USA > West Virginia > Preston County > History of Preston County (West Virginia) > Part 22
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ward settled by the one first taking up holding the same.
In 1779 and '80, Virginia sent Philip Pendleton, Joseph Holmes and another commissioner to adjust land titles in her three western counties. Pennsylvania and Virginia, in 1779, sent commissioners to Baltimore City to settle the disputed Pennsylvania and Virginia boundary line. In August, they came to an understanding, and agreed that the Maryland and Delaware line should be extended to the end of five degrees from the river Delaware, and run north to line of north lati- tude 42 degrees. This agreement was ratified by Pennsyl- vania in November, 1879, and by Virginia in June, 1780.
Colonel Alexander M'Clean for Pennsylvania, and Joseph Neville for Virginia, in 1781, run out the line temporarily 23 miles west from where Mason and Dixon stopped, and then northward to the Ohio River. In 1784, it was run perma- nently by eminent men. This joint commission determined the length of the line west from the Delaware by time. It divides in two parties; one stays on the Delaware, the other goes west to the temporary west extension point of 1782. Both erect observatories, correct their time-pieces by siderial calculations, and then come together, and carefully calculate and fix the west line terminus-point of the five degrees west from the Delaware, on the slope of a fish Creek hill, near the Board Tree Tunnel on the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad, and mark the spot with a rude square whiteoak post, around which was piled a conical heap of stones. In 1785, the line was run north to where it cut the Ohio River, and where Vir- ginia ended by her cession of the Northwest Territory made in 1784. Fifty miles more was run north from the Ohio, and in 1786 it was completed to Lake Erie, between Pennsyl- vania and the Northwest Territory.
With the consideration of this celebrated line, naturally came up the disputed line between Maryland and West Vir- ginia on the east of Preston County. After collecting some material for the purpose of tracing its history, we were re- ferred to a letter from the Hon. Charles James Faulkner upon the subject, published in the Preston County Herald of
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April 24th, 1875, which gives its history so full that we take the following extracts from it, whose importance will be apology for their length. The letter is addressed to James H. Carroll and E. O. Ludwig, and dated at Martinsburg, April 17, 1875.
"Gentlemen :- When I was recently on a visit to your clean and attractive county seat, Kingwood, my attention was called by you, and by Hon. William G. Brown, to the subject of the boundary lines which separates the county of Preston from the State of Maryland. You spoke of the an- noyances, and even wrongs which the people of the eastern portion of your county suffered from the uncertainty of that division line, the insecurity of legal titles, the seizures by the sheriff of Alleghany, now Garrett, County, of the property of citizens of Preston for taxes claimed by the State of Maryland, and other grievances of a similar character.
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" The territory of Maryland granted by Charles I. to Lord Baltimore in June, 1632, was described in the grant as 'that region bounded by a line drawn from Watkins' Point on Chesapeake bay to the ocean on the east, thence to that part of the estuary of Delaware on the north which lieth under the 40th degree where New England is terminated; thence in a right line by the degree aforesaid to the meridian of the fountain of the Potomac; thence following its course by its farther bank to its confluence.' It is plain, then, that the western boundary of this grant was the meridian of the fountain of the Potomac from the point where it cut the 40th degree of north latitude to the fountain of that river. In Virginia we have always considered that point as definitely fixed by the planting of the Fairfax Stone in 1746; but Maryland, not regarding herself as any party to the pro- ceeding under which this point was ascertained, controverted the binding effect of that decision of the King in counsel, and asserted other claims founded upon her own construc- tion of her charter.
" You are doubtless aware that the territory granted to
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Lord Baltimore was undoubtedly within the chartered limits of Virginia, and was the first example of the dismemberment of a colony, and the creation of a new one within its limits, by the mere act of the crown. Virginia protested against this invasion of her chartered rights, and always held that the grant of Maryland, as derogatory to those rights, was ut- terly void, until the commencement of our revolutionary struggles, when by her constitution adopted on the 29th of June, 1776, she, in that spirit of magnanimity and self-sacri- ficing patriotism which has always so pre-eminently distin- guished her, ceded to the colony of Maryland the territory contained within her charter, with all the rights of property, jurisdiction and government which might at any time here- tofore have been claimed by Virginia.
