USA > West Virginia > Preston County > History of Preston County (West Virginia) > Part 21
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In 1870, receiving the Republican nomination, he was elected to the House of Delegates. And, in 1872, being the Republican nominee from the district composed of the coun- ties of Preston and Monongalia, he was elected to the State Senate, by a large popular majority-the highest compliments of a free people. In all, Mr. Bishop served six years in the legislature.
He was a member of the committee on finance, when in the House, and also during his 4 years in the Senate. He
Hon. CHARLES M. BISHOP.
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BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES.
was a member of the Senate Committees on Education, and Humane Institutions; also on a special committee to reduce the taxes in the city of Charleston. He favored the claims of Wheeling as the Capital city, and bravely helped to fight the question through when the man who stood up for Wheeling was denied the courtesy of social recognition even on the streets of Charleston.
In 1875, he began merchandizing in Kingwood with Captain Joseph M. Godwin, and the partnership lasted two years and a half. He then had erected a two-story frame store-building, in 1877, on Price Street, opposite the post- office, and still carries on business in the line of general merchandizing.
In the meantime he served as one of the managing direc- toss of the State asylum for the Insane, under appointment of Governor Mathews.
Mr. Bishop is one of the directors of the National Bank of Kingwood, operates several farms, and is greatly interested in the improvement of our live stock. He was converted in the winter of 1845, and has ever since been an active, zealous member of his church, the Methodist Episcopal.
He has three children living, M. Eugenia, who graduated at the Wheeling Female College in 1878; Lulu E., who is now a student of the same institution of learning ; and mas- ter Charles Y., a school boy at the home school in Kingwood.
Mr. Bishop is now in the prime of life and in the meridian of usefulness. Devoting his energies to his private affairs, he still takes a deep interest in the welfare of his fellow-men, in the material progress of the country, and in the mental, moral and religious advancement of the age.
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HISTORY OF PRESTON COUNTY.
THE HONORABLE JOHN P. JONES.
The Honorable John P. Jones was born in Wales, on the 21st day of June, 1832. His father, Daniel J. Jones, came with his family to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in 1839. His mother's name was Mary Davis, of Wales, who died in 1875. having passed her three score and ten by five years. His father is still living at Ebensburg, Cambria County, Penn- sylvania.
Although but a child then, he well remembers the im- posing ceremonies at the coronation of Victoria, Queen of England, and very clearly recollects when a mere lad in Pittsburgh, the hard-cider and log cabin campaign of 1840.
In 1840, his father removed to Ebensburg, and he at- tended the common school till fourteen years of age, receiv- ing a good practical education.
In 1850, he entered the mercantile business in the employ of Ezekiel Hughes, and remained with him till 1858.
On the 17th of April, 1855, he married Hannah E., daugh- ter of George Rogers, of Ohio. He then, with Robert Davis as partner, successfully engaged in the mercantile business until shortly after the breaking out of the War of the Re- bellion, when he located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in the lumber business.
In April, 1863, he came to Cranberry Summit, Preston County, West Virginia, and, with E. T. Nutter and Freeman Evans, engaged in general merchandizing and the manufac- ture of shook. In 1870, he bought out his partners, and since that time has continued these lines of business.
He was elected a member of the board of county super -. visors in 1868.
1870, he was elected to represent Preston County in the House of Delegates, and was re-elected in 1872. Amply en- dowed with energy and perseverance, and posessed of fine business qualifications, he is but naturally one of the leading
Hon. JOHN P. JONES.
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BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES.
business men in this part of our young and rising State, as he has been one of the most successful.
In 1876, he was elected asa Republican to the State Senate. to represent the tenth senatorial district, composed of Pres- ton and Monongalia counties, and was conspicuous in the senate in his efforts to advance the material interests of Preston County in particular, and of the State in general.
He is an elder in the Presbyterian Church, and has always manifested great interest in the Sunday-school, being an en- ergetic and untiring worker, and has served most acceptably as Superintendent for over twenty years.
He has always taken deep interest in the education of the youth of our land, mentally as well as morally, serving for more than ten years as president of the board of education of Portland District, and being instrumental in securing Cranberry her present beautiful and commodious school edifice.
In May, 1869, he was a delegate from the West Virginia Presbytery to the Presbyterian General Assembly in New York, and took part in its sessions held in that city.
