but over which the sense of duty which fills the superior mind was the guiding star, although tears might be shed during its exercise.
Although practically retired from the political arena, Mr. Willey was induced by the Central Committe of his party to take some part in the Presidential campaign of 1872, making several speeches at prominent points in the State. He was nominated for Congress at the Cranberry conven- tion in 1874, against his express will, and declined. During the following years, until 1876, he was busily engaged in the practice of his profession in Monongalia and surrounding counties. He did not, however, relinquish his literary la- bors and studies, but delivered addresses before religious and other bodies on various subjects; his chief lectures being "Wesleyan Hymnology versus Doggerel"; and his sketch of the life of Philip Doddridge, his law preceptor, before the West Virginia Historical Society.
In 1876, he was a delegate to the National Republican Convention at Cincinnati, and was chairman of the delega- tion from his State. He voted steadily and to the end for the nomination of the Hon. James G. Blaine of Maine. He subsequently took a part in the canvass which resulted in the election of President R. B. Hayes.
In the same year he was appointed one of the six laymen by the Board of Bishops of the M. E. Church, to act in conjunction with six ministers, to confer with other Metho- dist churches concerning questions of fraternity and union.
In 1878, he delivered the fourth in the series of lectures at the West Virginia University, his subject being "The Relation of Law to Civil Liberty"; which he subsequently repeated by request before the Philomathean Society at Kingwood.
In May of the same year, he delivered the address on
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STATE OF WEST VIRGINIA.
Decoration-day at the Grafton National Cemetery. He was a delegate to the General Conference of the M. E. Church which met at Cincinnati in 1880, and spent the month of May attending its sessions. He participated in the discussions pertaining to the report of the Cape May commission, which had reported an adjustment of the con- flicting claims of the M. E. Church and the M. E. Church South, in relation to the church property in the South. He insisted upon the maintenance of the terms of the agree- ment made by the commission on behalf of the Church, as a matter of good faith, and because a repudiation of it would re-open the questions of strife and bitterness. His remarks were received with profound attention and gratifi- cation. He was a member of a committee of the legislative department which was charged with the duty of submitting a plan for two distinct houses of the General Conference, composed respectively of ministerial and lay delegates. He was in charge of the report in the body, and the plan, al- though defeated, received a large vote. He maintained that sooner or later its adoption was inevitable.
He again took part in political affairs to a limited extent during the campaign of 1880. His friends thought that he never appeared to a better advantage than during this can- vass. His wisdom was ripened into the fullest maturity of his powers, and although singularly free from selfishness in the sincerity of his opinions all his life, he seemed to be wholly absolved from any interest in the pending events save that of a high patriotic resolve for his country's welfare. This purpose made his speeches interesting to all parties, and, as they breathed a pure purpose, however their sentiments might be disapproved, and were free from the acrimonious tone too often heard in the heat of the canvass, they were listened to with most respectful attention by the opposition, and with warm admiration by his allies.
In May, 1881, by special request, he made the inaugural address at the opening of the Lincoln Club in Wheeling.
In August, 1882, he addressed the Teachers' Institute of
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HISTORY OF MONONGALIA COUNTY.
Monongalia County on the subject of "National Aid for Public Schools," which was published by request.
On the death of Capt. Wm. S. Cobun, Clerk of the County Court of Monongalia County, Mr. Willey was appointed to the vacancy, in November, 1882, which position he still holds.
It is impossible in the limits assigned to this sketch to give even a synopsis of all of Mr. Willey's efforts and works in the various spheres which he has filled. Those hereto- fore given have been included with a view to indicate his position on current events, and to illustrate them, rather than as specimens of his style. He was a frequent con- tributor to public journals and reviews, both religious and political, and wielded always a graceful and able pen.
Of Mr. Willey's oratorical powers it can be said they are of no ordinary character. They are best shown, perhaps, in some of his unstudied bursts of eloquence in advocacy at the bar. On such occasions, the sweep of his power seems utterly irresistible as the electric current can almost be seen to scintillate from the tip of his long, bony finger, and his high genius illumes his kindling eye. His triumphs at the bar are scattered over a period of a half century, and would alone furnish material for an interesting volume. His reasoning powers are distinguished more for breadth of analysis than subtlety or acuteness ; hence, he is not so well known in the ranks of the special pleaders. He under- stands more of the philosophy of the law, than the mere forms by which it is too often made successful in its practice by men of less culture and intellect.
As a statesman his record, so imperfectly sketched here, is before his countrymen. Whilst in the Senate of the United States, he did not fill so large a place in the public eye, or occupy so much space in the public prints, as many others, yet it is believed that his fame will be in comparison, like the silent, colorless rock at the foot of the nodding, waving monarch of the forest, enduring when the winds shall have ceased to rustle through its branches and its trunk will have returned to native mould.