"The State of Maryland, seemingly unmindful of this gen- erous conduct of Virginia, commenced, shortly after the close of the revolutionary war, to assert a right to that por- tion of our territory embracing near half a million acres of land, and comprehended within the counties of Mineral, Hardy, Grant, Pendleton, Randolph, Tucker and Preston, she holding that the South Branch of the Potomac was the true head source of that river, it being the longer and larger of the two streams. This claim she continued to assert in the form of resolutions adopted by her legislature, and in communication from the executive of that State from 1790; and it is curious to notice how many of the most distin- guished men of Maryland, in the form of commissioners ap- pointed, or as advocates of that pretension, figured in its history. Among them were Charles Carroll, of Carrollton, William Pinkney, Philip Barton Key, Gabriel Devall, Rev- erdy Johnson, John V. L. McMahon, B. S. Pigman, and many others almost equally conspicuous for their learning and abilities. Encouraged by the advice of her eminent lawyers Maryland, about the year 1832, filed a bill in the Supreme Court of the United States, asserting a legal de- mand to that important portion of our territory. It was then that the Virginia legislature took action upon it, and I
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was appointed a commissioner on behalf of the State, to make a report upon this claim to the Governor. *
"I ascertained that there was a trunk in the possession of the representatives of Lord Fairfax in Virginia which had not been opened for many years, and which it was supposed might contain all the documents that I was in pursuit of. I. obtained permission to examine that trunk, and there I found all the original grants of the crown, with the royal seals and signatures annexed, and all the documents which had resulted from a litigation of sixteen years, and which conclusively established in our favor the point then in con- troversy between Maryland and Virginia .. A list of those papers, numbering twenty-six, may be seen in my report to the Governor of Virginia. When my report was published and transmitted to the Governor and members of the legis- lature of Maryland, evidence derived from these documents and papers was so overwhelming and conclusive that orders were given for the immediate dismission of the bill filed in the Supreme Court of the United States, and the claim to the territory lying west of the South Branch utterly abandoned.
"There remained, then, but a single open question be- tween the two States, so far as the western boundary of Maryland was concerned, and that was the initial point at which the survey of that western line was to commence. Commissioners had been appointed by the two States in 1824 to run and mark that line. Those acting on the part of Maryland were J. Boyle and E. F. Chambers ; those on behalf of Virginia were H. L. Opie, Thompson F. Mason and Herman Boye. These gentlemen met at Smith's Tavern in August, 1824, but it was soon discovered that an ir- reconcilable difficulty precluded any successful negotiation. The Virginia commissioners came there under instructions to make the Fairfax Stone the initial point of the survey. The Maryland commissioners contended that the Fairfax Stone was not situated at the most western source of the North Branch, the point of beginning specified in the Mary-
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land law; that the difference between the two places of be- ginning embraced a section of country about one mile in width and thirty-six miles in length, which was deemed too important to beabandoned, unless under express instructions to that effect. The commission here closed its ineffectual labors.
"By virtue of an act passed by the Virginia legislature on the 5th of March, 1833, I was appointed one of the commis- sioners to meet such commissioners as might be appointed for the same purpose by the State of Maryland, to settle and adjust, by mutual compact between the two governments, the dividing and boundary line between those States, to commence at the Fairfax Stone, and to run due north to intersect the Pennsylvania line, with full authority to employ surveyors, chain carriers and markers. It was further pro- vided by the same act, that if Maryland failed, or refused to appoint commissioners, then we should proceed to run and mark the said line according to the provisions of the said act. Maryland refused to appoint commissioners, because she was not then prepared to recognize the Fairfax Stone as the initial point of the survey ; and although I had full authority to run and mark the line according to the views of Virginia, yet upon consultation with the Governor, it was deemed not expedient to proceed with that work in the absence of a rep- resentative of the State of Maryland.
"So matters continued until 1852, when Maryland, by an act passed in that year, expressly recognized the Fairfax Stone as the beginning point, and invited Virginia to appoint commissioners to run and mark the line in accordance with the long announced views of Virginia. This offer was ac- cepted by Virginia by an act passed in 1858, and the line was run accordingly in 1859 by commissioners McDonald and Lee, with the assistance of Lieut. Michler, of the U. S. Coast Survey.
