USA > West Virginia > Preston County > History of Preston County (West Virginia) > Part 2
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HISTORY OF PRESTON COUNTY.
SAVAGE PERIOD --- THE INDIANS.
CHAPTER III. GENERAL HISTORY.
ORIGIN AND OCCUPATION OF THE UNITED STATES : THEORIES HELD- FAMILIES-STONE HEAPS-
Twilight deepens-the Moundbuilder is retreating. Night darkens-the Indian is advancing. Whence comes he? One theory credits the Indians as being descendants of the Jews. Succeeding theories blended them with the Cartha- genians, traced them to the Phenicians, derived them from the Egyptians, rendered them of the Grecians, established them of the Romans, gave them origin of the Northmen, and made them natives of the soil. The best supported and most plausible theory of their origin is that they are of Mon- golian extraction ; that while the wave of population in the Old World was from east to west, in the New World was from north to south; that the Indian was the second wave of population from Asia following in the track of the first wave, the Moundbuilder who was then leaving this country and sweeping southward to the plains of Mexico and Peru.
The first fact in favor of the Indians being of Mongolian extraction is that all their traditions state that they came from the North. The second is the grammatical affinity of all the Indian languages constituting the sixth or American group of languages, which in principle of formation and grammatical construction bears unquestionable resemblance
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THE INDIANS.
to the Tartar or third group of languages which is one of the two great language-families of the Mongolian race.
The Indian occupation of the United States admits of two theories : first, a peaceable possession; second, a forcible pos- session. The first is the most likely, as the Moundbuilders were a semi-civilized race, and from their great works it, is fair to presume as strong in numbers as the Indian invaders. But it is a fair presumption, that between the inferior-advan- cing and the superior-retreating races, the clash of mortal conflict would be inevitable. The withdrawal of the Mound- builder from the field of battle after repulsing his Indian foe, to resume his south-ward journey, would give to the Indian the idea that his enemy had fled ; and on this his tradition of conquest, repeated to white prisoners in 1754-5, was un- doubtedly founded.
Difference in language caused division into tribes of the Indians of the United States. They were divided into eight great families : Algonquin, Iroquois, Catawbas, Chero- kees, Uchees, Mobilians, Natches and Dacotahs or Sioux. The great plains, the Rocky Mountains and the Pacific Coast, were in possession of powerful tribes not in the above division. Each family was divided into numerous tribes and these tribes were generally engaged in bloody wars with each other.
The Indians east of the Mississippi were tall, and straight as arrows, with long, coarse, black hair which they generally kept shaved off, except the scalp lock; high cheek bones and black piercing eyes. Their limbs were supple by exercise and their muscles hardened by constant exposure to the weather.
Their dress was the skins of wild animals, smoked or tan- ned with the brains of the animals killed. Their wigwams were poles stuck in the ground and bent together at the top, covered with chestnut and birch bark. Their weapons, war- clubs. bows and arrows, and stone tomahawks, until they
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HISTORY OF PRESTON COUNTY.
procured iron tomahawks and guns from the white traders. Their boats were log and birch bark canoes.
Their religion was the worship of the Great Spirit, and they believed there was a happy hunting-ground in the spirit-land beyond the mountains of the setting sun, where brave warriors went at death and pursued the chase forever and ever; but which no coward was ever permitted to enter. V
Their laws were the customs handed down in the traditions. of the old men. An offense against custom was punished by exclusion from society. If the offense was murder, it was punished by the nearest kinsman of the slain.
Their legislation was enacted by the grand council called together by the chief of the tribe upon the urgency or neces- sity of the occasion, where the disposition of all questions rested upon the votes of the whole tribe, and where commen- cing with the chief all had a right to speak.
Each tribe had its head chief or sachem. The succession of this office was sometimes hereditary-even in the elevation of a queen; sometimes was bestowed for ability and bravery upon a warrior of an other tribe, if he was living with them and was brave and daring.
Each tribe had its medicine man, who, in addition to gath- ering herbs to effect cures, was its historian, teaching the young braves the traditions of their fathers, and to count time by the moon-as so many moons ago such a thing hap- pened. Some tribes could only count up to ten, others up to ten thousand. The medicine man and the old men taught the young brave never to forgive an injury or forget a kind-
ness. They taught him that sternness was a virtue and tears were womanish, and if captured and burning at the stake to let no torture draw a groan or sigh from him; but to taunt his enemies, recite his deeds of prowess, and sing his death- song. He was also taught that the great object of life was to distinguish himself in war and to slay his enemies. He was taught to be faithful to any treaty he made; and to use
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THE INDIANS.
any deceit or practice any treachery upon an enemy was hon- orable, and that it was no disgrace to kill an enemy wherever found, even if unarmed.
