USA > West Virginia > Summers County > History of Summers County from the earliest settlement to the present time > Part 10
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Kincaide was a prominent man in the settlement of the country. Mathew reared a large family, having lived at the mouth of Hun- gart's Creek. Jane married Moses Hedrick, the father of Wmn. C., Geo. W., John, Mathew and George, and his daughter Mary mar- ried William Wyant, of Pisgah Church. Susan married John Allen, son of Nathaniel Allen, who now lives in Mercer County. Moses Hedrick and his wife lived to a very old age. dying some eleven years ago.
Florence Graham Kincaide married Isaac Tincher, and, after his death, married Thomas Holstein, who still lives on the Big Bend Mountain near Pisgah Church, and he is one of the solid, substantial farmers of this county. Mrs. Holstein is one of the few of Mathew Kincaide's children still living. It was out of the title to this land at Talcott the great suit of Karns vs. the Citizens of the Town of Talcott grew. The land was inherited by Kincaide's wife. and he made conveyances in which she did not join. After his death the Carnes heirs sued, one of his (Kincaide's) children, Rebecca, having married Henry Karns, of Mercer County, whose heirs brought the suit.
Lanty Graham Kincaide married Eliza Keller, a sister of George Keller, of Lowell, on the old Konrad Keller place. Emma, a daughter of Lanty Graham Kincaide, married Col. Wilson Lively. of Lowell. Nancy Kincaide and Susan married Griffith and William Meadows. Griffith Meadows once owned a lot of this land at Talcott, and it was he who took the deed from Mathew Kincaide without having the wife join. He was a prominent man in that region about the day of the formation of the county, was a justice of the peace, and now lives in Monroe County, an old man. His sons, Lanty and Rufus, live at Talcott, are well-to-do citizens, both employees of the C. & O. Railroad; one, chief of the carpenter force; the other, Rufus H., the chief of iron bridge construction. one of the best in the land.
Lanty Kincaide, a brother of Mathew, married a Scott and
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settled on Muddy Creek, but later moved to Lick Creek, in Sum- mers, where he died in 1850. John, a son of Lanty, lived and died on Lick Creek, on a farm now owned by James Sedley Duncan, a part of the old Banks-Schermerhorn patent. Two of his sons, Charley and Lewis, were Baptist preachers, and died in recent years. St. Clair Burdette, who lived to the age of 105 years, dying in 1906, married the daughter of John Kincaide, Octavia.
Lanty Kincaide, Sr.'s, daughter, Rebecca, married William Gra- ham, a grandson of Col. William Graham. James Graham, the famous hunter and blacksmith, was her son.
David, the youngest son of Joseph Graham, married Sarah J. Alderson, a daughter of James Alderson, a descendant of the pioneer Baptist minister west of the Alleghenies. E. D. Alderson, another of the descendants, is one of the best farmers in Talcott District, residing near the mouth of Hungart's Creek. He was a brave soldier in the Confederate Army, a Baptist and a Democrat.
James Boon and James K. Scott on Boon's and Hungart's Creek ; Culbertsons, Farleys and Packs on New River; the Meadows, Lillys, Neeleys, Hughes and Cooks in Jumping Branch and Pipe- stem : Brooks and Foxes, Bowles and Kalors on the Hump Moun- tain.
The first school taught in Monroe County was in a round log house, the roof made of clapboards held down by ridge poles, with a puncheon floor. And those holding official positions have nearly invariably been the descendants of the old settlers, or the excep- tions, which are few, those who became permanent inhabitants, and not those people who landed on our soil, running for office. Those gentry were usually voted to take a back seat, and at least to get the dust of other regions shaken from their feet before enter- ing the lists for official spoils. This county has not had to go beyond its borders to seek for honest timber from whom to elect its officials, and in nearly each case the offices have been held by the descendants of the pioneer and natives of its soil, or from those who have become such, and it is none the worse off by its so being.
C. R. Price is a native of Giles County, Virginia, and an "old Virginia gentleman." descended from an old and honorable family of Newport. Giles County, Virginia. He purchased Wildwood, the Dr. Fowler place, at the mouth of Indian, where he resided for several years, later locating on the John W. Wiseman farm on the New River Hills, between Wolf Creek and the mouth of Greenbrier. He was a brave Confederate soldier and fought through the Civil War, being wounded severely, which wound he carries to this day.
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HISTORY OF SUMMERS COUNTY, WEST VIRGINIA.
He represented Giles County for several terms in the House of Delegates of Virginia, and is now a patriotic citizen of the county. His sons, Wm. H. Price, the jeweler, and Thomas, the wholesale grocer, are citizens of Hinton, and Dr. Malcolm Price, another son, lives in Charleston. Mr. Price was a captain in the Civil War and made a brave and honorable record.