"I have read with much interest the report of Lieut. Michler of the U. S. Corps of Topographical Engineers, and have only to regret that the want of funds, and the occur-
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rence of our civil troubles, prevented his completing the work assigned to him as fully as it was his purpose to do. He commenced his survey starting from the Fairfax Stone on the 17th of June, 1859. 'That stone,' he says, 'stands on a spot encircled by several small streams flowing from the springs about it. It consists of a rough piece of sandstone, indifferent and friable, planted to the depth of a few feet in the ground, and rising a foot or more above the surface. Shapeless in form, it would scarce attract the attention of the passer by. The finding of it was without difficulty, and its recognition and identification, by the inscription 'Fix,' now almost obliterated by the corroding action of water and air.'
"He seems to have been abundantly supplied with in- struments by the United States Bureau of Topographical Engineers. They consisted of a large portable astronomical transit, a zenith telescope, a sextant and artificial horizon, two theodolites, three surveyor's compasses, with chains and pins, two cistern barometers, one sidereal and two mean so- lar box chronometers, together with other necessary articles appertaining to such surveys. His party seemed to be in numbers fully adequate to the performance of the work. It consisted of one principal surveyor, Mr. John de la Camp; one computor, Mr. Louis Daser; one guide, five men as in- strument bearers, rodmen and chainmen ; one attendant on observatory; from five to ten axe-men, according to circum- stances, and one cook.
"The survey seems to have been made with great care and attention. 'Upon removing the instrument from the first principal station,' he says, 'a monument of stone was erected to mark the spot where it stood. It was then car- ried to the second principal station-the same work gone through with as at Fairfax Stone. By sighting back to the first monument, the transit was at once placed in position on the meridian ; and observations on high and low stars verified the accuracy of the line. The same process was gone through with at every succeeding transit station. The
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point on the backbone of the mountains is well marked by nature, as it stands on a sharp ridge, and within a few feet of its highest point. The view from this point was most ex- tensive and magnificent. The eye could look for miles in every direction. The valleys of the Cheat, the Blackwater, the Potomac and the Youghiogheny rivers, all could be traced early in the morning, or late at evening, by the white lines of delicate fog rising up from the water. To the south lay impenetrable forests, whilst to the north farms and glades were spread out before the admiring gaze. A visit to this station, not far from the head springs of the Youghio- gheny, is well worth the trouble of the traveler.'
"The line of the survey, and the initial and terminating points, seem to have been distinctly marked. The termina- ting point on the Pennsylvania, or what is generally called Mason and Dixon's Line, is within a few feet of where the turnpike leading from Cranberry Summit to Smithfield in Pennsylvania, crosses the boundary of that State. Its posi- tion is therefore easily found. A monument of cut stone designates the spot. Each of the principal stations, and also the intersection of the line with the North West Turn- pike and the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, are marked in the the same way. The total length of the western meridian is about thirty-seven miles. With the exception of a few miles along the entire distance, a broad open cut from twenty to forty feet through a heavily timbered country has been made, which will serve to mark it for many years to come.
" The meridian traced by Lieut. Michler in the summer of 1859, differs from all previous lines run, some varying too far to the east, others too far to the west. The oldest one. and that generally adopted by the inhabitants as the boun- dary line, passes to the east; and from measurements made to it, he found that it was not very correctly run. The sur- veyor's compass was used for the purpose, and some incor- rect variation of the needle allowed. As the Pennsylvania line is approached, the settlements and farms become more
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numerous ; and if the meridian line as traced by Lieutenant Michler is adopted, it may cause some Litigation, as the patents of most of the lands call for the boundary as their limits. On the Pennsylvania boundary, the new line is about three quarters of a mile west of the old ; on the rail- road, - feet ; at Weill's field, eighty-five feet ; on the North West Turnpike, about forty feet; and the backbone, about twenty feet.
