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 2
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But the colony disappeared, and the discovery seems not to have awakened the attention of either statesmen or phi- losophers ; and so it was that when Columbus planted the imperial banner of Spain on the soil of the New World and beside it placed the cross of Christian civilization, it was as if a great curtain had rolled up from the western world of waters.
The Red Men whom Columbus found here were not the primitive inhabitants. An ancient race, entirely distinct from the Indians, possessing a certain degree of civilization, once inhabited the central portion of the United States. They are known as the Mound Builders. Of their origin, their history, and of their fate, we have first, supposition, next theory from relics, and then speculation, and that is all.
* Encyclopædia Britannica, 9th ed., vol. 1, art. America.
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THE MOUND BUILDERS.
The weight of scholarship is to the opinion that all man- kind descended from one primitive pair, and that varieties of form, stature and complexion in the human species, are modifications produced by external causes. The Mound Builders, most probably, were of Asiatic origin. They were here ages ago. They may have crossed oyer Behring's Strait, or coasting along the Aleutian Islands found their way here. Their works are found in New York; thence westwardly along the southern shore of Lake Erie, through Michigan to Nebraska on tlie west, and as far as Isle Royal, and the northern and southern shores of Lake Superior, on the north. From this line they extend to the Gulf of Mexico. They occur in great numbers in Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky, Tennessee, Illinois, Wisconsin, Missouri, Arkansas, Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, and Florida. In less numbers they are found in the Carolinas, western New York, Pennsylvania, the Virginias, Michigan, Iowa, and the Mexican Territory. Some authorities say in Oregon and other regions of the far West. In choosing this vast re- gion, consisting of a system of plains, with its numerous rivers and perfect system of navigation, the Mound Builders showed great foresight and wisdom .*
Their works are divided into two general classes, viz. : Enclosures and Mounds. These embrace a variety of works, diverse in form, and designed for different purposes.
The Enclosures may be sub-divided into two classes : De- fensive and Sacred. They are characterized by being bounded by embankments, circumvallations, or walls, and all symmet- rical in form. The defensive enclosures were always situated on well chosen hills, and their avenues guarded with consummate skill. On the other hand, the sacred enclosures
* The Mound Builders. By J. P. Maclean.
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HISTORY OF MONONGALIA COUNTY.
are found on level river bottoms ; seldom upon table-lands.
The Mounds, which were round, oblong, and pyramidal, may be divided into four classes : Temple, Altar or Sac- rificial, Effigy or Symbolical, and Tomb or Sepulchral. Besides these, there are others which admit of no classi- fication. A dissertation upon the uses of these Mounds, their various forms, the large dimensions of many of them, and the great labor expended in their erection, cannot be indulged in a work of this character.
Nor can we dwell upon their works of art, their knowledge of mining, their advancement in the sciences, the proba- bility, or rather improbability, of their possessing a written language, nor their degree of civilization, their religion, government, and numerous other topics of interest to the archæologist.
There are many facts which lend support to the view that the Mound Builders inhabited this country ages ago. David Cusick, an educated Indian, states an Indian tradition assigning the Mound Builders back twenty-two centuries before the landing of Columbus. That they were denizens of America for a very long time is certain.
It is evident also that they were expelled from the country now forming the United States. The invaders came from the north, and drove the Mound Builders to the south."
Leaving this country, they most probably settled in Mexico. According to most craniologists their type of skull is that of
* A curious tradition of the present Iroquois records that when the Leuni Leuapi, the common ancestors of the Iroquois and other tribes, advanced from the north-west to the Mississippi, they found on its eastern side a great nation more civilized than themselves who lived in fortified towns and cultivated the ground. This people at first granted the Lenni Lenapi leave to pass through their territories to seek an east- ward settlement, but treacherously attacked them while crossing the river. This conduct gave rise to inveterate hostilities, that terminated in the extermination or subjugation of their opponents, and the establishment of the red men in these regions. -Encul. Brit., Vol. I. p. 692.
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THE MOUND BUILDERS.
the Toltecan family; and there are other evidences that the Mound Builders were the original Toltecan race, which set- tled in Mexico at an early date. It is, however, impossible to tell whether they were the original Nahoas, who emi- grated into Mexico before the Christian Era from the north,' or the Toltecs, who came later.
