USA > West Virginia > Summers County > History of Summers County from the earliest settlement to the present time > Part 11
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76 | Part 77 | Part 78 | Part 79 | Part 80 | Part 81
it has become one of the lost arts since the Civil War. The quilt- ing was one of the many features of country life in this region in which young and old patricipated. A home-made quilt, in which the neighbors joined in making, was a work of art as well as of patience. The quilt is composed of scraps from wedding gowns and other garments, and rare fabrics, cut in all manner of shapes and devices. Each scrap has its history in connection with the wearer or the owner of the original from which it was cut. Some patches in the quilt are cut to represent hearts, birds, animals and monograms artfully made with selected threads. From such a quilt, of which there are many in this good county, is built up a history of good neighbors and good friends. At one of these quilt- ings the male members attended in the evening, partaking of the bounteous meals and of the dances which followed. The inter- course among our people, as it has been for generations, is frequent and genteel. They meet in public, political meetings and religious services, and have kept bright the dull and rough edges of human life in a country of this character, and which naturally grows up in an isolated mountain community. There has never been envy or jealousy between the classes of rich and poor. They mingle on an equality during public occasions. The individual is respected because of his good qualities, and not because of his earthly pos- sessions. The learned official carries his head no higher in dis- dain of the private citizen than does the farmer and the mountain- eer, who can neither read nor write his name, but is a decent and respectable citizen. Neither has disdain for his fellow, unless the individual has forfeited his self-respect by his own acts. The peo- ple of this county have always been on an equality. There have been no rich people, and the extremely poor have been few, com- paratively. They were all educated in the same schools, and were brought up in the same surroundings, the majority, possibly, of our people being possessed of property of less than one thousand dol- lars; nevertheless, such persons, regardless of their worldly goods, have been enabled to live upon the lands, and receive many more comforts from that meager possession than are received in other regions, where possessions are much less meager and the proper- ties are much greater in value. The majority of the people own their own lands. They are all reared to work with their own hands, and clasp the plow-handle or other implements of honest toil, which give assurance of prosperity without shame. The early settlers sought this region for an independent life. They preferred it, and they secured it, and that independence has descended to
100
HISTORY OF SUMMERS COUNTY, WEST VIRGINIA.
the present generation, and every inhabitant of the county should be proud of his native State, as well as of his county, who was born within its territory or reared upon its soil, or where it has become his home by adoption.
The first Constitution which governed this territory was adopted on the 29th day of June, 1776, five days before the famous Dec- laration of Independence was adopted, and on the 30th of June the first Governor was selected by the inhabitants from their own ranks, which was Patrick Henry. It was under this Constitution that religious freedom was made an existing fact, and the Church of England was disestablished. At practically the same time primo- geniture and the entail systems were abolished, by which lands were handed down from father to the oldest son in succession. The question of suffrage was an agitated one from 1780 to 1850, and till this date. Under the Constitution of 1776 no man could vote who did not possess as much as twenty-five acres of land, with a house on it, or fifty acres of unimproved land. After a long fight, suffrage was extended in 1830 to certain lease-holders and house-holders; but not until the famous Reform Convention of 1850 was every free white man allowed to vote, and during all the time of the strenuous suffrage agitation there was an agitation be- tween the Eastern and Western sections of Virginia. It was in 1850 that the people were given the right to elect the Governor, justices and all local officers, including members of the Legisla- ture, by a direct vote. Prior to that they were elected by the Gen- eral Assembly, which corresponds with our Legislature, and dur- ing all this period the people voted by the viva voce system. The secret ballot was never introduced until after the Civil War. Dur- ing the time our territory was within the territory of Virginia, it . furnished seven Presidents to the United States. It gave the ter- ritory from which six States were carved, so that she was the "Mother of States" as well as the "Mother of Statesmen and Presi- dents."