In November following, he attended the sessions of the General Assembly held at Pittsburgh, when the Old School and the New School Presbyterian churches united as one body-the consummation of which Mr. Jones was an ardent advocate.
In 1880, he was elected a member of the board of commis- sioners or county court, the body being composed of Messrs. Jones, H. C. Hagans and James Allender.
In 1880, Mr. and Mrs. Jones celebrated their silver wed- ding with appropriate ceremonies, surrounded by a large circle of friends gathered together upon that occasion. They have been blessed with five children-Hattie B., Scott T., Adaline, Evaline M., and Cora C. Miss Hattie is a grad- uate of the Wheeling Female College, and has commenced the study of medicine with a view of entering the medical profession. Scott T. is associated with his father in the mercantile business.
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HISTORY OF PRESTON COUNTY.
In 1880, the Republican State convention, in appreciation of his past services, and in recognition of his business quali- fications, offered to confer upon him the nomination for State Treasurer, which honor he peremptorily declined.
Since that time he has been busily engaged in conducting his business affairs, with an eye ever to the material advance- ment of his county and State ; through his efforts there has- been built at Cranberry a large steam flouring mill, costing nearly $10,000. He is the principal member of the firm that owns and operates this mill.
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BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES.
THE HONORABLE WILLIAM M. O. DAWSON.
William Mercer Owens Dawson was born May 21, 1853, at Bloomington, Alleghany (now Garrett) County, Mary- land. His father, Francis Ravenscraft Dawson, died in Kingwood, July 12, 1881, at the residence of his son, the subject of this sketch. His mother, Leah Kight, died at Bloomington in 1857.
At the time of the birth of the subject of this sketch, his father was engaged in the mercantile business at Blooming- ton. In 1858, he moved to Cranberry, this county; and soon afterwards to Bruceton Mills, where he remained till the breaking out of the Rebellion, when he removed to Ice's Ferry, in Monongalia County. Mr. Dawson had lived with his father up to that time; but then went to Cranberry and made his home with his brothers and sisters, who kept tavern there. The war having come on, Mr. Dawson's stay in Cranberry was of short duration; and his father took him to Ice's Ferry, where he remained till the autumn of 1863. when he returned to Cranberry to live with his sisters.
Though then past his tenth birthday, he could not yet read, but entering school that same fall, he redeemed his time and made rapid progress in his studies. All the schooling he received, was in the free school at Cranberry, except two terms of select school that he attended there.
From 1863 till 1868 he worked with his brother-in-law in the cooper-shop during the summers and attended school in winters. And while going to school, he worked mornings and evenings in the shop, usually until 9 o'clock at night.
In the summer of 1867, he was given a clerkship in the store of the Honorable John P. Jones at Cranberry, in whose employ he remained for a considerable time, broken by in- tervals in which he taught and attended school. He also clerked for other firms; taught his first school near Thomas Beatty's in Union District, in the winter of '69-'70; '70-'71. he taught the school near William Dodge's in Portland Dis-
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HISTORY OF PRESTON COUNTY.
trict ; and in '71-2, the Freeland school, two miles from Cranberry, in the same district.
Mr. Dawson came to Kingwood in the month of Septem- ber, 1873, at the solicitation of James B. Chaffin, and en -- tered into partnership with him in the publication of The Preston County Journal, of which he had been a regular correspondent. He had also been an occasional contributor to the columns of the Wheeling Intelligencer.
Mr. Dawson took entire charge of the Journal editorially, revised its subscription list, and reduced the price of the paper. Mr. Chaffin soon left the county, and Mr. Dawson became sole publisher of the paper, and within the next two years bought it from the Hon. James C. McGrew. Notwith standing the hard times following the financial depression of 1873, the patronage of the paper steadily increased.
Mr. Dawson not only intends that the Journal shall be a live paper, but also intends that it shall live, and have room to expand; accordingly, in 1880, he erected the "Journal Building" on Main Street, and now Kingwood has a first- elass printing house, inferior to none in the State, outside the city of Wheeling, a picture of which appears, between these covers.
Mr. Dawson early took an eager interest in political affairs. and when only 7 years of age in 1860, he used to make boy- ish political speeches, being at that time an ardent "Douglass man." In 1874, he was elected chairman of the Republican executive committee of Preston County; has been twice unanimously re-elected, and still fills that position.