Marriage among the Indians was attended with but little ceremony. An Indian could have several wives at one time if he wished, but seldom had more than one. The husband furnished the meat by hunting, and the wife or squaw raised the corn and did all the work. The husband when at home did not labor, so his limbs would not be stiffened, but would remain supple for war and the chase. The husband could leave his wife when he pleased, but on separation the chil- dren remained with the wife, and she kept the wigwam and dha the privilege to marry again.
The Indian copied after the Moundbuilder. He used flint to make his arrow- and spear-heads, and stone to make his tomahawks, hammers, pestles and ornaments; clay and shells to make his pottery ware, but failed to work copper, and had lost all trace of the mines left by the Moundbuilders. .
The stone-grave chamber of the Moundbuilder suggested the stone-pile grave of the Indian.
Stones of memorial constituted the second class of his stone heaps. They were thrown up in heaps at the crossing of trails, and on the summit of some mountain, and each In- dian that passed added a stone. "Lawson's Carolina," pub lished in 1709, at page 309. makes mention of the Indians in the South piling up these memorial heaps. They were piled up in Asia by the Hindoos, according to "Coleman's Hindoo Mythology," page 271.
The earliest mention we have of memorial stones was when the Children of Israel passed over Jordan, and Joshua pitched twelve stones as a memorial heap in Gilgal, to com- memorate Israel's passing over on dry land. Joshua 4: 22. And the earliest mention we have of stones piled over the dead is in II Samuel 18:17, when Absalom was cast into a great pit and a great heap of stones laid on him.
Stone circles existed as the third class of the Indian
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HISTORY OF PRESTON COUNTY.
stone-heaps, being stones piled in a great circle and some times placed standing, inside of which the East Virginia In- dians gathered and went through a great many ceremonies, according to Berkly's History of Virginia, page 164.
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INDIAN TRIBES IN PRESTON.
CHAPTER IV INDIAN TRIBES IN PRESTON.
PRESTON A COMMON HUNTING-GROUND - WAR-PATHS - STONE- PILES-RELICS.
The great Algonquin Indian nation occupied the New England States, the eastern portion of the Middle States, Virginia, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois and Wisconsin. When white settlements were made west of the Blue Ridge they were re . tiring toward the Ohio River. When settlements were com- menced west of Laurel Hill Ridge after the capture of Fort DuQuesne, about 1763, they had left the Monongahela Valley, and only came back from the Ohio River on hunting expedi- tions, and to plunder and murder the white settlers. They had but few towns while residents of the Monongahela Val- ley south of Pittsburgh; and as far as can be ascertained had nothing but hunting camps upon the soil of Preston County.
Cusick gives the following tradition accounting for the scarcity of Indian towns in the Monongahela Valley: The Moundbuilders, twenty-two hundred years before Columbus discovered America, lived in a Golden City in. the south, under a great emperor. This emperor invaded the Missis- sippi Valley, and built all its mounds. The Indians, coming from the north, drove him back after terrible fighting, and divided the country among themselves, excepting the Mon- ongahela Valley, over which various tribes waged long and bloody wars. They finally called a grand council, and agreed that no tribe was to inhabit it or build towns on its soil, but
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HISTORY OF PRESTON COUNTY.
that, on account of its wonderful abundance of game, it was to remain a common hunting-ground for all the tribes
What tribes of the Algonquin family inhabited Preston? The first settlers could not tell, as the tribes had left, and the Indians who came to harrass them were mainly Ohio In- dians, of which the Shawnees and Delawares were supposed to have been former occupants of the county.
Jefferson in his "Notes" divides the Algonquin Indians of Virginia into four branches: the Powhatan thirty-tribe con- federation, the Mannahoac four-tribe confederation, the Mon- acans east of the Alleghanies, and the Massowomees west and extending back to Ohio. The Massawomees were at war with the Mannahoacs and Powhatans, having the Mona- cans as their allies. But of what tribes this Massawomee Confederacy was composed Jefferson could not tell.