When the ancient pioneers came into this land, they found a home in the wilderness, and they betook themselves to building houses, clearing the forests, planting orchards and cultivating the arts of civilized life. Few of them ran wild in the forests, and few of them became speculators or engaged in trafficking or speculat- ing in hazardous enterprises. They were sober and thoughtful. They were far remote from the seat of justice. Neither the pio- neer, as well as his ancestor, would submit to ecclesiastical domi- nation. As they detested civil tyranny, so did they detest eccle-
101
HISTORY OF SUMMERS COUNTY, WEST VIRGINIA.
siastical. The great majority of the ancient settlers were Whigs of the firmest type. They were brave, and the great majority in this region descended from emigrants from the Valley of Virginia. of Scotch-Irish and of German descent, and as that country settled up and became populated, the same descendants of the pioneers gradually went Westward, as they have continued to do in the century following. It was of these pioneer settlers and ancient yeomanry that Washington signified an opinion when, in the darkest days of the Revolution, when it looked as though the patriots might fail in that eight years' struggle, he said "that if all other sources should fail, he might yet repair with a single standard from West Augusta, which included that region west of the top of the Allegheny Mountains, and there rally a band of patriots who would meet the enemy at the Blue Ridge, and there establish the foundation of a free empire in the West," thus indi- cating that it was his belief that, as a last resource, he could yet gather a force in Western Virginia which the great armies of Eng- land could not subdue. It was the descendants of these sires of which Washington spoke who settled in the fastnesses of this mountain region, and the spirit of those sires still reigns in their descendants, as the day of trial will disclose if it may ever become necessary to put it to the test.
As stated in other parts of this book, the first houses erected by these primitive settlers, beginning about 1760, were the log cabins, covered with split clapboards, weighted down by poles to hold them in place. Frequently these cabins had no floors except the earth. Where they had floors, they were of split puncheons, smoothed down with a broad-axe. There were, however, a few hewed log houses, and later many more, as the people advanced in prosperity and the country developed in poulation and wealth. As the improvements came and advancement followed, hewed log houses became common, with shingle roof and plank floor, sawed with the whip-saw. There were no saw-mills.
The dress of these early settlers was of the plainest materials, always home-made. Before the Revolutionary War, the married men shaved their heads and wore wigs or linen caps. Men's coats were made with broad backs and straight, short skirts, with pock- ets on the outside, having large flaps. The breeches were so short as to barely reach the knee, with a band around the knee, fastened at either end with a silver buckle. The stocking was drawn up under the knee-band and tied with a garter, red or blue, below the knee, so that it might be seen. The shoes were of leather or mioc-
102
. HISTORY OF SUMMERS COUNTY, WEST VIRGINIA.
casins. If shoes, they were fastened with a brass or silver buckle. The hat was wool or fur-usually wool-manufactured by rude home processes. The dress for the neck was a narrow collar to the shirt. There were none of the more wealthy or fashionable in this region who could afford the stock, knee and shoe buckles, set in gold or silver, with brilliant stones. Those who did that in the East were considered great folk, of which we had none. The female dress was generally the short gown and petticoat, made of plain material. The German women mostly wore tight calico caps on their heads. In hay and harvest times they joined the men in the labor in the fields and meadows, and it was not common only as a German practice, but was common to all. Many of the females were expert mowers, choppers and reapers. The furniture was of the plainest imaginable ; a piece brought from the East was a curi- osity. The custom of housing stock was not at all frequent. The "Dutch" or German descendants alone brought with them the fashion of housing their stock to better comforts than the members of the household. There was thrift and money in it.
John Alderson, Sr., was born in England, came to New Jersey in 1737, and married a Miss Curtis, a daughter of his captain. He became a Baptist minister, finally removing to Rockingham County, Virginia. He had a son John, who also became a Baptist minister, and who married a Miss Carroll, of Rockingham County. It was John Alderson, Sr., who came to the Greenbrier region in 1775, and founded the Alderson generation. He was a man of great in- telligence, and of indomitable will and energy. He was the first Baptist minister who carried the Baptist doctrine into all this re- gion west of the Alleghenies. He organized the old Greenbrier Baptist Church in 1781.
Capt. Hugh Caperton, who is mentioned in these pages, was associated with Daniel Boone, and was his commissariat. Boone fell out with Captain Caperton on an expedition to the mountains of Kanawha River, and left the camp. When Boone heard of the necessities of the company for food, and was asked why he left the company, he replied, "Caperton didn't do to my likin'." Captain Caperton operated with his company in 1793. Among the men in that company, whose descendants live in this country, were Madi- son Meadows, Edward Farley, William Graham, James Montgom- ery, Francis Farley, Drury Farley, Thomas Cook, Andrew John- son, Jonas Hatfield, David French, Henry Massie, James Abbott, the descendants of whose family live in Pipestem district; Moses Massie, James Graham, David Graham, James Sweeney, whose
GREENBRIER RIVER. Scene on C. & O. Railway From Top Gwinn's Mountain at Lowell.
-
THENEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY
TILDEA FOUX AT
.