Vanbibber settled at Lowell about 1775 or 1780, but sold his claim to Konrad Keller and moved on west. He was evidently a hunter seeking.adventure, and later reached the Kana- wha. George Keller, a direct descendant, still owns and lives on this land. His only son, the Rev. Wallace Keller, lives in the same neighborhood, and his grandson, David Wallace Keller, is a mer- chant at Lowell.
Samuel and James Gwinn came about 1780. They were from the Calf Pasture River. Samuel Gwinn married the widow Eliza- beth Graham, who was a Miss Lockridge, hence the name of Lock- ridge Gwinn, a son of "Squire" John Gwinn.
Samuel Gwinn had five sons. Moses, Andrew, Samuel, John, Ephraim, and two daughters-Ruth, who married James Jarrett, Sr., the mother of the late Joseph and James Jarrett, two of the wealthiest men in Greenbrier County at their days.
Samuel Gwinn moved from Lowell to Lick Creek in 1800, and died March 25, 1837, in the ninety-fourth year of his age. Hon. Marion and Harrison are his grandsons. He divided $12,000.00 between his sons in silver before his death. Two of his sons, Samuel and Andrew, carried their distribution home across Keen- ey's Knobs in grain sacks, in bulk about half a bushel. He invited all his sons in on a certain day and made the division. The two named lived at Lowell and carried theirs to their homes as above stated, on a pack-horse through the mountains fifteen miles, when there were no roads, only a trail. Andrew Gwinn, of Lowell, is the grandson of this Samuel.
James Gwinn, the other brother, settled on Keller's Creek on what is known as the Laben Gwinn farm. He died many years ago, before his brother. He left four sons, Robert, James, Joseph and Samuel. His son was appointed ensign by the first county court of Monroe.
Joseph settled a mile above his father, and left John. Sylvester. James, Augustus and Joseph. J. Clark Gwinn and Geo. K. Gwinn, the merchants of Alderson, are sons of Augustus.
Miriam Gwinn married J. W. P. Stevens, who was a very noted man, being a "schoolmaster." He wrote all the wills, deeds and
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HISTORY OF SUMMERS COUNTY, WEST VIRGINIA.
legal papers of the region. He was called upon to count the $12,- 000.00 which Samuel Gwinn divided among his sons, and to see that each son got his part. Three of his descendants still live, John and Joseph in Greenbrier, and Mrs. Geo. Alderson, wife of Hon. Geo. Alderson, at Alderson.
Robert, son of James, Sr., settled at River View Church, and his son James, and his grandsons, Oliver, Ed (who was a very large inan, full of fun and wit, who was never married, and was killed by a falling tree), and William lived there after him. Also Addison R., of Wolf Creek.
Samuel Gwinn, son of James, Sr., married Magdalene Johnson and settled on the James Boyd farm at Little Bend Tunnel, later owned by William and Charles Maddy, and later by James Boyd, and then by his sons, Richard and Ben R.
Konrad Keller had four sons, Philip, John, Henry and David. Elizabeth married James Ferrell; Rachel married Ephraim Gwinn, youngest son of Samuel. She died May 8, 1889, eighty-six years of age. Philip moved to Indiana. He and Madison married daugh- ters of Enos Ellis. David Keller, Sr., lived and died at Lowell. Henry was the father of George, who now lives on the old planta- tion. He died about eighty years ago, dropping dead in the harvest field while cradling wheat. Geo. Keller is now over eighty years of age, but remembers his father's tragic death.
One took up a claim also at this place, but sold to Konrad Keller and moved on west, locating on the Big Sandy in 1818.
Notliffe Taylor settled on the Greenbrier, where Henry Milburn now lives, and Isaac Milburn, the ancestor, married his daughter. Nancy, another daughter, married William Johnson, of Johnson's Cross Roads, Monroe County. Elizabeth married Samuel Gwinn, Sr. Notliffe Taylor also owned land on Hungart's Creek, and no doubt Taylor's Ridge is named for him.
William Kincaide first located and settled on the Jessie Beard place, Pence Springs.