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"By an act passed by the State of Maryland on the 5th of March, 1860, she declared that the north western line of ยท that State 'is a line commencing at Fairfax's Stone at the head of the North Branch of the Potomac river, and running thence due north to the southern line of the State of Penn- sylvania surveyed in the year 1859 by the comissioners ap- pointed by the States of Maryland and Virginia in conform- ity with the laws passed by the said States for that purpose." Thus Maryland has fully adopted the line as indicated by the survey of Lieut. Michler. The report, though regularly communicated to the Virginia legislature at its session of 1859-60 was not formally acted on ; but as it recognized the line as Virginia had always asserted it, it may not have been considered necessary."
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Preston County is elevated from 800 to 2000 feet above the level of the sea. Its mountains are comprised in two ranges; the eastern range, called Briery Mountain, extends from north by east to south by west, and was known by the Indians and early settlers as Laurel Hill Range. The west- ern range was known in early days as Chestnut Ridge, yet to-day is called Laurel Hill. It extends along the western border of the county in pretty much the same direction as the eastern range.
Its main river is Cheat, running through the county from south to northwest, and very near equally dividing the county. Itreceives all its tributaries of any size from the east. It is a wild, impetuous and rocky stream, with water fall
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sufficient to run all the machinery employed in factories and manufacturing establishments, sites for which exist in many places on its banks. One of the headwaters of the Yougio- gheny rises in the southeastern part of the county.
We turn now to the geology of the county. Geologists claim that during the azoic and palaeozoic periods of the earth's geological history, the district in which Preston County is included was a level plain, and that its mountains date their origin from a later period but prior to the carboniferous or coal age, while many theories have been advanced for their upheaval. The mountains in Preston County are entirely free from morasses, swamps and boggy soils, and consequently their freshness and purity of air and water render them the healthiest portion of our country. This fact does draw to some degree, and should draw to a large degree, persons in ill-health from our large cities during the sultry months of summer to these mountains, whose pure air, bright water, pleasant days and cool nights work wonders in renewing ex- hausted vitality and benefiting pronounced incurables.
Preston County lies principally within the Ligonier Val- ley, the Newburg trough or basin and the Cumberland Valley. The celebrated Ligonier Valley enters the county from the north. ' It is canoe-shaped, and is topographically well de- fined, being embraced between the eastern slope of Chestnut Ridge on the west and the crest-line of Laurel Hill Ridge on the east.
It has an average width of 15 miles, and is over 20 miles in length, containing over 300 square miles and 200,000 acres of land. While topographically well defined as a valley, yet high hills extend through the center. What is known as the Preston axis, is a spur running from the axis of Chestnut Ridge where Cheat breaks it so as to join Laurel Hill or Kingwood axis. The direct axis of Chestnut Ridge follows a southwest course, constantly decreasing in hight south. On Decker's Creek the Pottsville conglomerate forms the arch and carries patches of the lower productive coal series. and beyond a short distance the flattening of the fold of the
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ridge is observed. The geologist some years ago who slightly examined the Ligonier Valley, reported that the exposed rocks within its basin generally belonged to the lower series, with some outlying areas of the upper productive coal measures .. The Newburg trough, as it has been called, is but the ex- treme southern portion of the Leionier Valley, elevated and. cut off, taking its name from the heavy vein of coal within it, known by the local name of the Newburg vein.
That portion of Preston lying east of the Laurel Hill. Range is mostly a high elevated plain, and destitute of coal .. It is within the Cumberland Valley, and is abundantly sup- plied with limestone. The geological structure of the county is but imperfectly understood. Cheat River cutting its way through both ranges of mountains, affords a good opportu- nity for the study of the strata, and we give below a descrip- tion of them by Prof. I. C. White, of the West Virginia. University, late assistant geologist of the second geological. survey of Pennsylvania. Prof. White ranks high as a lead- ing geologist, and from his personal examination of Cheat River, gives a report that can be depended upon as trust- worthy in every particular :
"The following section of the strata on Cheat River, ex- posed in the vicinity of the 'Great Falls,' will represent the character of the rock at many localities along the river be- ginning on top of the hills:
"1. Shales and sandstone, 100 feet.
"2. Coal, '4 foot vein,' worked in the hill at Masontown, 43 feet.