103
HISTORY OF SUMMERS COUNTY, WEST VIRGINIA.
descendant is the ancient Baptist minister at Beckley; Isaiah Cal- loway, whose descendant is Matthew Vincent Calloway, the cour- teous ex-sheriff of this county, now residing in Washington City; and George Abbott.
The pioneer, when he came to this land, carried with him all his belongings-all his earthly goods-which usually consisted of a rifle gun ; if married, his wife, and such plunder as could be car- ried on a pack-saddle. If the emigrant was so fortunate as to own a horse (or beast, as this animal was generally known)-some- times he would, if extra well-to-do-a negro slave would be a part of his inheritance. Every settler at once became a hunter, a trap- per, a farmer and a soldier. The men and boys, and in many in- stances the women, worked with the hoe, axe and mattock in the clearing of the field. The hides of wild animals were dressed The usual footwear was the moccasin, made from the dressed deer- skin, which was fashioned without thread, tacks or soles-fastened together with strings cut from the deer-hide. Shoes were a curios- ity ; and when they came into use, made from the tanned cow-hide, they were made altogether by the neighborhood shoemaker (dog- wood pegs held the soles to the uppers), who made his own pegs, shoe thread and lasts on which to fashion them. The cradle for the baby was usually a sugar-trough, or a rough box constructed by the master of the place. Plow shoes were made of wood; beds, of chaff, if wheat had been raised; if not, from leaves. The floors were made of oak or poplar logs split in the middle, and laid on the ground with the flat side up, sometimes hewn with a pole-axe, and . later with the broad-axe. Wooden pegs were used instead of iron nails in all framing, and in fastening on the rafters and wall-plates. Later, when iron could be had and blacksmith shops came, the "wrought iron" nails, made by the blacksmith, were used, and took the place of the locust or hickory pin ; and later the four-sided fac- tory nail succeeded the smith-made hammered or wrought nail ; and now the wire nail is used exclusively. There still exist in this country some remains of the old buildings wherein there was not a piece of iron used in construction ; and in others the remains of the shop-made, hammered nails. Leather straps were used for door hinges, or blocks of wood dressed down and shaped to enter an augur-hole, nailed to the door facing with another piece with a hole in it, and nailed to the door. Two sets of these, and the door was ready to hang. No iron latches or locks, but a wooden door- latch-a strip of thin wood and a wooden "ketch," and a string attached to the latch and passing out through a hole in the door-
104
HISTORY OF SUMMERS COUNTY, WEST VIRGINIA.
completed the fastenings. Not a nail or a piece of iron in the whole building! Such a large log building was on the W. E. Miller farm, on Lick Creek, in the Ellis Hollow, with a chimney ten feet wide. This was only one of the many of the pioneer residences erected in this land in its first settlements.
The hand mill and the hominy block, with a hole made in the top, in which the corn was made into meal with a pestle, came first; after this came the pounding mill, but few and far between; later came the water grist mill. At first all lumber was sawed by the whip-saw. A log would be hewed square, then hoisted on trestles so that a man could stand under it. One man would stand on top, one underneath, and with a long saw, something like the cross- cut, with one man hold of each end, they would manufacture the log into plank, the man below fighting the dust out of his eyes. Then came the upright water saw-mill, the remains of which may yet be seen in very rare instances. Many a good housewife had the ancient loom and spinning-wheels. The table-ware was of the rudest character-tin plates, wooden bowls and dough trays. Salt could not be had in the backwoods; but the ginseng, furs, cured venison hams and bear meats to be transported to the far-off towns were gathered in, and a far-off journey prepared for, and an ex- change made for salt, and later iron, which were transported by the pack-horse, with an old home-made wooden pack-saddle. The horses went unshod.
These pioneers were a hardy race. They felled forests; they battled against the wild beasts-bears, wolves, panthers, and rat- tlesnakes, copperheads, and other vicious wild beasts and venom- ous reptiles with which the forests were crowded and were warring with each other; and there were forests full of deer, buffalo, elk, pigeons and turkeys, and other birds useful for sustenance.
The emigrants from the Old World were not of this hardy stock. They sought, however thrifty, the protection of the pio- neer settler from the Indian savage. as well as the wild beasts of the wilderness. Every pioneer was a defender of himself and his neighbor. The boys and girls and the women could ride, swim, shoot, hunt and kill. They could aid in the defense of the fort or the blockhouse. There was no end of war with the savages; it mattered not whether during a so-called peace, or when a war was in progress. The Indian was always at war until driven out of the land, and this continued for a generation.