Traces of the Mound Builders in Monongalia County were none too plain when the first settlers came. They were not interested ·much in antiquities, and would not stop long to examine any trace of camp, grave or fort, to de- termine whether it was Indian or not. North of Monongalia the Mound Builders existed in strong numbers. They passed up Cheat River, and were in Preston County. Near Pt. Marion, but a short distance from the territory of Monongalia, is a mound undoubtedly erected by them. Some bones found in graves of stone along Cheat River, some years ago, from the description given by those who have seen them, indicate the dead to have been Mound Builders. The description of other bones found on the head waters of Dunkard answers to that given of the Mound Builders.
The Mound Builder had a long, narrow head, with low sloping forehead, long narrow face, and short heavy bones, indicating a race not generally tall, but heavy and muscular. Some darts and arrow-heads of superior workmanship, found in different places in the county, unquestionably indicate the presence and temporary occupation of Monongalia as a hunting ground by them. At the mouth of nearly every creek along the Monongahela River are found traces of pottery in connection with the remains of Indian villages. Now, the use of charcoal in the
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HISTORY OF MONONGALIA COUNTY.
manufacture of this pottery, which is plainly revealed, indicates that the Indian here in Monongalia copied the work of a previous and superior artizan, as no traces of charcoal exists in connection with the Indian's work in territory not formerly occupied by the Mound Builder.
A stone jar some years ago, it is asserted, was found in a stone-pile grave, and when the stone lid was removed, a very faint odor resembling sassafras was perceived. This grave was said to have been on a high hill between Crooked Run and the Monongahela River. If such was the case, no Indian had anything to do with placing it in the grave. Lapse of years has obliterated nearly all traces of the Mound Builders' occupation. How long they were here, and why they left, no one knows. Undoubtedly they shared the common fate of their mysterious race. Coming years may dispel the darkness that obscures them now, or may leave them embalmed in oblivion to the end of time.
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CHAPTER II. INDIAN OCCUPATION.
Origin of the American Indians-Theories Held-Probable Asiatic Origin-Indians in Monongalia-Six Nations, proprietors- Delawares and Shawnees, tenants-War-paths-Pottery and Relics-Buffalo Pond-"Pictured Rock."
WELL says a recent writer (in Encyclopaedia Britannica), that "the origin of the populations of America is a problem which has yet to be solved." The Indians, a race of dark- skin hunters, succeeded the primitive inhabitants, the Mound Builders or "First Americans."" Of their origin many theories have been advanced. We mention first (but not, however, because it is most probable) the doctrine of that school which holds to the theory that man was evolved originally from several centres. As before remarked, the weight of scholarship favors the doctrine, that all races of men are the descendants of one primitive pair.
Perhaps the most probable theory of the origin of the Indians is that it is Asiatic. Many of their traditions favor this theory. Another argument in its favor is that the grammatical affinityt of all the Indian languages, constitu- ting the sixth or American group of languages, both in
* Some authorities hold that between the time of the Mound Builders and the Indians, a race known as the(" Villagers" occupied certain districts of this country ; and still there is yet another theory to be mentioned: Since the period of the Villagers and before the advent of the Indians, it is held that another race existed here.
t Says Prof. Whitney of Yale College, in his, work ou Language and the study of Language, p. 346: "It is the confident opinion of linguistic scholars that a fundamen - tal unity lies at the base of these infinitely varying forms of speech [of the American Indians]; that they may be, and probably are, all descended from a single parent language."
24 . HISTORY OF MONONGALIA COUNTY.
principle of formation and grammatical construction, bears a strong resemblance to the Tartar or third group of languages, which is one of the two great language-families of the Mongolian race.
Of the time of their coming and the manner of their occupation, we know nothing. Whether they, driving the Mound Builders from their homes here, advanced upon their retreating footsteps, or whether they found the country unoccupied, we know not.
What tribes inhabited Monongalia? Jefferson in his "Notes" divided the Algonquin Indians of Virginia into four branches, one of which was the Massowomees, who inhabited west of the Alleghany Mountains. Jefferson does not state of what tribes this Massowomee Confederacy was composed.
The first white traders, who came several years before the first settlers, found the Indians in the Monongahela Valley to consist of the Delaware and Shawnese tribes with a few bands of Iroquois or Mingoes originally from New York. They found that these Indians had all their permanent settlements or villages within a few miles of Pittsburgh. From time to time, hunting parties went from these settle- ments up the Monongahela River, and had temporary villages or hunting-camps in what is now Monongalia County. One of these camps was below Hamilton, and another was on Cobun's Creek, and, judging from its ruins as described by early settlers, it must have been of consid- erable size.