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STATE OF WEST VIRGINIA.
In the sphere of citizenship, Mr. Willey has ever been held in high esteem by his fellow-men. He has partici- pated in all the public enterprises in which the community has engaged, and has enjoyed the confidence of all for his discretion and sterling integrity. His reputation for prob- ity in public and private life is as unsullied as the new- fallen snow. Through his church relationship his name has become familiar to thousands of the homes of the land as the synonym for purity and exalted Christian character. His friendships are firm and unselfish. But in no manner will his memory be perpetuated in the future more signally or with more lasting certainty, than through the influence of a lofty example, exhibiting all the noble qualities that enter into the composition of a character which combines a just pride without ostentation, candor without dissimula- tion, humility without affectation, learning without vanity, generosity without selfishness and truth without fear. All of these elements are the environments of his daily existence and are the lessons of his life, and
"Bespeak the good man who acts out the whole- The whole of all he knows of high and true."
PARTICULAR HISTORY.
CHAPTER XV.
PHYSICAL HISTORY.
Geography of the County-Cheat River Canon Views-Geology, Structural and Economic-Palæontology-Carboniferous Fos- sils-Botany-Zoology.
MONONGALIA COUNTY* is bounded on the north by the State of Pennsylvania, from which it is separated by the celebrated Mason and Dixon line; on the east, Chestnut Ridge forms its mountain-wall boundary against Preston County; on the south it is bounded by Marion County, from which it is partly separated by a portion of White Day Creek, and on the west it is separated from Wetzel County by the dividing ridge between the waters of the Ohio and Monongahela rivers. In shape the county is irregular : the width from north to south varies from twelve to twenty miles; and the length, east and west, being nearly · forty miles. As there is no survey on record, to be found, of its present boundary lines, either county or district, nothing but an estimated area can be given, which will be found in another part of this work.
The county is drained by the Monongahela River System, comprising the said river, its numerous creek tributaries,
* Albert G. Davis, in a speech in the House of Delegates of Virginta, March 2, 1858, bounded and described the county as follows: " We are bounded on the north by the Pennsylvania line, on the south by Marion County, on the east by Preston, on the west by Wetzel, and we are bounded above by the clear bright heavens. We have a fertile soll We are ashamed to beg and afraid to steal, and we can live without public aid."
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PHYSICAL HISTORY.
and its adjunct Cheat River System. The Monongahela River divides the county into two unequal portions; the eastern or smaller, and the western or larger.
West Virginia has been divided topographically into two regions, styled the HILLY REGION and the MOUNTAIN REGION. Monongalia is included in the former, commencing at the Chestnut Ridge (erroneously called Laurel Hill) and ex- tending westward to the Ohio River. This region is com- posed of a "vast multitude of hills," some flat-topped, others almost rising up into mountains; and all carved out in no regular order by streams flowing "to every quarter of the compass," but which finally make' their way westward, or north-westward into the Ohio. Rains and running streams for untold centuries have been cutting down through "gently sloping, and often almost horizontal strata," carving out the great sea of hills we see to-day, swelling from the mountain to the river, and which con- stitutes a grand panoramic picture when viewed from the many favorable points in Monongalia along the crest of the Chestnut Ridge. A small portion of the Mountain Region falls in Monongalia-that portion of her territory embraced in the western slope of Chestnut Ridge from base to crest- line. Here the wild, impetuous Cheat has sundered the great arch of the mountain and cut down over twelve hun- dred feet through solid rock for itself a passage way known to-day as the "Cheat River Canon," justly famed for its wild, strange beauty and grand and magnificent scenery. On this canon are two Cheat River views called respectively " Brock's View" (in honor of Dr. H. W. Brock, who first called public attention to its attractions), and "Hanging Cliff" (so named by Prof. I. C. White). The first is on the west side of the river, and the other is on the east side.
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HISTORY OF MONONGALIA COUNTY.
The scenery of these views can scarcely be surpassed by anything east of the Mississippi River. The widest range of scenery is at "Brock's View," where "that wild, sublime, unique panoramic scene of river and mountain, rock and forest," needs but once to be seen to be never forgotten. The grandest canon-picture is revealed from "Hanging Cliff." The woodman's ax has already invaded, and if not restrained, in a few years will despoil this beautiful scenery of its grandest attractions. The gap of Decker's Creek through Chestnut Ridge, while lacking the necessary pro- portions of a canon, yet possesses a wild and picturesque scenery of no common interest.