The coat usually worn was the hunting-shirt, made of home-made jeans or the skins of wild animals. It came to the
105
HISTORY OF SUMMERS COUNTY, WEST VIRGINIA.
knees, with a belt buttoned around the waist. The arms for de- fensive purposes, as well as for hunting, were the old flint-lock rifles, musket or flint-lock smooth-bore, and large hunting knives ; and only in later years did the percussion lock and cap-rifled gun follow. The weddings were not frequent, but were great events.
There were no schools for a long time after the pioneer first began reclaiming the wilderness, and it was only the fortunate boy or girl who had the opportunity to learn to read or write. Both were, in the early days, great accomplishments; and to know how to figure beyond vulgar fractions was a wonder. When the school- teacher came in, he would board around with the various families who sent their children to him. He taught in the log-cabin school house with board covering held on by ridge poles, there being no nails to be secured with which to fasten the roof, and with dirt floors; the poles or walls were sometimes daubed with mud, or chinked only and not hewn, with a rock chimney, and a fireplace big enough to burn a log-heap at one time. Even these houses were few and far between. The seats were split logs or fence rails, with holes bored in one side and pegs stuck in for legs, without backs or comfort. One log was cut out and a hole made for light, and no desks. The ink with which the youth learned to write was frequently "poke-berry juice"; and after all, when a school house was built and a teacher secured-which was after the neighborhod began to settle up-it was only the few who learned to read and write. There were no college-bred gents, kid- glove or patent-leather shoe gentlemen in those days. No churches, but soon came the pioneer missionary Baptists, Methodists, Pres- byterians and Primitive Baptists, with the pioneer preacher, In- dian fighter and man of God; and the influence of those pioneer ministers of the gospel will be felt to the remotest ends of the earth, among the generations who still and will inhabit the land. No churches were there, but for miles around they would gather in the groves and in the cabin and dwelling, once in a while, to worship according to the dictates of their conscience. Later came the rude log church and the old-fashioned school house, which an- swered also for church purposes. The Primitive (Hardshell) Bap- tists were confined to Pipestem and Jumping Branch districts. Wm. Crump and the Neelys and Meadors were its chief support- ers. They did not believe in an educated ministry or in paying their preachers; but are a conscientious, honest and God-fearing people, and good citizens.
The spinning-wheel, now a relic of the past, was a useful piece
106
HISTORY OF SUMMERS COUNTY, WEST VIRGINIA.
of furniture to the household of every thrifty settler. The large wheel was used for spinning the wool into long rolls, and then into thread, and then woven into cloth by the old loom which stood in the kitchen "loom-house." The small wheel (distaff) was used for spinning the flax fibers, or hemp, which was made into thread and made ready for the weaver, to be made into linen or "tow" cloth, for the men and women's clothing.
"Breathes there a man with soul so dead, Who never to himself hath said,
"This is my own, my native land?' Whose heart hath ne'er within him burned As home his footsteps he hath turned From wanderings on a foreign strand? If such there be, go mark him well; In him no minstrel raptures swell. High though his title, proud his name, Boundless his wealth as wish can claim,- Despite those titles, power and pelf, The wretch concentrates all in self. Living, shall forfeit fair renown, And doubly dying, shall go down To the vile dust, from whence he sprung, Unwept, unhonored and unsung."
CHAPTER VII.
FIRST SETTLERS OF HINTON.
In 1871, the family of Isaac Ballengee lived in the log house about the middle of the present railroad yards about the round- house. The family of John Hinton lived in a log house by the side of the main track just above the railroad and street crossing at the foot of the hill in the city of Avis.