The Huron Iroquois or Six Nations were the owners of the Monongahela Valley. They were the great war-nation of the Indian race, and, after planting themselves in New York on the great water-ways to the ocean and the gulf,
25
INDIAN OCCUPATION.
waged a war of subjugation and extermination against kindred nations with wonderful success. The Delawares, the great nation of the Algonquin family, fell before them in the east, and, with the Shawanese, came west in 1713, and inhabited this country as tenants of the Six Nations.
It is a common supposition that the Indians inhabiting this country traveled by the sun, the moss on the trees and the stars. In extreme cases they did, and were enabled to travel great distances by these means; yet they had their roads from village to village and from point to point, as we have our roads from place to place. Judge Veech says : "They had their trails or paths as distinctly marked as our county and State roads, and often better located." Several of these Indian paths or highways passed through the county.
Catawba War-Path .- Running from New York, this great path or trail came through Fayette County, Penna., and crossed Cheat River at the mouth of Grassy Run; thence, passing south through the county, it ran to the Holston River. Over this trail the Six Nations traveled to attack the southern tribes living in the. Carolinas, Georgia and Tennessee.
Warrior Branch .- This was a tributary path that struck from the great trail, just mentioned, in Fayette County, and crossed Cheat River at McFarland's; then passed over the Monongahela and up the valley of Dunkard Creek. From Dunkard, it passed over to and down Fish Creek, and then through southern Ohio into Kentucky.
Eastern Trail .- This path came from the Ohio, probably by the way of Fish Creek, down Indian Creek, and, crossing the Monongahela, ran up White Day Creek. Passing through Preston County, it kept on to the South Branch (of
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HISTORY OF MONONGALIA COUNTY.
the Potomac). Over it most likely came the band that murdered the Dunkards. Over it passed the war-parties that made forays against the Indians of eastern Virginia. Over it traveled the Ohio Indians who harassed the South Branch settlements, and over it came the band that mur- dered John Greene in 1788 .* The location of these paths beyond their general direction is now impossible. With a generation past it is buried, and nothing can be found preserving it. The scarceness of Indian villages, showing signs of permanent location for any great length of time, shows that the Indians used the county mainly as a favorite hunting ground. Wherever their villages were situated is found a black earth, filled with burnt muscle shells, traces of white-wash clay and charcoal, showing their process of making pottery, pieces of which are found in the same earth.
A mile or so from Stewarttown is the "Buffalo Pond," a long narrow hollow with high rocky sides running back from Cheat River and terminating in a wall 10 or 12 feet high. It is asserted that the Indians used this as a trap for buffaloes. They drove the bison up into it from the river, and then shot them.
Indian stone-pile graves were some years ago to be found all over the county, but are now scarce. The stone of which they were composed have been hauled away. When opened an Indian skeleton was generally found, and, some- times with it, a tomahawk, pipe, beads or some other ornament.
The "Pictured Rock," about four or five miles from Mor- gantown, is now so covered and overgrown that deciphering
* History of Preston County, W. Va., pp. 44 and 223.
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INDIAN OCCUPATION.
its rude engraved figures, cut by the Indians, is a very difficult task. Years ago they were clearly discernible, and Howe, in his history of Virginia, says at page 382 :
"On the plantation of Henry Hamilton there is a large flat rock, about 150 feet long and 50 wide, with numerous engravings of ani- mals, well executed-such as panthers of full size, buffalo-tracks, horse-tracks, deer-tracks, turkey-tracks, eels, fish, women large as life, human-tracks, otters, beavers, snakes, crows, eagles, wild cats, foxes, wolves, raccoons, opossums, bears, elks, etc."
An Indian burial place was discovered years ago, near Smithtown, under an overhanging cliff of rocks.
We shall now pass on to chronicle the advent of the race which dispossessed the Indian of the wooded hills and valleys of Monongalia.
CHAPTER III. MONONGALIA UNDER ORANGE.
1734-1738.
Crossing of the Blue Ridge by Spotswood-Orange County Erect- ed-Settlements West of the Blue Ridge-Erection of Frederick and Augusta Counties.
FOLLOWING the Mound Builder, the Indian, in turn, was succeeded by the White Man.
