USA > West Virginia > Summers County > History of Summers County from the earliest settlement to the present time > Part 13
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HISTORY OF SUMMERS COUNTY, WEST VIRGINIA.
islature of 1871, and vigorously enlisted his great influence in aid- ing Evan Hinton in securing the passage of his bill to found the new county, and the delegate from Monroe, B. F. Ballard, voted for it. Fayette County had then, and for many years afterward had, a like agitation for court house removal, and her delegate, Hon. Edward Allen Flanagan, voted to lop off a small slice of the ter- ritory of that county to weaken the upper end.
Mercer was in the throes of a court house fight between Con- cord Church (Athens) and Princeton, with Jumping Branch and Pipestem districts solid for the former place. It was also in a life- and-death struggle for the overthrow of the test oath government and for home rule, carpet-bag government being in the saddle, led by George Evans, Benj. White and others; and her delegate, Syl- vester Upton, voted for the creation of the new county. In this connection we will state, to show the situation at that time, that out of a vote of eleven hundred legal voters, less than one hundred and fifty were permitted to cast their votes. A Committee of Pub- lic Safety was organized at Princeton by those gallant lawyers, soldiers and patriots, Capt. John A. Douglas, Judge David E. John- son, H. W. Straley, Napoleon B. French and C. D. Straley, and others, for the preservation of the people from grafters in high places, and to settle the court house location forever. The board of supervisors were meeting one day at Princeton, and the next at Concord ; the public records were being hauled back and forth from Princeton to Concord; public revenues were being squandered at large, a court house to the second brace having been built and a jail completed, all in the forest, at Concord, the court house, as well as the town of Princeton, having been burned by the notorious and cowardly Confederate general, Jenifer.
The Confederate soldiers, brave and able men, of which there were several companies from that county, having been disfran- chised and ostracised, the Committee of Safety, in order to secure the desired ends, joined with such men as Hon. Sylvester Upton, of Jumping Branch, elected him to the Legislature at the session of 1871, and he voted for the new county, giving it the two dis- tricts, which destroyed forever the hopes and aspirations of Con- cord Church to become a court house town. Later they secured the Normal School for that place, to mollify the people in that section.
A court house agitation was on in Raleigh for the removal of the temple of justice to Trap Hill, and without Richmond district, Beckley would be lost ; therefore to secure the vote of Hon. Moses
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Scott, his clause was inserted providing that no part of that good county should ever be included within the territory of Summers County. By retaining Richmond district, Beckley strengthened herself and permanently secured the court house. By cutting off a part of Fayette, Monroe and Mercer, it settied the fights in those counties ; and Greenbrier had more territory remaining that it knew what to do with, and was glad to get rid of what it considered an isolated, bare piece of territory, forty miles from the court house, not worth while for the officeholders' visiting to collect the revenue, assess the taxes, or to enforce the laws.
Thus, the influence of all the adjacent counties being secured, and those losing territory, the necessary votes were easily secured from those counties not interested ; and it was thus our municipal, political division was created, not by the wishes of her people, or from the requirements of government, but to settle selfish disputes rending the partisans and disturbing the equilibrium of other old- established communities; and from the date of its creation, al- though opposed by a large majority of its own citizens, the weak- ling has grown and prospered and flourished, until no son or daugh- ter within her territory is ashamed that he is a native of Summers County. It is truly a child of necessity.
Upon the organization of the new county, it was divided into five townships, now designated as districts, which were named Jumping Branch, Pipestem, Greenbrier, Green Sulphur and Forest Hill, Jumping Branch and Pipestem being formed from the terri- tory taken from Mercer, Forest Hill and a part of Greenbrier from Monroe, and Green Sulphur from Fayette and Greenbrier, and Greenbrier Township from Monroe and Greenbrier counties. Jump- ing Branch was the name of that township before it was cut off from Mercer County; afterwards, in the year 1877, Greenbrier Township was divided and Talcott District formed therefrom ; and the territorial divisions of the county thus remain to this day.
At the date of the formation of the county, the designation of townships was the legal title; but they were afterward, by statute, changed to districts, and the territorial divisions of the county are now known as the Magisterial Districts.
