USA > West Virginia > Preston County > History of Preston County (West Virginia) > Part 27
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The first county superintendent of Preston was James P. Smith, who, appointed in 1864, served until 1865. In 1865,
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A. C. Baker was elected, and re-elected in 1867, and served until 1869.
In 1869, Thomas Fortney was elected, and served until 1871.
In 1871, John H. Feather was elected, his competitor be- ing the Rev. J. H. Cupp .. Mr. Feather was again elected in 1873, his competitor being Professor James B. Chaffin. For that year the Rev. J. H. Cupp and Professor Chaffin, with the county superintendent, constituted the board to examine teachers ; for 1874, P. R. Smith and the Rev. J. H. Cupp.
In 1875, John H. Feather was again re-elected, his com- petitors being P. R. Smith, A. J. Bonafield and George Deakins. Taylor Friend and Thomas Fortney were ap- pointed members of the board of examiners. In 1876, Taylor Friend and Ezra W. Zinn received the appoinment as mem- bers of the board of examiners. In 1877, Peter R. Smith and J. Evan David were candidates before the people for county superintendent. Mr. Smith was elected, and Thomas Fortney and Charles T. Vansickle were appointed members of the board of examiners. Mr. Fortney, however, did not serve, being assessor at that time.
In 1878, Colonel R. W. Monroe and Dr. M. S. Bryte were appointed members of the board of examination.
Up to 1879, no one had run for the county superintendency as the candidate of any political party. In that year the Republican party called a convention to nominate a candidate for the position. Peter R. Smith, Dr. M. S. Bryte and W. S. Bayles were candidates before the convention. Mr. Bayles received the nomination, and ran for the office against S. T. Wiley, independent candidate. Mr. Bayles was elected, re- ceiving 1349 to his opponent's 993. In 1879, Col. R. W. Monroe and Jesse Hays were appointed members of the board of examination ; and in 1880, Col. R. W. Monroe was succeeded by A. Judson Elliott.
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HISTORY OF PRESTON COUNTY.
In 1881, Dr. M. S. Bryte, A. J. Elliott, J. H. Hawthorne and M. T. Powell were candidates for the Republican nomi- nation, which Mr. Hawthorne received. He ran, Peter R. Smith being an independent candidate, and was elected, re- ceiving 1068 votes to Mr. Smith's 502. Col. R. W. Monroe and John H. Feather were appointed members of the board of examiners.
Comparative Statistics for 1869 and 1879 .- In 1869. there were enumerated in the county 2899 males and 2664 females, white; and 7 males and 10 females, colored, making: a total enumeration of 5579. There were 95 sub-districts and 103 teachers; 75 frame houses, 1 brick and 11 log houses. The total number of pupils in attendance was 3994, and the average daily attendance, 2862. Teachers' salaries aggregated $10,678. The value of school property was, $43,997.25, and the State apportionment was $5311.60.
In 1879, there were 126 frame, one brick and one log house in the county, and school property was valued at. $63,720. There were 137 teachers employed-116 males, 21 females. 2834 white males and 2265 white females, making a total of 5099 white children ; and there were 15 colored males and 8 colored females. Total number that attended school, was 5122. The average daily attendance was 3548. The State appropriation or apportionment was $7901.16. Aggregate salary of teachers, $15,665.42; average monthly wages of teachers, $28.84.
The State apportionment for Preston County for the year 1879-'80 was $7130.23, and for 1880-'81, $7066.96.
Some years no reports were made by our superintendents, and there are no data in tabular form later then 1879.
Several county institutes have been held in Preston since the origin of the free school system. A county institute was held in 1877 by County Superintendent P. R. Smith, at Kingwood. A Peabody institute was held in 1878, at King-
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wood, under the supervision of Prof. Z. G. Bundy. A. L. Cox, of Morgantown, conducted the county institutes of 1880, at Kingwood and Cranberry. In 1881, the county institutes were held at Kingwood and Newburg., At the former place by Prof. Ulysses S. Fleming, an excellent teacher, who taught a normal school at Masontown in 1878, and was prin- cipal of the Kingwood school in 1879. He is now connected with the State normal school at Fairmont. The other in- stitute was held at Newburg, by Prof. A. L. Purinton, prin- cipal of the Parkersburg city schools, and the Republican nominee for State superintendent in 1880.
The rightful education of the children of the land is a sub- ject that involves the dearest interests of the people; for to the care of the young and rising generation must be com- mitted for final solution so many of the great problems now in agitation, and upon whose decision will rest to so large an extent the future stability and prosperity of our free institu- tions.