Then came Mathew Vincent Calloway, who built a frame resi- dence on the lot now owned by R. H. Maxwell at the east end of the foot bridge, which washed away in the flood of 1878; Dr. Benj. P. Gooch, for the practice of his profession, built the residence on the "island," now owned by Bowman. Both of these gentlemen were from Mercer. Luther M. Dunn, who did business near the Avis crossing, from Albemarle County, Virginia; Carl Alexander Fredeking, Lee Fredeking and Charles, the native Germans, who came directly from Southwest Virginia; Robert R. Flannagan and A. G. and Richard A., three brothers from Fayette County ; Burke Prince and E. O., his brother, from Raleigh County ; William W. Adams, attorney, from Petersburg, Virginia: Nelson M. Lowry, attorney, from Nelson County, Virginia : Cameron L., William R., J. S. and Major Benj. S. Thompson, father and three sons, native West Virginians: Archie B. Perkins and William B. Sprowl, of Virginia ; M. A. Riffe and Jake A. Riffe, of Riffe's Crossing County ; Archie Butt, printer, Lewisburg; W. Frank McClung, Lewisburg ; Carlos A. Sperry, attorney, Lewisburg; Raymond Dunn, Virginia : James Wimmer, railway engineer, Virginia ; George Glass, carpen- ter, Virginia, whose family still resides therein, his widow now being eighty odd years old ; Phil Cason, railroad conductor ; Childes Talley, railroad conductor, Walker Tyler, railroad foreman, who died in 1907, his family still residing in the city; James Briers, round-house foreman, of Virginia, and whose sons still reside here- in; James Prince, merchant, Raleigh County ; Wm. T. Gitt, hotel keeper, of Giles County, Virginia ; H. S. Gerow, New York ; Wm. James, lumberman, of Pennsylvania ; Dr. John G. Manser, County ; Dr. Shannon P. Peck, County : W. B. Talliaferro, railway employe, Virginia; John P. Mills, lumberman, New York; Jolin R. Gott, undertaker, Mercer County; John H. Pack, merchant, County ; B.
.
108
HISTORY OF SUMMERS COUNTY, WEST VIRGINIA.
L. Hoge, clerk, Mercer County; John M. Carden, hotel, County ; John H. Gunther, the first depot agent and agent for the Central Land Company at Hinton ; E. H. Peck, clerk, Mercer County ; D. R. Swisher, master machinist, Virginia; W. D. Tompkies, merchant, Virginia; W. C. Ridgeway, hotel; John Finn, Virginia; Robert Elliott, lumberman, Canada ; James W. Malcolm, attorney, Green- brier ; James P. Pack, salesman, County ; C. A. Thomas, merchant, Ohio; W. C. Burns, railway employee, Virginia; George W. Gib- son, carpenter ; James Johnson (colored), boatman ; A. A. McNeer, tobacco manufacturer, Monroe County; D. H. Peck, railway en- gineer, County; P. P. Peck, clerk, County ; O. McGee, butcher, Virginia; John McGee, butcher, Virginia; P. K. Litsinger, ma- chinist, Pennsylvania; R. D. Rose, carpenter, Monroe County ; Capt. Frank H. Dennis, a sailor, Maryland (he was a brother of U. S. Senator George Dennis, of Maryland); M. A. W. Young, preacher, County ; M. Bibb, minister, Fayette County; Wm. Wood (colored), watchmaker, Virginia; Jacob Pyles, blacksmith, Monroe County ; John Cooper, merchant, Mercer County ; C. B. Mahon, railway conductor, Virginia ; R. A. McGinity, shoemaker, Virginia ; John W. Flanagan, railway engineer, Virginia; W. R. Duerson. merchant, Virginia; G. O. Blubaugh, lumberman, Virginia; C. B. Blubaugh, M. D., Virginia ; T. P. Snow, lumberman, Virginia ; Cook Brothers, butchers, Ohio; Ferguson Brothers, hotel, Raleigh; John A. Douglas, attorney, Mercer; F. W. Mahood, attorney, Giles County, Virginia, and who had represented both Giles County and Mercer County in the Legislature of both Virginia and West Vir- ginia. M. V. Calloway was the first merchant, with Wm. Holroyd, the Englishman, as his partner; Hal McCue, attorney, Stanton.
James H. Hobbs, a native of Roan County, was one of the first settlers in Hinton. He was a carpenter, and built some of the first buildings. He was also a constable (elected), and a school teacher.
The first barber in Hinton was John Woodson, a colored man. The first white barber was Chris. Rau, from Ohio; then came L. E. Dyke, Chris. Hetzel, the politician, J. A. Fox and others, and Wm. A. French, Mercer Salt Works. M. A. Riffe, W. C. Ridge- way, A. B. Perkins and Jake Ridisill were among the first saloon- ists. W. C. Ridgeway, Perkins & Sprowl, Ferguson Brothers, M. A. Riffe, Hiram Scott and Mrs. M. S. Gentry were the first hotel proprietors. Mrs. Gentry kept the first boarding-house in the cities of Hinton and Avis, which was in the old log Hin- ton residence, near the railroad crossing. George W. Gibson, John R. Gott and R. D. Rose, among the first carpenters; J. H. Gunther, first depot agent. Afterwards followed A. G. Flanagan,
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.