"3. Shales, drab or reddish, 65 feet.
"4. Massive sandstone, pebbly, seen in immense blocks along the Morgantown road 5 miles from Kingwood ; the lower portion often an excellent building stone, sometimes in two beds, an upper and lower, with shales and a small coal-bed intervening ; the whole stratum is known as the Ma- honing Sandstone, and its thickness along Cheat River in Preston is 125 feet.
"5. Ccal-the Upper Freeport bed of Pennsylvania ; the
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one mined along the Morgantown road, 3 miles from King- wood, where it is only 3 to 4 feet thick ; also, the same bed that is mined southeast of Kingwood, near Albrightsville, where it is 9 feet thick, and near Masontown, where it is 11 feet. This is the coal-bed of Preston County, since it comes so far up in the hills as to be easily accessible at hundreds of localities.
"6. Shales often containing iron ore, 10 feet.
"7. Freeport Limestone, 12 feet. This limestone is often. absent, however, and is sometimes partly replaced by an iron ore known as the 'Olyphant Blue Lump.' This limestone is a splendid fertilizer, and owing to its proximity to the great coal-bed immediately above, should be used extensively by every farmer who has access to it.
"8. Shales and sandstones, 150 feet.
"9. Coal-Darlington bed; the one that has been mined by stripping along the steep hill near the bridge at Al- brightsville; usually a very good coal; thickness, 2 to 3 feet.
"10. Shales, often containing a limestone, which is the famous Cement bed of Johnstown, Pa., 5 feet.
"11. Shales and sandstones, occasionally containing a coal- bed (the Kittanning), and some iron ore near the center ; usual thickness, 85 feet.
"12. The Great Conglomerate, consisting of massive beds of pebbly sandstone, very hard and often white enough for glass making, usually divided into two or three layers, with shales and occasionally thin and irregular coal- beds interven- ing. At the Albrightsville bridge the top of this formation is below river level a few feet, but a short distance above is seen rising rapidly out of the river's bed toward the south- east. It forms the surface rock for a long distance up the mountain toward Cranberry Summit, rising about as fast as the road, but finally outstrips it, and shoots into the air in a great arch, which does not come down again until 5 miles east of Cranberry.
"Going down the Cheat River canon from Albrightsville, this stratum rapidly climbs higher and higher along the
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mountain sides, until at the Great Falls, 2} miles above the mouth of Sandy Creek, its top is 650 feet above the level of the river ; then the dip changes, and it dips down to the northwest, so that when we come to the mouth of Sandy, its top is only 400 feet above river level; here we come to the bottom of the Sandy Creek synclinal, and the dip of the rocks again changing to the southeast, the Conglomerate rises and its top passes over the crest of the Chestnut Ridge axis at the Monongalia and Preston line, 1250 feet above Cheat River; but the dip again being reversed to the north- west, it makes a great sweep downward and passes below the level of Cheat River, opposite Mr. Ley's, one mile above Ice's Ferry, in Monongalia County. This is the great cliff rock everywhere along the gorge of Cheat through the mountains, and it is owing to the hard and unyielding na- ture of this stratum that the channel of the river is so nar- row, and its banks so wild and precipitous. Nearly all the great boulders seen along the bed of Cheat River have rolled down the mountain side from their original bed in this stratum. Many of its layers make unrivaled building stone, The thickness of the entire mass varies from 175 to 200 feet.
"13. The Mauch Chunk Shale, a series of alternating shales, red and drab, interstratified with much greenish flaggy sand- stone, the lower portion of which is often massive ; some- times the iron of the red shales is concentrated into a vertical thickness of 1 to 2 feet, and then this series furnishes good beds of iron ore, which is generally found near the top of the formation. It was from this horizon that the principal part of the ore for the old Henry Clay Furnace was obtained near the northern line of Preston. These measures are finely ex- posed along the timber chute at the Great Falls, near Squire Graham's. Thickness, about 300 feet.
"14 The Umbral, or Mountain Limestone, sometimes called the Crinoidal Limestone, from the abundance of its fossil encrinites,; this formation consists of alternate beds of limestone, red or green shale, or thin sandstone. The great body of the stratum, however, is limestone, the most of
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