William Hinchman, about the close of the Revolution, settled near Greenbrier River. He was an Englishman, and is supposed to have been a British soldier, who, like many others, were tired of British rule, and after the Revolution determined and did locate in this country. His first location was below Gwinn's Branch, then he removed to the present Hinchman plantation across the present county line in Monroe. where his son and grandson, Wil- liam, lived and died. His great grandson likewise, and his great great-grandsons, John and Luther, now reside. It was his great
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HISTORY OF SUMMERS COUNTY, WEST VIRGINIA.
granddaughters, Elizabeth, who married Capt. A. A. Miller, and Mary, who married Thomas Allen George, of Lick Creek. One son, William, of this pioneer, moved to Logan, whose descendants still live there, the Logan pioneers. He raised a family of twenty- four children, and they live there yet. The Hinchmans are promi- nent people. The inscription on the monument of the late John Hinchman at River View Church is as follows: "He died as he lived, a Christian." John Hinchman was a representative in the Legislature from Monroe County, a commissioner of the county court and a prominent man. His son, John, is president of the county court of that county. William Hinchman, the ancestor, was a justice of the peace and a ruling elder in the Presbyterian Church.
The Ellis settlement at the mouth of Griffith Creek, known as the Enos Ellis place, is one of the oldest in the country, and is pos- sibly older than the Graham. It was near this place where Thomas Griffith was killed by Indians.
Baily Wood had a cabin near the foot of Keeney's Knob, and also Martin McGraw, where A. H. Honaker now lives, but they never acquired title ; or, if so, sold out their claims before they had ripened into patent.
William Withrow, the first known settler settled on what is now the Eades farm, a mile southeast of the Clayton post office. but moved away after a short residence. Peter Eades soon after acquired the property. He came from Albemarle County, Vir- ginia, and his descendants are still in the county. Mr. Al. Eades, a section master at Talcott ; Mrs. Lant Meadows, of the same place, and W. K. Eades, the merchant of Lowell, are descendants of this first settler, as was Joshua Eades, the carpenter, and Eades, the great bridge architect and engineer, who constructed the great iron bridge across the Mississippi at St. Louis, and the jetty improve- ments at the mouth of that river.
A family of McGraw's also settled on Griffith's Creek at a place known as the Nowlan place.
It is tradition that the first settler on the Flag Fork of Lick Creek, either James Butler or a man by the name of Sims, came into the region, planted out a "patch" of corn and went back across the mountains to bring his family ; and. on his return, the buffaloes had destroyed the corn, and he evidently had to begin over again, as his object was to secure a corn title. Thus Sims' Ridge, where John Hoke lives, gets its name. One of the oldest houses in all that region was a round log house two stories high, with
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HISTORY OF SUMMERS COUNTY, WEST VIRGINIA.
wooden hinges to the doors and roof tied down by ridge poles, with a block between them, with a puncheon floor and chimney with a fireplace in which logs of a large size could be burned, ten feet iong. This was the largest chimney ever known of in the country, but built out of small and thin rocks, evidently picked up in the branch. This house was lived in by a renter by the name of John Ellis with his mother, Peggy Ellis, a widow of a soldier in the War of 1812. They were from Monroe County.
After it was vacated by them the house was so dilapidated that W. E. Miller, thirty-five or forty years ago, who owned it, pulled it down and burned the logs for firewood, but the chimney stood for many years after as a monument of the long past. It was a matter of general tradition that this chimney was built by a man and woman, the woman carrying the great mass of stone in her apron and the man placing them.
Uriah Garten was one of the first settlers in the "Farms," and there is one of his descendants by the name of Elijah Garten living on the headwaters of Bradshaw's Run. He first settled in Spice Hollow, where Elijah now lives. Steven Davidson lives on a part of the plantation, having married one of his descendants.
Alexander Hutchinson, the father of Major James Hutchinson and J. Mastin Hutchinson, settled on the place now owned by John Lowe on Bradshaw's Run, and he and his wife are buried on that farm. He was the grandfather of A. M. and Wellington. Hutch- inson settled there about 1790.
The mouth of Hungart's Creek was settled in 1795 by David Graham, who married Mary Stodgill, on what is now known as the Woodson farm, which is owned by a Mr. Dickinson, who mar- ried a daughter of the late Zachariah Woodson.
James Graham, Jr., settled in the Riffe Bottom in the year 1800, a part of which farm is now owned and occupied by the Honorable M. M. Warren, which property afterwards passed into the owner- ship of Mr. D. M. Riffe, and descended to his children, one of which is Mr. J. A. Riffe, now president and general manager of the Hin- ton Department Company.
William Taylor, son of Notliff Taylor, mentioned before, set- tled on Hungart's Creek, a mile north of Pence's Spring Station, on what is now known as the Bush place, the dwelling-house now occupied on this farm by Mr. C. E. Mann was built by William Taylor nearly 100 years ago.
The settlement by the Grahams at the present Clayton settle- ment was in the year 1783, which is on the waters of Hungart's
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HISTORY OF SUMMERS COUNTY, WEST VIRGINIA.