After diligent search nothing authentic can be found to indicate with certainty what tribes inhabited Preston beyond the fact that the Shawnees and Delawares in October, 1767, forbade Mason and Dixon to run their celebrated line any far- ther west. Mason and Dixon at the time being on the sec- ond crossing of Dunkard Creek, between Monongalia Co., W. Va., and Greene Co., Pa., and having just finished during ยท Sept. that part of their line now between Preston Co., W. Va., and Fayette Co., Pa. This fact would indicate their possession or even occupation of Monongalia and Treston, as in the record of this fact they are styled tenants of the country.
George Croghan in 1759, was a deputy agent of Indian affairs and reported 1100 Shawnees and Delawares as resi- dent tribes on the Ohio and Sciota rivers and Lake Erie, but makes no mention of any resident tribes on the Monongahela and Cheat Rivers. Col. Boquet's report of 1764 is the same, only in point of numbers he gives 1000 as the number of the two tribes and this was three years before Mason and Dixon were stopped by them. In 1768, but one year after Mason and Dixon were stopped, Capt. Hutchins visited these tribes
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INDIAN TRIBES IN PRESTON.
and makes the same report of their permanent residence only in point of numbers placing them at 900.
These reports show : first, that the Shawnees and Dela- wares (or Linnelinopies, as sometimes called) were residents in Ohio in 1759; second, that no tribes were residents on Cheat after 1759. Mason and Dixon's record of stoppage by them in 1767, shows them as temporary residents on the Monongahela. Their orders to Mason and Dixon to leave, would come from a sense of temporary ownership of more than a single summer, and would warrant the conclusion that they came here regularly to hunt and did not want any clearing out of the forest to drive away the game.
The great Catawba War-Path crossed Cheat River just beyond the Preston and Monongalia line, and ran from the Carolinas to New York. Southern bands of Indians passed and repassed over it, especially the Catawbas. Hunting as they traveled, it is probable that they were often on the waters of Cheat in Preston.
A great many persons suppose the Indians traveled in the forest during the day by the sun and the moss on the trees, and at night by the north star. In extreme cases they did and were enabled to travel great distances by these means, yet they had their roads from town to town and from point to point, the same as we have. Their roads were paths broke through the forest, some just wide enough for a single pony to pass over, and were often called trails; while others were cut out and beaten down almost wide enough for a wagon to pass over, and called war-paths. Several of these Indian paths crossed Preston.
The Great War-Path running from the Ohio to the South Branch (of the Fotomac) entered Preston from Mon- ongalia, passed through the McMillen farm, by Masontown, then through Thomas Watson's farm, and north of Reeds -. ville, running in some places with the present Morgantown and Kingwood turnpike; then north of Kingwood and cross- ing Cheat River at the Dunkard Bottom, kept down that stream a couple of miles, and crossed the mountain, passing
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HISTORY OF PRESTON COUNTY.
between Willey P. O. and Portland, and left the county in the vicinity of Cranesville, where it entered Maryland.
Southern Branch .- Between Masontown and Reedsville this branch left the great war-path, passing by Gladesville,, and crossing between Independence and Newburg, followed York's Run, leaving it near its mouth at the Coffin Rock, kept south of Evansville, coming into the north-west trail at Ice's mill on Big Sandy.
North- West Trail .- This trail was a path that entered the county from Maryland, near Mt. Carmel, and keeping pretty much along the ridges, crossed Cheat River near the bridge at Deakins's, then keeping with the Northwestern Turnpike in its ascent of the mountain, left it about a half- inile east of William H. Brown's; and passing through Chalmber's Glenn farm by the Indian Foot Rock, on which were cut pictures of birds and beasts and a large number of feet. It ran here with the old Clarksburg road, and keeping south of Fellowsville and Evansville to Ice's mill on Big Sandy, where it was joined by the Southern Branch.
Northern Trail .- This trail entered the county from the Murley glades in Maryland, came north of Cranesville, through the Crab Orchard, passed near Jehu Jenkins's and Joseph N. Miller's, and through the Metzler farm, crossing Little Sandy, and then Big Sandy near Bruceton, and keep- ing north to Wymps Gap, then through it to Cheat, and leading into the vicinity of Morgantown.
Indian dead are buried all over the county in stone-pile graves, on the tops of high hills. From these graves, many relics have been obtained, as stone tomahawks, disks, plates and pestles ; while arrow heads and spear points are found on almost every farm in some parts of the county.
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PRESTON UNDER ORANGE.
CIVILIZED PERIOD --- THE WHITE RACE. CHAPTER V.
PRESTON UNDER ORANGE.
THE TERRITORY OF PRESTON UNDER THE JURISDICTION OF ORANGE COUNTY, 1734-1738.