At the Cranberry convention in 1880-the largest conven- tion ever held in the county-he received the Republican nomination for the State Senate from the Tenth District, (Preston and Monongalia counties), and, was elected at the ensuing October election. He entered the Senate January 12, 1881, the youngest member of that body, and perhaps the youngest senator in the history of the State.
He was appointed a member of the committees on banks and corporations, counties and municipal corporations, on
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BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES.
the penitentiary, on mines and mining, on public printing, on enrolled bills, and also a member of the select committee to investigate the public printing. Mr. Dawson served on the part of the Senate as chairman of the committee on enrolled bills-a responsible and very laborious position. During the session he showed himself a zealous friend of free schools, and spoke squarely in favor of submitting to the people the proposed amendment to the constitution prohibiting the manufacture and sale of ardent spirits. He offered resolu- tions providing for the distribution of the acts of the legisla- ture as fast as signed and printed, and declaring the right of the State to regulate the freight and passenger charges of the railways in the State, both of which were adopted.
He also introduced Senate bill No. 117, "A bill"-as set forth in its title-"to provide for the regulation of railroad freight and passenger tariff in this State; to prevent unjust discrimination and extortion in the rates charged for trans- portation of passengers and freights, and to prohibit railroad companies, corporations, and lessees in this State from charg- ing other than just and reasonable rates, and to punish the same, and to prescribe a mode of procedure and rules of evidence in relation thereto; and to appoint commissioners and to prescribe their powers and duties in relation to the same." The usual reference of the bill to committee was dispensed with and it was ordered to its second reading, by unanimous consent. Being introduced late in the session, and after it had been determined to hold an extra session the following winter, Mr. Dawson, after the bill was printed, appreciating its sweeping provisions and the importance of the subject, on his own motion had it laid on the table.
He also wrote a bill, which passed the senate, providing for the permanent marking of street lines in towns ; and was instrumental in securing a number of amendments to the "'alternate road law."
On the 23d of October, 1879, Mr. Dawson married Miss Luda Neff, daughter of John T. Neff, Esq., of Kingwood.
He is a member of the Kingwood Presbyterian Church,
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HISTORY OF PRESTON COUNTY.
and a regular attendant upon its services. He is an inter- ested worker in the Sunday-school cause, having been su- perintendent of the Methodist Episcopal school while at Cranberry, and afterwards for a time superintendent of the Presbyterian school in Kingwood.
Mr. Dawson is a self-made man, ambitious, pushing, and energetic ; a man of good business qualifications, ever ready for hard work, and alive to all questions of public interest and social improvement that agitate the minds of the people.
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PHYSICAL HISTORY.
CHAPTER XI. PHYSICAL HISTORY.
GEOGRAPHY : THE MASON AND DIXON LINE, MD. AND W. VA. BOUNDARY.
-GEOLOGY-BOTANY-ZOOLOGY.
Preston County is bounded on the north by the State of Pennsylvania, from which it is separated by the celebrated Mason and Dixon Line of National reputation; on the east by the State of Maryland, from which it is separated by the much disputed boundary line between West Virginia and Maryland, on the south by Tucker and Barbour counties, and on the west by Taylor, Marion and Monongalia counties.
It has long been the commonly received opinion that Pres - ton County contained about 800 square miles. Various standard authorities have thus stated its area. The writer has long considered this given area as too large, and here submits the careful calculation of its area made by Joseph H. Hawthorne, Esq. :
"Touching the matter of boundary lines and the amount of territory included by them, the most trustworthy data to be had among the records of the county are much short of mathematical accuracy, and are but a practical approximation of the exactness desirable in this matter.
"The mountainous character of the country through which these lines pass, the long disputed division line between Maryland and West Virginia, and the general apathy in the past as to a careful survey of the county, have each done much to delay definite information as to limits and extent of the county.