When Evan Hinton and his associates began the agitation for a new county, others undertook a counter movement, and an at- tempt was made to head off Hinton's enterprise and secure a new county out of practically the same territory, with New Richmond for the county-seat. This movement was headed and promoted by the late Dr. Samuel Williams, a distinguished physician and
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surgeon, then located at New Richmond, ten miles west of Hinton. The advocates of this proposed county organized, selected and sent Mr. Andrew P. Pence, now of Pence's Springs, and Harrison Gwinn, now of Green Sulphur Springs, to Charleston to lobby for the proposed new county, and to defeat Hinton's project; but met with disastrous failure, as the results show.
A number of surveys were made, Joseph Keaton, a surveyor of Pipestem District, and Hon. Wm. Haynes, of Talcott District, doing the greater part of the work; and the first, and probably the only official map of the county, so far as the writer is informed, was made by Joseph Keaton, who died several years ago, and who was the first county surveyor of the county, appointed on its for- mation, and who held until the first election for county officers in the county, when the late Michael Smith was elected to that office. Senator Wm. Haynes, referred to, now deceased, was the father of our present townsman of the Hinton Department Co., and of Harry Haynes, a commissioner of the County Court of the county.
The Act of the Legislature creating the county provides that the county-seat shall be located at the mouth of Greenbrier River, from which uncertain wording grew lengthy and hard-fought liti- gation. It was claimed by the advocates above Greenbrier River that what is now Foss Postoffice, or near that point, was the mouth of Greenbrier River; and by those below the river, that the mouth was near the present Upper Hinton Ferry, at or near the point of the Hinton Island. In the meantime, the old log Baptist Church, situated about two miles up New River from Foss, was proclaimed as the court house, and there a number of the courts of the county were held. Afterwards, the court house was removed and estab- lished over the printing office of Mr. C. L. Thompson, on the side of the Chesapeake & Ohio Railway track, near the railroad cross- ing, in what is now the city of Avis. This building was burned down in the year 1875, and the storehouse building of John H. Pack, about opposite the point of the Hinton Island, was adopted as the court house-that is, the upper story thereof. The house was a one-story frame, and was ceiled under the rafters and seated with rough wooden benches, and there the courts were held for some time, until the old brick court house on the present site was built. The circuit and county clerks' offices were both first located at what is now Foss, near the ferry at the mouth of Greenbrier, in an old one-story log house, a mile and a quarter from the present
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court house, later used as a storehouse, and now used for storage of junk.
When it came to permanently locating the court house and letting its construction to contract, then began the legal conflicts which waged vigorously for a number of years. Dr. John G. Man- ser and E. B. Meador, Esq., both now deceased, were the princi- pal champions for the location at Foss, and Evan Hinton and oth- ers for the opposite side of Greenbrier River, in what is now Avis. At one time the erection of the court house was let to contract and the work begun, at a location on the island where Dr. B. P. Gooch afterwards built his residence, and where the late John S. Ewart resided at the time of his death. The brick were burned on that ground; but the inevitable injunction came, and the hopes of the islanders were shattered.
Finally the Chesapeake & Ohio Railroad Company took hold of the situation, and proposed to the county court to give to the county three acres of land for county purposes, which included Square "U," on the hill and what is now within the territorial lim- its of the city of Hinton, where the present court house is now situated, if the court would permanently locate the court house on that property, which proposition was accepted; and in 1874 Hon. Wm. Haynes and were appointed by the County Court a committee to draft plans for a new court house, and in 1875 a contract was made between the county authorities and Colonel John C. McDonald, of Fayetteville, West Virginia, for the construc- tion of the first court house on the present site, which was completed about the year 1876, and occupied in 1877. Out of this contract grew considerable litigation, the contractor not having built the house according to plans, specifications and agreement, for the con- tract price agreed upon was $14,000. The acceptance of this prop- osition by the county authorities terminated the litigation over the location of the county-seat and court house, and the same has re- mained undisturbed up to the present time.
The legal location of the "mouth of the Greenbrier River" thus remains undetermined by the courts until this day and time.
Very few of the public records were destroyed by the court house fire ; but we find some missing, which prevents us from giv- ing the exact date of a very few of the transactions of those times.
The Pack storehouse, in the garret of which the court house was located, was afterwards washed off by the great flood of 1878, which destroyed about fifteen houses, and that part of what was then known as the town of Hinton.
AT THE MOUTH OF GREENBRIER, (Old Pack Mansion House. )
THE NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY
ASTUR, LENOX AND TILDEN FOUNDATIONS.
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HISTORY OF SUMMERS COUNTY, WEST VIRGINIA.
The first court house built by the county was a two-story, prac- tically square structure, fifty feet square.