The Press is a great educator, and he who does not give it place in educational history, and a prominent place too, is profoundly ignorant of the educational forces of the age.
The first paper in the county was the agricultural monthly known as the Silk Culturist, which became a political paper in 1840, It was succeeded by the Fellowsville Democrat, Preston County Democrat, Kingwood Chronicle, The Preston County Journal, Preston County Herald (which became the West Virginia Argus in 1877), political papers; and the Broad-Ax and Newburg Herald, independent papers.
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HISTORY OF PRESTON COUNTY.
JOSEPH H. HAWTHORNE.
The ancestry of the subject of this sketch follows a well defined descent from the " Hawthorne Clan" of the Scottish Highland. As one of the smaller of the many Highland clans, this one figured for a time in the history of Scotland, until during an emigration of Scotch Presbyterians to Ire- land, most of this clan removed thither, settling in the County of Derry. Here Robert Hawthorne, the grandfather of the subject of this sketch, was born and raised of this Scotch Presbyterian parentage.
During the American Revolution, John Hawthorne, a brother of Robert, sympathizing with the Colonies, engaged as a privateer to cripple the English commerce, his vessel bringing several prizes into the harbor at Philadelphia. Having married in that city, and moved by his admiration for the new country he returned, after the close of the war, to his kindred in Ireland, to induce them to emigrate to America. Following his advice, in the fall of 1789, Robert, with his brothers and sisters, among whom was Rachel, then just married to James Brown, and who afterwards became the mother of the Hon. William G. Brown, set sail from Londonderry landing at Philadelphia. Upon their arrival they found that John had again engaged in privateering in & war between Spain and some of her colonies, and that his wife had died, leaving one child, of which they took charge. Remaining in the city a short time, they met a man by the name of Burgess, an heir to the "Clairbourne and Mayland" or "Big Survey" of 97,000 acres of land in northwestern Virginia, who agreed to give them 600 acres of this land, near where Kingwood now stands, if they would settle upon it, which proposition they accepted.
In the spring of 1790, they came to what is now Preston County, but not finding the 600 acres just such land as they anticipated, they sold their interest in it and James Brown bought lands near where Kingwood now stands, and Robert
JOSEPH H. HAWTHORNE.
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and Alexander Hawthorne and their two sisters bought about 400 acres of land some four miles south of Morgantown, Monongalia County, which has since been called the "Haw- thorne Homestead," and where for a number of years pre- vious to and after the year 1800 they carried on a nail fac- tory, which supplied all the surrounding country with nails, including the territory now embraced in Preston County.
Robert Hawthorne married, about 1810, Miss Nancy Kiger, of Morgantown, and by her had some nine children, the oldest of whom was James Alexander, the father of the subject of this sketch, born in December, 1811, and who, about 1855, married Elizabeth S. Henderson, the daughter of a neighbor, Joseph Henderson, who had come from Ireland to Philadelphia and then to northwestern Virginia. Both are still living, and reside some four miles below Morgan- town, on the Monongahela River, and have four children.
Joseph Henderson Hawthorne, the eldest son, was born October 1, 1856. His early years were spent at home on the farm, and when about the age of ten, entered the free school, distant about one mile from his home, at a little place called Jim Town. At fifteen, he had mastered the free school course of study, and at once entered West Virginia Univer- sity, at its spring term, 1872. Here he pursued the classical course of study during the scholastic year and helped his father with the farm work during the summer vacation, un- til June 28, 1877, when he gi duated, with the degree of Bachelor of Arts, from the University, in a class of nine members, the faculty awarding him the philosophical oration on the commencement programme, which by custom was re. garded as the third honor of the graduating class. During his course at the University he was appointed a State cadet and graduated as a first lieutenant. In June, 1880, he received the degree of Master of Arts.
After graduation he began the study of law with John J. Brown, Esq., of Morgantown, which he continued until in November of the same year, when he was elected principal of the Kingwood Academy. In this position he taught
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school, still studying law during his spare moments, until July 3, 1878, when, at Wheeling, he passed an examination by Judges Haymond, Moore and Johnson of the Supreme Court, and was admitted to the practice of law in the State. He taught two more terms of school as principal of the Kingwood Academy, and read law whenever opportunity pre- sented through 1878 and 1879, and on the 15th of Septem ber, 1879, he formed a branch law-partnership with ex-Judge Ralph L. Berkshire and George C. Sturgiss Esq., of Mor- gantown, at Kingwood, in which firm he is at present prac- ticing law.
In the spring of 1881, he received the nomination of the Republican party for the office of superintendent of free schools in Preston County, and on the 17th of May following was elected by a large majority. In this position, during the winter months, he hopes to systematize and elevate the the schools of the county, and incite in its citizens a deeper interest in its educational concerns.