"The best data in the matter we have, are from the surveys of General Buckner Fairfax, George M. Michaels and others
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HISTORY OF PRESTON COUNTY.
made at different times, and including different portions of these lines, which of course result in discrepancies when taken together. From an examination of these surveys, we have the following boundary for the county :
"Beginning at the northwest corner at a stone marked M. & P. on the Mason and Dixon's line, and running thence with this line due east 4940 poles to a stone corner where Maryland and West Virginia corner ; thence in a due south course along the division line with Maryland 11604 poles to stone marked F. X., and which is usually called the Lord Fairfax Stone ; thence n. 36 degrees w. 580 poles to a sugar and pine on the top of Allegheny Mountains ; thence n. 68} degrees w. 3280 poles to the mouth of Muddy Run at Cheat River ; thence s. 66} degrees w. 2580 poles to Rock Spring ; thence down Buffalo Fork of Big Creek to the mouth of Little Sandy; thence due north 2965 poles to chestnut; thence n. 6 degrees w. 980 poles to a white oak ; thence n. 36 degrees e. 3600 poles to double chestnut at Cheat River ; thence n. 5} degrees e. 870 poles to a stone marked M. & P, 1841 ; thence n. 22 degrees e. 1020 poles to a stone marked M. & P. ; thence due north 500 poles to the beginning in Mason and Dixon's line.
"A calculation made from these data with corrections deemed applicable for the purpose of calculation, makes the area of the county about 678 square miles.
"The land books of the county report the area of the farms of the county as follows, not including the town lots, which would aggregate but a small amount :
Portland District 65,454 acres
Reno District .61,279 66
Union District. .59,140 66
Grant District, 57,688 66
Pleasant District 52,613
Kingwood District . 34,200 66
Valley District, 33,456
Lyon District, 25,905
Aggregating 389,735 acres,
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PHYSICAL HISTORY,
which when reduced, is nearly 609 square miles. This does not include much of the wild land, much unimproved land on the land books of other counties, especially Monongalia, the mother-county of Preston, and miscellaneous portions not taxed.
"The greatest length of the county is the eastern boundary along Maryland, which is 36 miles and 84 poles, and the great. est width is from the mouth of little Sandy on the west across due east to the Maryland line, which it about 20 miles."
Few counties in the United States have been as fortunate as Preston in having for its northern boundary a line of Na- tional repute, and its territory on the east forming the whole western boundary of an entire State.
Assuming that the interest of the subject will warrant a di- gression from the exact order of arrangement, we shall notice briefly the much-talked about and but little understood Ma son and Dixon Line, that has played such an important part in the past political history of the American Nation.
In 1609, King James I. of England by right of discovery granted to a company in London, known as the Virginia Company, 400 miles of coast line reaching "West and North- west" from sea to sea. Old Point Comfort, the north cape of James River on the Chesapeake Bay (a little south of north latitude 37 degrees) was the central point of this grant. At 69¿ miles to the degree, this carried the grant by the coast line northward to about north latitude 40 degrees. In 1624, the charter of the Virginia Company was revoked, and never was restored.
On June 20, 1632, King Charles I, granted to Cecilius Cal- vert, the second Lord Baltimore, all the territory from north latitude 40 degrees, where New England terminates, south to the mouth of the Potomac, and bounded by the Potomac westward. This scope of territory included the present States of Delaware and Maryland. George Calvert had ap- plied for the patent for this grant, but died before receiving it, and it was made out to his son Cecilius, commonly called Cecil in history.
268
HISTORY OF PRESTON COUNTY.
In 1681, King Charles II. granted a charter to William Penn for Pennsylvania, and laid down its boundary lines as follows: From north latitude 40 degrees by the Delaware River south, and by a circular line 12 miles in its central point above the town of New Castle unto the beginning of the 40th degree of north latitude, and thence by a due line west to the extent of 5 degrees of longitude from the river Delaware.
In the imperfect maps of these days, the northern line of the 40th degree of latitude was put just north of Philadel- phia. Baltimore claimed this line ; Penn resisted. Penn, to get an ocean outlet (which carried the war into his enemy's camp), in 1682, bought Delaware from the Duke of York (afterwards James II.).
In 1637, some Swedes and Finns settled in Delaware on a temporary settlement made by some Hollanders in 1631. The Duke of York conquered these Swedes and Finns as be- ing on lands belonging to the New Nerthlands. Penn now occupying Delaware claimed that Baltimore's grant was of terra inculta, or unsettled territory, and hence Delaware be- ing settled, was an exception. The subject of ownership was carried to England, but Penn having friends at court easily obtained decisions in his favor, and held Delaware by the name of the "three lower counties." Years of contention and some bloodshed followed. The proprietors of Pennsyl- vania and Maryland, in 1732, entered into a compromise, by which 15 miles south of the south line of Philadelphia, at a point near the circular line in a parallel of latitude, the line between them was to be run due west.