Creek, where the said David G. Ballangee now lives. Early settlers in that community were also Bailey Wood and Martin McGraw, the location being on the farm now owned by Mr. Charles II. Graham. Wmn. Withrow lived about a mile southeast of the Gra- ham place, which was afterwards occupied by Peter Eades and family, from Albemarle County, Virginia, and came there about the year 1830.
About three miles from Clayton Post Office at this time lived a family by the name of Griffith, Thomas, the head of the family, having been killed by the Indians in 1780, and is the last recorded victim of the savages in this county. This place is now known as the Ellis place, and is occupied by the Ellis descendants. This set- tlement was probably before the Graham settlement at Lowell.
The first settler on Wolf Creek was Richard Woodrum, the grandfather of Major "Dick" Woodrum and the father of Jolin Woodrum and Armstrong Woodrum, who was the father of Rich- ard M. Woodrum, the merchant of Woodrumtown. Richard Wood- rum was the grandfather of the venerable Charles Garten, of For- est Hill District.
Richard Woodrum, the grandfather of Major Dick Wood- rum, first settled on the "Turner Place." now owned by Oscar Hutchinson. Mr. Woodrum first made improvement on that grant. He was the father of John Woodrum, the father of Major Dick Woodrum. Armstrong Woodrum, the father of Richard M. Wood- rumat Wiggins, was a son of Richard the first, as was also Bud Woodrum, who emigated West ; also W. C. Woodrum was a son of Armstrong. "Item" John Lilly, the assessor, sometimes men- tioned as "Gentleman John," married Ida Woodrum, a daughter of Richard Woodrum the first. One daughter, Polly, married Willam Campbell Hutchinson, who settled at Forest Hill. but early in the Civil War emigrated to Ohio. Another daughter, Lilly, married John Mastin Hutchinson. Another, Rhoda Lilly, married Fleming Sanders, who lived near Forest Hill, and was broken up by reason of his suretyship for Joseph Ellis, deputy sheriff, for Evan Hinton. Fleming Sanders was a brother of Capt. "Bob" Sanders. Lydia Woodrum married George Allen, who lived on Indian Draft near Greenville.
A man by the name of Massey, possibly Peter Massey, settled and lived on the John M. Hutchinson place near Forest Hill. and it is known to this day as the Massey place. These people were all old settlers around Forest Hill and in that region.
Nathaniel Roberts built the first storehouse at Forest Hill. He
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HISTORY OF SUMMERS COUNTY, WEST VIRGINIA.
married a sister of Judge A. N. Campbell. This storehouse was built fifty years. ago, and is now occupied by Crawford & McNeer, merchants, and this house was occupied at the beginning of the Civil War.
The present postmaster at Forest Hill is Thomas Marshall Hutchinson, and he has had the office for the past twelve years. He is a merchant at that place, and was also postmaster before the Cleveland administration. The first postmaster at Forest Hill was J. M. Hutchinson, there being no post office at that place before the War, and the people of that region got their mail at Red Sul- phur Springs.
The people of the neighborhood would take it in turn and go to the "Red" once a week for the mail, and sometimes make up a purse and hired a boy to go after it, as they did A. M. Hutchinson when a boy.
A tobacco factory was built at Forest Hill, then known as "Farms," fifty years ago, by a man by the name of Hogleman, but the manufacturers, Roberts & Hogleman, was probably the first firm. They manufactured chewing and smoking tobacco. It was a flourishing business, the latest firm being the late James Mann and J. Cary Woodson.
There were three old settlers at Forest Hill by the name of Vass. One was Major Vass, a bachelor, who settled on the J. D. Bolton farm. Another was Baswell, a brother of the Major, who sold out before the War and went to Raleigh County. Two of his sons, one of whom is James L., are Baptist ministers in South Carolina. The other brother was James Vass, who settled on an adjoining place with his brother, known as the Lewis C. Symms place, on Bradshaw's Run. They were not brothers of the late Philip Vass, the father of Squire Cary Vass, of Marie, who was a native of Giles County, Virginia.
Edwin Woodson, who early settled in Forest Hill on the head of Bradshaw's, was an eminent missionary Baptist preacher and was the father of J. Cary Woodson and John N. B. Woodson, who now live in Alderson, West Virginia; Wmn. W. Woodson, who married a daughter of John H. Dunn, and Edwin C. Woodson, who is the youngest, and he is now over sixty years old. Eliza Woodson married I. J. Cox, and Jane married Stewart Mann.