The Blue Ridge, in 1716, constituted the western boundary of civilization. In that year it was crossed by the accom- plished and scholarly Col. Alexander Spotswood, Governor of the Colony of Virginia. In recognition of this service, the King of England made him a Knight, and sent him a golden horse-shoe bearing the inscription, "Sic jurat trans- cedere montes"-Thus he swears to cross the mountains.
In 1634, Virginia was divided into eight shires, and among other counties erected from them, were King and Queen (1691), Essex (1692) and King William (1701). From por- tions of these three counties, in 1720, a county was formed and called Spotsylvania (to exist from May 21, 1721) in honor of Col. Alexander Spotswood. The county was di- vided in 1730 into two parishes, called respectively St. George and St. Marks.
Four years later, in 1734, an act# was passed for the division of Spotsylvania County as follows (to take effect January 1, 1735): "And all that territory of land, adjoin- ing to, and above the said line (between St. George and St. Marks) bounden southerly, by the line of Hanover County,
* Hening's Statutes at Large, Vol. iv., p. 450.
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MONONGALIA UNDER ORANGE.
northerly, by the grant of Lord Fairfax, and westerly by the utmost limits of Virginia, be thenceforward erected into one distinct county, and be called and known by the county of Orange." Thus St. Marks became Orange County, named in honor of William Prince of Orange, afterward King of England. Howe in his Historical Collections of Virginia, page 417, says that the name of Orange was given it from the color of the soil in one part of the county.
The settlement of the white race west of the Blue Ridge was pioneered by colonists from Pennsylvania and Maryland, who entered the Valley of Virginia by way of Harper's Ferry. These settlements were so numerous in 1738 that the portion of Orange west of the Blue Ridge was erected into two counties, Frederick and Augusta, so named in honor of Frederick Prince of Wales, heir-apparent of the throne, and his highly esteemed consort, Augusta of Saxe- Gotha, who died young and sincerely lamented by the En- glish nation. In Goldsmith's works the piece entitled "Threnodia Augustalis," was written as a monody on her death.
Frederick County embraced the northern part of the Valley, with Winchester as its county-seat. Augusta com- prised the southern part of the Valley, and embraced all the remainder of Virginia westward of the Blue Ridge. Its county-seat was Staunton.
CHAPTER IV. MONONGALIA UNDER AUGUSTA.
1738-1775.
Territory of Augusta County-The Ohio Company-Attempts to
Settle the Country-The Eckarlys-Thomas Decker and his Colony Murdered-First Permanent Settlement-Virginia Col- ony under the Morgans-Pioneers from 1769 to 1774-Murder of Bald Eagle-Dunmore's War-Stockade Forts and Block- Houses-Old Roads.
AUGUSTA COUNTY was created by an act passed in November, 1738. It declared, "That all that territory and tract of land, at present deemed to be a part of the county of Or- ange, lying on the north-west side of the top of the said [Blue Ridge] mountains, extending from thence northerly, westerly, and southerly, beyond the said mountains, to the utmost limits of Virginia, be separated from the rest of the said county, and erected into two distinct counties and par- ishes ; to be divided by a line to be run from the head spring of Hedgman River to the head of the river Potow- mack said territory lying on the other side (northwest) of the said line, beyond the said Blue Ridge, shall be one other distinct county, and parish ; to be called by the name of the county of Augusta, and parish of Augusta.""
Augustat at the time of its formation embraced the southern part of the Valley of Virginia, and all the vast stretch west of this Valley. To-day its territory comprises four States and over forty counties of West Virginia.
* V Hening, p. 79.
t May 1, 1754, a part of Augusta was added to Frederick, and Hampshire was taken from Augusta and Frederick. Nov., 1769, Botetort was taken from Augusta. These losses of territory, however, did not effect the territory of Monongalia.
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MONONGALIA UNDER AUGUSTA.
Monongalia County, as a part of the territory of Augusta, was an unbroken wilderness. For ten years no attempt was made by English-speaking people to possess the soil of the Monongahela Valley. Thomas Lee" a member of the Royal Council of Virginia, in 1748, projected the formation of the Ohio Company, which was chartered by George II. in March, 1749. Five hundred thousand acres of land was the grant to be taken up on the Ohio between the Monongahela and Kanawha rivers. Two hundred thousand acres were to be taken immediately and held ten years free from quit-rent or tax to the King. The Ohio Companyt was to bring out one hundred families, and build a fort to protect them, within seven years. The object of the Company was to settle these lands and wrest the Indian trade from the hands of the Pennsylvanians. This grant embraced a portion of the territory of Monongalia. The Company attempted to settle its lands with 200 German emigrants from eastern Pennsylvania, but the collection of church rates from dissenters by the Episcopacy of Virginia deterred them.