On a savage night gloom falls the day-break rays of the world's greatest civilization. The Indian stubbornly retires. The White man determinedly advances.
With the dawn of the Eighteenth Century, the banner of England waved in unbroken supremacy along the Atlantic coast from Maine to Georgia, established by settlement or planted by conquest, and westward had been carried in Virginia to the foot of the Blue Ridge.
The Blue Ridge as the western boundary of civili- zation, was first crossed by Col. Alexander Spottswood, Governor of the Colony of Virginia, in 1713, with a troop of horse. For this feat, and the discovery of the beautiful valley beyond called the Valley of Virginia, the King of England conferred upon him the honor of knighthood, and sent him a golden horse-shoe engraved with the motto, "Sic jurat transcedere montes"-Thus he swears to cross the mountains.
In 1634 Virginia was divided into eight shires, and from one of these shires among other counties erected, were Essex, King William, and King Queen. In 1720 from portions of these three counties a county was formed and called Spott- sylvania, in honor of Colonel Alexander Spottswood. In
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HISTORY OF PRESTON COUNTY.
1730 Spottsylvania was divided into two parishes, the southern one called St. George, and the northern one St. Marks.
In 1734 Spottsylvania was divided; the parish of St. George to be still called Spottsylvania, and St. Marks by one account to be called Orange County in honor of William, Prince of Orange. Howe in his Historical Collections, page 417, says, "It was called Orange on account of the color of the soil in one part of the county.
In 1734 Orange County was established, and its limits. were extended so as to comprise the whole of Virginia west. of the Blue Ridge. .
Into the Valley of Virginia came a tide of immigration. from Pennsylvania and Maryland, by way of Harper's Ferry, which caused the Colonial legislature four years later, in 1738, to restrict Orange to that portion of her territory east, of the Blue Ridge, and to carve two counties out of her territory lying westward, namely, Frederick and Augusta, in honor of the Prince and Princess of Wales.
Frederick County comprised the northern part of the Val- ley of Virginia, with Winchester as its county seat. Augusta comprised the southern part of the Valley, and all the re- mainder of Virginia west of the Blue Ridge, with Staunton as its county-seat.
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PRESTON UNDER AUGUSTA.
CHAPTER VI.
PRESTON UNDER AUGUSTA.
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MURDER OF THE DUNKARDS-PRINGLE'S CAMP-FIRST PERMANENT SETTLEMENTS-MORRIS'S FORT-BUTLER'S FORT, 1738-1776.
In 1738, Augusta was formed out of that part of Orange west of the Blue Ridge, and named in honor of Augusta of Saxe-Gotha, consort of Frederick, Prince of Wales. Augusta embraced the southern part of the Valley of Virginia, and all the vast stretch of Virginia west of the Valley .. Its terri- tory to-day comprises four States and more than forty coun- ties of West Virginia.
Gen. Gooch was Governor at the time of its creation, and served until 1752. During his administration a tide of immigration poured into the Valley of Virginia by way of Harper's Ferry from Pennsylvania and Maryland, and thence swept westward over into the South Branch Valley, where Washington surveyed Lord Fairfax's South Branch manor in 1747-48.
Preston County as a part of the western territory of Augusta was an unbroken wilderness. No white inan prior to 1748 had ever trod upon its soil ; but in this year Indian . traders from Wills Creek (now Cumberland, Md.,) passed not quite three miles northwest of it on their way to the "Forks of the Ohio," to trade with the Indians, and perhaps passing so close that some of them may have wandered from a camp-fire to the soil of Preston in quest of game to replen- ish a diminished larder.
In 1752, Robert Dinwiddie became Governor of the Colony
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HISTORY OF PRESTON COUNTY.
of Virginia. His weak course and bad policy caused & feel- ing of insecurity along the whole western frontier, and with the alarming reports, a year later, of French encroachments upon the Ohio, put a check upon the westward-setting tide of emigration.
During this year a dispute about boundary lines arose be- tween Virginia and Pennsylvania-Virginia claiming Greene, Fayette and a portion of Alleghany County upon which Pittsburgh stands, as belonging to Augusta County, and Pennsylvania laying claim to the territory of the present counties of Preston, Monongalia, Marion, Taylor and a por - tion of Tucker, Barbour and Harrison.