The Woodsons were among the earliest settlers in the New River Valley, and the settlers were among the pioneer Indian fighters and defenders of pioneer civilization in the New River Valley region, and there are descendants of the pioneer Woodsons
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HISTORY OF SUMMERS COUNTY, WEST VIRGINIA.
throughout all the county in those valleys west of the Alleghenies. Stonewall Jackson's mother married a Woodson as her second hus- band, and she is buried at Ansted, in Fayette County.
One of the first settlers in the Forest Hill country was Peter Miner, who settled on the farm where that excellent citizen, Allen Ellison, now lives. His direct descendant, Peter Miner, of that district, still owns and lives on a part of the original Miner lands, and is an excellent citizen. Richard McNeer married his sister, and the mother of Squire John P. McNeer of that district. They have had a long controversy over the title to a part of this prop- erty with Mr. Allen F. Brown.
Another of the oldest and most enterprising farmers of Forest Hill District, as well as most respected, is Thomas G. Lowe, who lives on Bradshaw's Run, where Bradshaw, the settler, was slain by the Indians. He was a brave and honorable Confederate soldier during the Civil War. He is a brother of L G. Lowe, the ex-justice and politician, but a loyal Democrat, and his brother a loyal Re- publican. His son, William G. Lowe, is the efficient postmaster at Indian Mills, and another son, Robert E. Lowe, fills an important position in Government service at Washington, D. C. Another of the best citizens of that country is Wm. Redmond, a southwest Vir- ginian, who settled many years ago near the Indian Mills.
Frank Meadows was a soldier under General Anthony Wayne (Mad Anthony) from Culpepper County, Virginia, and after the battle of Fallen Timbers and the end of the war came to Wolf Creek and settled. He drew a pension, and after his death it was drawn by his wife from the United States Government. He raised a family of two sons ; one was named St. Clair (Sinclair) after Gen- eral St. Clair, and another after General Anthony Wayne. G. C. Meadows and J. J. Meadows, of Barger Springs, are sons of St. Clair.
This generation of Meadows settled on Greenbrier River in the region of the Wiggins country. G. C. Meadows, son of St. Clair Meadows, now living at Barger's Springs. was a soldier throughout the Civil War. He was a member of Capt. Morton's company and was captured and taken as a prisoner of war at Camp Chase, where he was confined for many months. While there he made with his pen-knife a handsome cane from a piece of hickory stove wood. on which he cut, "G. C. Meadows, Camp Chase. Ohio." It is a beau- tiful piece of workmanship, done to aid in killing time. He pre- sented this souvenir to the writer in 1907.
The William C. Richmond Bottom below Hinton was first
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HISTORY OF SUMMERS COUNTY, WEST VIRGINIA.
settled by J. Meadows and Peter Davis. Meadows built his house at the upper end and Davis at the lower end. Jerry Davis was the father of William Davis, who died on the waters of Madam's Creek a few years ago, and the grandfather of John, Hortan and Garfield Davis. Abraham, Isaac and Rufus were the sons of Jerry above named.
The people of this county have always practiced those traits of honorable character, in their dealing with one another and with strangers within their borders, which approach as nearly to that of the Golden Rule as those of any community in any land, and especially in any region of territory within the United States. We may travel all over this county during the darkest nights, over the lonely roads and highways, notwithstanding the great and innu- merable spots within dense forests and among great mountains, hills, cliffs and rocks which are suitable for the commission of dark deeds, free from the sight of criminals and their victims and without danger. No one is required to carry arms for his own protection or that of his property; neither is the farmer required to lock up or fasten his house or his home to prevent invading marauders. Crime has never been prevalent in the country dis- tricts of this territory, and the people are courteous to each other and also to strangers. The abrupt and often insolent manners frequent to many sections of this country, and especially to the densely populated cities and communities, is not in evidence in Summers County. When the people meet, they take time to greet each other, ask about the health of their families and how they are prospering, as well as to inquire into the welfare of their neigh- bors, always giving and receiving sociable answers to personal in- quiries, and with a grace and asperity not imitated in many sec- tions. It is acquired by descent, and is devoid of profuseness. If a person is accepted as a guest, he is expected to be at home dur- ing the visit, whether it be in a log cabin, or a mansion on the shores of the rivers. The social life of these people has always been most agreeable, without style, formality, or ostentation. In- vitations to come and dine and spend the day are usual among the neighbors, and are accepted. The custom of spending the day is, and has been for generations, a common occurrence among these people. One of the old customs which has descended to the pres- ent generation, among the ladies of a community, is to invite each other to come and spend the day and bring their knitting along, and invitations to a quilting, or some gathering of that character of a social nature. The knitting has gone out of fashion, because
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HISTORY OF SUMMERS COUNTY, WEST VIRGINIA.
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