GEOLOGY .*
The anticlinal axis of Laurel Hill passing from northeast to southwest through the eastern portion of the county brings to view, as capping the mountain, the great conglom- erate, and toward the bottom of the gaps made by Cheat River and Decker's Creek, the triple series of the lower carboniferous is fully exposed. The conglomerate is suc- ceeded by the coal measures, which, as in the bituminous coal field of Pennsylvania, seem to be divided naturally into four groups, the first, or lower coal group, resting directly upon the conglomerate, and reaching to the Mahoning sandstone; the second, or Lower Barren group, reaching to the Pittsburgh coal; the third, or upper coal group, begin- ning with the Pittsburgh and closing with our Waynesburg
* For the rest of this chapter the author is largely indebted to "A Geological Examination of Monongalia County, West Virginia, by John J. Stevenson, PH. D., Professor of Chemistry and Natural History, in West Virginia University," which was published as an appendix to the " Third Annual Report of the Board of Regents of West Virginia University, for the year 1870."
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PHYSICAL HISTORY.
coal; the fourth or Upper Barren group, including all be- yond the last named coal. Yet the division seems to be made better at the Pittsburgh coal, being more convenient and more in accordance with the distribution of the fossils obtained.
The main line of section extends from a point on Decker's Creek, two miles above Hagedorn's Mill, along Decker's Creek to its mouth, at Morgantown, along the Monongahela to the mouth of Scott's Run, and up the run to a point nearly one mile above Cassville, thus including only the eastern third of the county, which, however, contains nearly all that is of interest, economically or scientifically. Local sections have been made on Cheat River, Booth's and White Day creeks, as well as on several of the smaller streams.
The lower carboniferous rocks are visible, as a whole, at only two localities, the gaps in Laurel Hill, made by Cheat River and Decker's Creek. The formation here assumes a three-fold character: at the bottom, sandstones; in the middle, limestone; and on the top, red or olive shales. The sandstones are not well exposed. The limestone is not a homogeneous mass, but is divided by calcareous shales, into numerous layers, or possibly into independent strata. It appears to be fossiliferous throughout.
This group sinks under Cheat River, about one mile and a half above Ice's Ferry. Its thickness above that point is about ninety feet. On Decker's Creek it seems to be some- what more. The shales, as in Pennsylvania, include several veins of iron ores, very pure and in large quantities.
The conglomerate formation consists mainly of sand- stones, varying in grain and color, and shales mostly arena- ceous. Several deposits of iron ore occur. The succession
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HISTORY OF MONONGALIA COUNTY.
of strata as shown by a boring made near Hagedorn's Mill, on Decker's Creek, is as follows :
Feet. In.
1st. Hard sandstone, with seams of iron ore 22 4
2d. Shales. 2
8
3rd. Sandstone with carbonaceous matter 12 8
4th. Shales. 1
8
5th. Sandstone, white 9
0
6th. Sandstone, black 18
0
7th. Sandstone, gray, course 16 6
14
0
8th. Shales, black
9th. Conglomerate, white, with quartz pebbles 13 0
10th. Shales, red and blue. 10 10
11th. Sandstone, blue, fine. 23
6
12th. Sandstone, white, fine. 25
6
13th. Shales, dark, with iron. 6
0
14th. Sandstone, blue, fine, very hard. 18 0
15th. Sandstone, gray, very hard 15 0
Total number of feet. 208 00
If we may trust the records of boring made west of the Monongahela, which, however, seems to have been made carelessly, the shales are not persistent, for the succession, as given, is as follows:
1st. Sandstone, white, very hard. | 9th. Sandstone, black and very coarse.
2d. Sandstone, blue, very hard.
3d. Sandstone, white, very hard.
4th. Sandstone, blue, softer.
5th. Sandstone, white, fine.
12th. Sandstone, white.
13th. Sandstone, blue, fine hard.
14th. Sandstone, white.
7th. Sandstone, blue, very hard.
8th. Sandstone, white coarse.
10th. Sandstone, white, very hard.
11th. Sandstone, white, coarse.
6th. Sandstone, white, coarse. Depth, 218 feet.
15th. Sandstone, dark, and very coarse.
The total thickness of the formation is between 350 and 400 feet. On Cheat it disappears near Ley's Mill, and on Decker's Creek near Guseman's Bridge.
LOWER COAL MEASURES .- 1. Shales .- Argillaceous, of yellowish gray color. These shales contain an impure proto- carbonate of iron, known to the older residents as the Stratford ore. This is found in two layers, the lower about one foot thick and quite persistent, the upper very irregu-
MARMADUKE DENT See Page 482.
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PHYSICAL HISTORY.
lar. A seam of coal about four inches thick, lies near the middle of the shale. Thickness, ten feet.
3. Coal No. I. A .- Thickness, one foot, but of very fair quality. Observed on Decker's Creek, about 200 feet below Guseman's Bridge.
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