The next effort made to possess the soil of Monongalia was by the Colony of Virginia. In February, 1752, the House of Burgesses offered any Protestant who would settle in Augusta County, west of the ridge, on the waters of the Mississippi, ten years' exemption from public, county and parish levies. In November, 1753, the exemption was extended to fifteen years, ending in 1769. Braddock's defeat in 1755 stopped settling until 1763.
* Ellis's History of Fayette County, Penna.
t The charter members were Thomas Lee, Mr. Hanbury, of London, Lawrence and John A. Washington (brothers of George Washington), and ten others of Virginia and Maryland. Braddock's defeat in 1755 put a stop to the Ohio Company's operations. In 1760, Col. George Mercer was sent to England to revive the Company. He met with varying success until the Revolution killed the project. -
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HISTORY OF MONONGALIA COUNTY.
Up to the year 1753 we have nothing to show that a white man had ever set foot on the soil of Monongalia. About that year, Dr. Thomas Eckarly and his two brothers, from eastern Pennsylvania, sought a home in the wilderness to avoid military duty, they believing all war to be wrong. All frontier history agrees with an account given over forty years ago in the National Intelligencer, which stated that they camped in south-western Pennsylvania on the waters of a stream which they called Dunkard Creek, (which name it bears to-day,) and then removed to and settled on Cheat River in Virginia, where they were murdered by Indians. As the Eckarlys ascended the stream upon which they had camped, one hundred and thirty years ago, their gaze must have fallen upon the vast forest region of Monongalia. Such a region they foresaw possessed too many advantages to remain long unsettled, and as they sought solitude, they turned back. Strange explorers were they, indeed, to turn away from a country because it was too inviting! Yet such were the Eckarlys," the first white men who ever trod upon the soil of Monongalia. They left their camp and went to the Dunkard Bottom (in what is now Preston County), where two of them were killed by Indians, a year or so later. The Eckarlys were the first explorers of the Upper Monon- gahela Valley-the first discoverers of Monongalia County, and were the first white settlers murdered by Indians west of the Alleghanies of which we have any account.
This murder was the opening scene of the great tragedy
* Withers's Chronicles of Border Warfare states that they settled on Cheat River, on the Dunkard Bottom [named after them], that they were Dunkards and lived here [two miles south-east of the site of Kingwood, Preston County] a year or two. Run- ning out of salt and ammunition, Dr. Thomas Eckarly followed a path leading east- ward, to procure a supply. At Fort Pleasant he was stopped as a spy sent out by the Indians. His story of being settled was not believed, and an armed guard accompanied him back. They found his cabin in ashes, and the mutilated bodies of his two brothers, upon which had been wreaked all the savage indignities of Indian hate.
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MONONGALIA UNDER AUGUSTA.
acted throughout nearly forty years on the western frontier, where the curtain but rose to reveal the burning cabin and the fleeing family, and but fell too often to shut out their dead and mangled bodies from sight. Had the broad bosom of the Monongahela been less inviting, no doubt they would liave ascended it and met the same doon of Decker and his^ ill-fated colony.
Frontier history designates the Eckarlys as Dunkards. From scant records loosely kept over a hundred years ago, it requires continued, patient and wearying search to find what little is to be gathered. All authorities agree that the Eckarlys or Eckarlins came from eastern Pennsylvania, and were opposed to war of any kind.
Searching eastern Pennsylvania records for information, we find some account of the Eckerlins, in Dr. Wmn. Fahne- stock's History of the Society of Ephrata, as given in Ha- zard's Register, vol. 15, and referred to in Day's History of Pennsylvania. Dr. Fahnestock states that this society is a distinct sect from the Dunkards, from which, however, they descended; that the three brothers Eckerlin were from Europe, and were originally Catholics; that the Eckerlins had charge of the secular concerns of the society and were suspected of certain ambitious designs to possess themselves of the title to the property of the society and to give the establishment a more luxurious and imposing appearance. They were tried by the society and expelled, and went to south-western Pennsylvania or Virginia.
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