This compromise was afterward disregarded by Baltimore, and was enforced by a decree in chancery in England. Con- tention, however, still continued, and eventually, in 1760, the parties litigant agreed upon the line of 1732 to be run out.
Surveyors were chosen by the parties to perform this work. John Lukens and Archibald M'Clean were selected to fix the boundary lines of Delaware and to determine the point of starting, the "great due west line." They could not make
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PHYSICAL HISTORY.
mnuch progress in their work for want of proper instruments, and the proprietors resident in London became impatient and sent out, in August, 1763, Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon, two celebrated astronomers and surveyors of Eng- land. They came, and it took them till near the end of 1764 to run the boundaries of Delaware and fix the initial point of the "great due west line," near the circle.
In June, 1765, they began the celebrated line that bears their names. By the end of 1765 they came to the Kittan- tinny Mountain, west of the Cumberland Valley, to which a quarter of a mile north a temporary line had been run in 1739. On the 4th of June, 1766, they reached little Alleghany Mountain, west of Wills Creek, but turned back for fear of Indians.
In June, 1767, the proprietors obtained consent of the Six Nations, who claimed the territory over which the line was then being carried, to run it out. The Indians also furnished an escort to accompany the surveyors. On the 24th of Au- gust, 1767, they came to Braddock's road, three miles south- east of Petersburg, Pennsylvania, and here the escort of the Six Nations left them. They then pushed on, and during September run the line along the present northern boundary of Preston. The Delaware and Shawnees claimed to be ten- ants of the country, and threatened the party, but did noth- ing farther until October, when they stopped the surveyors at the second crossing of Dunkard Creek on the Warrior branch of the Great Catawba war path. Mason and Dixon had went, however, beyond their call to settle the line be- tween the Penns and Baltimore. Their west limit was to be a meridian of the first fountain of the Potomac.
The timber was cut down 12 feet on each side of the line. Every five miles from the starting point to Sidleling Hill a stone post was planted with a P on the north and an M on the south side. These posts were brought from England. From Sidleling Hill to the top of the Alleghanies heaps of stone were raised; west of the Alleghanies, stone piles were heaped up every mile, several of which are still visible along
.
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HISTORY OF PRESTON COUNTY.
the Preston County line, where some years ago some persons dug in two or three of them in quest of supposed buried wealth.
When Mason and Dixon stopped, they left what was sup- posed to be 234 miles yet to be run to the western terminus of the five degrees, which was afterwards found to be only a mile and three-fourths too far.
When the Penns found their line would reach 54 miles west of Maryland, they asserted a right against Virginia to go down on the Maryland and Virginia (now West Virginia) line to line 39 degrees of north latitude, the southern begin- ning of the 40th degree of north latitude. Virginia resisted, first, by claiming to go up to line 40 degrees, the northern ending of the 40th degree of north latitude ; second, by claim- ing all of southwestern Pennsylvania by right of conquest, as, in 1754-58, Virginia troops took it from the French and In- dians. Pennsylvania, by her interpretation of where the 40th degree ended, took all of Preston County and went below Grafton. Virginia, by her claim of where the 39th degree extended, too took a large part of Fayette and Greene, and by her right of conquest included Pittsburgh; Virginia also claimed that Penn's grant was to be a due line south, sub- tended from where the Delaware River intersected the line of the 42d degree, and by this Pittsburgh was 50 miles west of the western terminus of this line. The Penns claimed a curvilinear line, five degrees of longitude west of the Dela- ware at every point. Mason and Dixon computed a degree of longitude in the latitude of their line to be 53 miles and 167 perches, making the whole length of their line 267 miles 195 perches.
From 1774 to 1780, Virginia maintained a divided sway over a portion of what is now southwestern Pennsylvania, erecting Youghogania County on its soil, and parts of Ohio and Monongalia counties. Settlers took up land on this dis- puted territory under Virginia at 10 shillings per hundred acres, and under Pennsylvania at 5 pounds sterling, often the same piece was taken under both provinces, which was after-
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