He is a member of the Presbyterian Church at Kingwood, and in January, 1881, waselected superintendent of its Sabbath-school, which position he still occupies.
On the 20th of September, 1881, he married Miss Kate F. Godwin, the second daughter of Captain Joseph M. Godwin, of Kingwood.
Mr. Hawthorne is a robust young man, a young man of fine literary attainments and if excellent habits ; and to ex- cellent habits adds industry, „ad to industry energy, and to all these his opening life bids fair to add the lasting honor of unselfish usefulness to his fellow men, whether in the private or public walks of life,
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CHAPTER XVI. MISCELLANEOUS.
POLITICAL HISTORY : PARTIES, LIST OF REPRESENTATIVES - TEM-
PERANCE ORGANIZATIONS -INDUSTRIAL HISTORY : FURNACES, WOOLEN FACTORIES, COAL MINES-NATURAL WONDERS: THE ICE MOUNTAIN, THE GREAT SANDSTONE CAVE, AND CHEAT RIVER CAVERN - VALUABLE MINERALS.
Upon the merits or demerits of the parties that are gone, we do not propose to pass, and of the virtues or vices of the political parties now existing, we shall have nothing to say. Preston County, from 1820 to 1840, cast her vote for presi- dent for Democratic candidates.
In 1840, Preston gave Harrison, 396; Van Buren, 446.
1844-Henry Clay, 332 ; James K. Polk, 504.
1848-Lewis Cass, 527; General Taylor, 460.
1852-Franklin Pierce, 923; General Scott, 647.
1856 -Buchanan, 1230 ; Filmore, 719. No vote recorded for Fremont, though it is claimed a few were cast for him in the county.
In 1860, Bell received some votes, Douglass a large num- ber, but Breckenridge a majority, and Lincoln a very few.
In 1864, Lincoln carried the county over Mcclellan ; and in 1868, Grant over Seymour.
In 1872, Gen. Grant received 1720 votes, and Horace Greeley 714.
In 1876, R. B. Hayes, 2183 ; S. J. Tilden, 1224.
In 1880, J. A. Garfield, 2347; W. S. Hancock, 1335; J. B. Weaver, 157.
The present chairman of the Republican county committee
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is the Hon. W. M. O. Dawson; of the Democratic, John Barton Payne; and of the Greenback, Jacob Gibson.
We can not give a full list of members of the lower house of the legislature of Virginia from Preston County, from the fact, as the Secretary of the State of Virginia informs us, that the Union soldiers destroyed many of the public records. This destruction of records leaves blank the dates of many important events and facts in this work. If ever a county was cursed by the destruction of its records -the very basis of its written history-that county is Preston. In 1796, twenty years' records, containing its early legal and civil history, from 1776 to 1796, were burned at Morgantown ; and in 1869, it was again cursed by the fire fiend ; and in the burning of its Court-house disappeared 50 years' more of its records. And as if it were not enough to bridge over these two great gaps burned by fire, vandal hands must ruthlessly mutilate the State records and cause gaps in matters valuable to the county and only on record at the Capital. The loss to the county by the destruction of all these records never can be repaired. Their loss is attested by the incomplete- ness of some fact, the want of some name or date on many a page of this work, that no search could supply.
From 1818 to 1831, nothing can be found to show who represented Preston County. William Sigler was one of the representatives in 1818, but who was his colleague nobody knows. In 1819 and 1826, he was again a member. From the best and most reliable information that can be gained during that period of time, Frederick Hersh, Colonel John Fairfax, Benjamin Jeffers, Colonel Nathan Ashby, Major William B. Zinn, and Colonel Benjamin Shaw each served one or more terms. From 1831 till 1861, Preston was rep- resented by the following named delegates.
1831-William B. Zinn. 1832-William B. Zinn.
1833-William G. Brown. 1834-William Carroll.
1835-William Carroll. 1836-William Carroll.
1837-Buckner Fairfax. 1838-Buckner Fairfax.
1839-William Carroll. 1840-William Carroll.
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1841-William G. Brown. 1842-William G. Brown.
1843-William G. Brown. 1844-Israel Baldwin.
1845-Buckner Fairfax. 1846-Buckner Fairfax.
1847-Buckner Fairfax. 1848-John Scott.
1849-Stephen Wheeler.
1850-Stephen Wheeler.
1851-Buckner Fairfax.
1852-Willliam B. Zinn and John Scott.
1853-J. A. F. Martin and William B. Zinn.
1854-J. A. F. Martin and E. T. Brandon.