Washington's battle at Fort Necessity, in 1754, was only 9 miles northeast of Preston; but the crash of the death- dealing musketry, echoing along the mountains' rocky walls, fell on no inhabited spot; was heard by no white man in the nameless valleys of Preston. When Washington retreated, the few white settlers in the Monongahela Valley who had all gathered at Fort Necessity, fell back with him; and Brad- dock's defeat the succeeding year, at the battle of the Mon ongahela, left the whole country west of Laurel Hill Ridge in possession of the French and Indians, and stayed the westward tide of emigration. In the meanwhile the Indians crossed Preston and adjoining counties, by numerous trails over the mountains, and harassed the whole frontier, even to the Blue Ridge, driving back scouting parties and attacking forts.
About 1755 or 1756, as near as can be ascertainEd, Dr. Thomas Eckarly and his two brothers, whose names have not been preserved, left eastern Pennsylvania and camped on the Monongahela River at the mouth of a creek about 10 miles below Morgantown. They left their homes and friends, not on account of being of an adventurous disposition, but because they were liable to be called out any day to fight the Indians, as they were Dunkards, or German Baptists, whose religious faitlr is opposed to all war as wrong. Rather than violate their religious convictions by bearing arms, they
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PRESTON UNDER AUGUSTA.
sought an asylum in the western wilds, where they could worship God according to the dictates of conscience, and be at peace with all icankind, even if life itself was one inces- sant round of toil and deprivation.
Exploring the country for some time, in order to find a suitable site for a home outside the bounds of warring races, they were the first white men to tread the soil of Preston County, of whom we have any account. The bottom land of Cheat River that bears their name, as a secluded spot and fertile soil, suited them. They returned to their camp, and gathering up their few effects, left the creek whose waters bear the name of their religious following and removed to their selected site. Having built a cabin, enough of the sea- son remained for them to raise a small quantity of corn, meanwhile their guns kept a well stocked larder of meat. They lived thus in seclusion for two or three years, when at length their ammunition being nearly gone, and their supply of salt well-nigh exhausted, Dr. Thomas Eckarly took a pack of furs and started on a path leading eastward, to find a set- tlement, and to trade for a fresh supply of ammunition, salt and shirting. This path he traveled could have been none other than the Great Warpath.
The path led him to a settlement on the Shenandoah, and disposing of his pack, he laid in his neccessary supplies and started on his homeward trip. On his way he stopped at Fort Pleasant on the South Branch. Having made known his residence on Cheat, and the length of time he had been there, it aroused the suspicions of the people, and charges 'were made against him of being a spy sent there by the In- dians to ascertain the condition of Fort Pleasant. His pro testations were not believed, and he was confined as a pris- oner. By earnest pleading, Dr. Eckarly obtained his release upon these conditions : he was to pursue his journey as a prisoner under an armed guard, and if they found his state ments false, they were to bring him back to be dealt with as a renegade and Indian spy.
While the doctor was gone the blood-thirsty Indian came
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HISTORY OF PRESTON COUNTY.
to his home on Cheat. Unavailing was the plea of the poor Dunkards that they were at peace with all men, and loved their red brothers as well as their white brothers. The In- dian believed it not, because they occupied his lands without purchase. Unmoved was the heart of the Indian by their petition for life, and the merciless tomahawk descended upon the unresisting heads of the poor Dunkards.
When the guard in charge of the doctor arrived a few days after the murder, a terrible spectacle greeted their awe stricken gaze-a pile of ashes where the cabin had been-in the yard the two mutilated bodies upon which had been wreaked all the savage indignities of Indian hate, and but a few steps from them lay the hoops over which their scalps had been dried, while their fields of corn were trampled down and destroyed. After burying the bodies, the guard returned to Fort Pleasant, and Dr. Thomas Eckarly not wishing to remain on a spot where his brothers had been murdered, returned with the guard to the Fort.
Thus crimsoned with the blood of the poor Dunkards was written the first page of the history of the Anglo-Saxon oc- cupation of Preston County.
In 1858, Dinwiddie sailed for England, and Francis Fau- quier arrived as Governor, whose administration was highly beneficial to the Colony.
In November, 1758, General Forbes captured Fort DuQuesne, and changed its name to Fort Fitt. This cap- ture broke the power of the French in the Ohio Valley, and Indian depredations decreased both in number and extent.
In 1761, William Childers, Joseph Lindsey, John Pringle and Samuel Pringle, soldiers of the garrison of Fort Pitt, de- serted and ascended the Monongahela to the locality where New Geneva, Pa., now stands. Not liking the place, they crossed Chestnut Ridge by the old Braddock Road, and came into the glades on the head waters of the Youghiogheny, about two and one half miles east of Aurora. These were the second white men in Freston, of whom we have any au-
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