1855-J. C. Kemble and J. A. F. Martin.
1856-J. C. Kemble and R. E. Cowan. 1857-J. C. Kemble and John Scott. 1858-J. C. Kemble and R. E. Cowan.
1859-William B. Zinn and John Scott.
1860-John Scott and R. E. Cowan.
1861-John Scott and R. E. Cowan.
Members of the re-organized legislature of Virginia from Preston County.
1861-Colonel Charles Hooton and Harrison Hagans.
1862-Colonel Charles Hooton and Harrison Hagans.
Members of the lower house of the legislature of West. Virginia :
1863-James C. McGrew and William B. Zinn.
1864-James C. McGrew and W. H. King. 1865-James C. McGrew and W. H. King. 1866-Harrison Hagans and William B. Zinn. 1867-Francis Heermans and Joseph H. Gibson. 1868-Francis Heermans and William B. Crane. 1869-Francis Heermans and Joseph H. Gibson. 1870-A. C. Baker and John Collins. 1871-Charles M. Bishop and John P. Jones. 1872-William G. Brown and Charles Kantner. 1874-James H. Wilson and Peter Zinn. 1876-Capt. William Elliott and Colonel J. D. Rigg .. 1878-Page R. McCrum and John H. Holt. 1880-Page McCrum and Major U. N. Orr.
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HISTORY OF PRESTON COUNTY,
After 1871, members of the house of delegates were elected for a term of two years ; previous, for one year.
Upon the question of calling the constitutional convention of 1829-30, the vote of Preston was, 121 for and 357 against. William G. Brown was a member of the constitu- tional convention of 1851.
Members of the constitutional convention of 1861, John A. Dille and John J. Brown.
Members of the constitutional convention of 1872, Wil- liam G. Brown and Charles Kantner.
Sheriff's of Preston County. - Colonel John Fairfax, it is said, was the first, but he never served, selling his two years to Joseph D. Suit. Frederick Hersh, it is said, was the next. and he sold his two years to Suit also. The price of the sheriffalty was about $200. Several of the justices who re- ceived the appointment, sold it, and the county had several acting and deputy sheriffs. Colonel Nathan Ashby served & term, as also did Hugh Evans and W. H. Grimes, and others whose names are lost and of whom we can get no record.
Elliott, Brown and Grimes served before 1860.
1861-Martin L. Shaffer, elected and resigned.
1863-Francis Heermans. 1873-Elisha Thomas.
1867-Reuben Warthen. 1877-Francis M. Ford.
1871-Col. W. H. King. 1881-Elisha Thomas
County Court. - In 1872 Captain Joseph M. Godwin was elected president of the county court ; in 1876, Joseph M. Shaw.
By amendment to the constitution adopted in 1880, the judicial power (except as to probate) was taken from the county court, and the body was made to consist of three commissioners. The commissioners elected in 1880 for Preston, and now serving, are Captain H. Clay Hagans (chosen president for 1881), John P. Jones, and James Al- lender. Mr. Allender drew the long term (6 years); Mr. Hagans, the next longest, 4 years; and Mr. Jones, the short term. 2 years. Previous to 1880, the presidents of the
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county court were elected by popular vote ; now they are chosen by the members of the court.
County Surveyors .- General Buckner Fairfax was the first, in 1818, and was succeeded in 1836 by John Royse. Royse, who served till 1845, and was succeeded by Reuben Morris. Mr. Morris served till 1858, when he was succeeded by G. M. Michael, who was surveyor until 1861, when he, in turn, was succeeded by Reuben Morris. Mr. Morris served the second time until 1866, and was succeeded by Edward G. Morris, his son, after whom came Jesse Martin, until 1880, when John A. Dalrymple was elected.
We find traces of temperance societies, both secret and open, nearly half a century ago in the history of the county ; and from that time down to the present, every few years has witnessed a considerable temperance movement. In May, 1869, we find the county board of supervisors voting on the license question as follows: Harader, Conner, Messenger and Pell voted for license to retail spirituous liquors, and Grimes, Rigg and Bishop against.
Walter Carlisle was pioneer of the iron industry of Pres- ton, but his wonderful energy was not able without capital to make Greenville Furnace a success. Harrison Hagans was the next to attempt the development of the iron ores of the county. He was president of a Boston company that ran Greenville Furnace for a length of time. Caldwell and Ochiltree were the next iron men, building Valley Furnace about 1837 or '38, but for want of capital failed. The great cost of transporting their iron to market was the drawback to these early furnaces, whose fires were doomed to go out on this account. When the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad was projected, Harrison Hagans built Virginia Furnace on Muddy Creek, in 1853, and hauled his iron to Cranberry Summit, and shipped it by rail. His venture was successful, but the furnace passing out of his hands, failed through bad management to be self-sustaining under the charge of his successors.
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HISTORY OF PRESTON COUNTY.
George Hardman was the next leading character in the iron business. He was a man of great energy and endowed with fine business qualifications, but unfortunately without sufficient capital. He built Hardman's Furnace in 1859, about two and a half miles from Independence. This fur- nace passing out of his hands, he went back a few miles, and in 1869 started Gladesville Furnace; but the fate of his first venture soon overtook him here, and the furnace passed into other hands.
The next to take up the iron business in the county was Colonel F. Nemegyei, who bought Hardman's Furnace and changed its name to Irondale Furnace. He has operated it since with marked success.
Iron ores are abundant, and if a railway were once com- pleted along the banks of Cheat, all the extinct furnace fires along the eastern base of Chestnut Ridge would be rekindled.
The woolen manufactories of the county are deserving of notice. A factory at Evansville is owned by Jonathan Bow- man. The Bruceton factory was established about 1850, and is now efficiently operated by Charles Kantner. The Morgan's Glade factory is the third and last, and is success- fully carried on by J. W. Rigg & Son. The flannels and goods turned out by the two last-named establishments bear the reputation of being first-class in every respect. This in- dustry should be one of the foremost of the county. Pres- ton should take a front rank as a sheep-breeding and wool- raising county. The climate of our county, though milder than that of New England and the Middle States, yet posses- ses a severity sufficient to cause that consumption of food necessary to produce a heavy fleece. Of fine wooled sheep, three great branches of the merino that came originally from Spain are in this county. They are the French, German and American. Each of these has been tried in West Virginia, and the American merino has proved to be the most valuable.
Preston, peculiarly fortunate in water, soil, surface and
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climate for sheep, its citizens should not be slow to take ad- vantage of these favoring conditions.
If Preston, a county as abundant in all the resources that constitutes the wealth of any county, and with a large, intel- ligent and reading population, does not advance, it is her own fault ; and if she does not become one of the foremost mining and manufacturing counties in the State, the fault will also be her own.
Coal-mines are extensively operated at Newburg and Aus- · ten, and a great deal of superior coke manufactured.
Among the natural wonders of the young and rising State of West Virginia, are its ice mountains - two frozen wonders, the Arctic brothers of the North Temperate Zone-one situ- ated in Hampshire and the other in Preston County on the North Western Turnpike, two miles west from Cheat River at the mouth of Buffalo Run. The Preston County polar stran- ger was described by the writer in the Wheeling Register in 1879, which description was copied by the New York Sun, Toledo Blade, Cincinnati Times, and the press of the land, thus giving the county and its strange wonder mention throughout the whole country. At the time of its discovery, in 1879, the most marvelous stories and the wildest theories were put in circulation, representing it as a great ice-field, with nine acres of a solid ice surface exposure; the heart of an immense mountain as a solid mass of ice, frozen in the morning of creation, and so remaining for countless ages to the present time; an iceberg that in some remote glacial period had stranded in its southern sweep, and the volcanic actions of the internal fires of the earth had upheaved and hurled a vast mountain upon it for its imprisonment for all time. But leaving the frost and fire of these wild theories, when the Alleghanies, next to the oldest dry land in the world, was hurled up, this mountain contained no ice, it be- ing an after deposit.
The mountain is a vast heap of rock, a portion of whose west side is more broken and loose than the rest. The porous nature of this portion would admit through its moss
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HISTORY OF PRESTON COUNTY.
covering a considerable amount of water, which, infiltrating between the stone, would form ice in just the manner we find it, in small quantities among the loose rock a few inches down from the surface. The ice-mountain is nothing but a huge stone refrigerator - naturally, though wonderfully, pre- serving permanently its ice by the vast mass of rock - good non conducting material -which forms its sides.
Caves generally exist in limestone formation, and are but seldom found in any other rock, and then of no great extent, or size. But the great sandstone cave in Preston County, about three miles from Masontown, is a notable exception. A vast chamber 17 feet in hight and 125 feet in width, opens back into the cliff, retaining its width, while its roof rapidly approaches the floor, and unites with it 255 feet from the mouth. This great opening chamber connects by a narrow passage with a lower chamber, whose depths and extent have never been fully explored. This cave is but a short distance from the celebrated Decker's Creek Falls, where the water falls over five successive falls, the greatest of which is near 20 feet. These falls are situated amid scenery so wild, impres- sive and attractive as to bring great numbers of visitors every year.
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