At the passage of the formation Act, Hon. Moses Scott was the delegate from Raleigh County ; Hon. Richard Allen Flanagan, from Fayette; Hon. B. F. Ballard, from Monroe; Hon. Sylvester Upton, from Mercer. and Capt. A. W. Mann, from Greenbrier.
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CHAPTER IX.
FIRST COUNTY OFFICIALS AND ORGANIZATION.
At the date of the formation of Summers County, under the laws then existing, the county affairs were conducted by a board of supervisors, which transacted the fiscal and road matters, and performed practically the same duties which are now performed by the commissioners of the County Court. The first supervisors of the county were : William Haynes, of Greenbrier Township; Ephraim J. Gwinn, of Green Sulphur Township; Samuel Allen, of Forest Hill Township; James Houchins, of Pipestem Township, and Joseph Cox, of Jumping Branch Township, all of whom are now dead, Mr. Cox and Mr. Haynes being the last survivors. The Hon. J. M. McWhorter was the first judge of the Circuit Court of the county, filling the office for something over two years after its formation, by appointment, to fill a vacancy in the then circuit of which this county was a part, which vacancy was caused by the impeachment of Nathaniel Harrison for corruption in office, and for what in modern times is appropriately termed "graft."
Under the law, the judge of the Circuit Court appointed all county officers, to hold until the next general election, which was in the year 1872, following the establishment of the county. Evan Hinton, the "Father of the County," was appointed the first sheriff, and gave bond in the penalty of $30,000, with Andrew L. Lilly, Wm. I. Lilly, Avis Hinton, Wm. T. Meador, John Hinton, Joseph Hinton and Silas Hinton as the sureties on the first bond; and Jo- seph Hinton, Richard Woodrum, Joseph Ellis, Wm. Hinton, Wm. T. Meador, Avis Hinton and John Hinton, as sureties on the sec- ond of said bonds, one being for the general purposes, and the other to cover school funds. These appointments were made about the last of April, 1871, and the appointments continued until the first of January, 1873. Joseph Keaton was appointed the first sur- veyor, and executed bond, with Wm. Hughes and A. L. Harvey as his sureties. Josephus B. Pack was appointed recorder, there - being no clerk of the County Court at that time, and gave bond,
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with John H. Dunn, Joseph N. Haynes and Goodall Garten as his sureties. P. P. Peck was appointed commissioner of school lands, on the 9th day of September, 1873, and gave bond, with M. Smith, M. A. Manning and E. H. Peck as his sureties. Erastus H. Peck was appointed a commissioner in chancery, on the 10th day of September, 1875, and executed bond, with M. Smith, George W. Chatting and Elbert Fowler as his sureties. A. H. Meador was appointed the first clerk of the Circuit Court. Nelson M. Lowry was the first notary appointed for the county, and executed bond on the 25th day of September, 1871, with Thomas B. Gwinn as his surety. B. L. Hoge was appointed the first general receiver of the Circuit Court, and gave bond on the 12th day of September, 1877. with B. P. Gooch, Evan Hinton, M. A. Manning and M. Smith as his sureties. Josephus B. Pack, the first elected clerk of the county, died in office, and was succeeded by his deputy, E. H. Peck.
The first record made in the County Court, so far as I am able to find, was by Josephus B. Pack, recorder, which is as follows : "State of West Virginia. At Rules held in the recorder's office, in Summers County, on Monday, the 8th day of May, 1871, in the eighth year of the State."
The first record of a conveyance of land is as follows:
"A deed of bargain and sale from Griffith Meadows and wife to Sarah Woodson, bearing date the 9th day of December, 1870. conveying four-ninths of all the lands of Mathew Kincaid, de- ceased (except the widow's dower while she lives), lying on the north side of Greenbrier River, and on Hunghart's Creek. Admit- ted April 27, 1871. J. P. Pack, R., S. Co."
The next entry is 1871, April 29th, and is a conveyance by William Crump to the Chesapeake & Ohio Railroad Company, for a one-ninth undivided interest in the Isaac Ballangee land for a double track railway. Griffith Meadows is still living, and resides in Monroe County, West Virginia. William Crump has long since died.
The first record of a county court held in the county that I have been able to find from the records, is January 21, 1873. On January 1, 1873, the new law took effect by which the Board of Supervisors was abolished, and the law establishing the county courts took effect. The record of January 21, 1873, shows "present, Wm. T. Meador, C. R. Hines, A. L. Harvey, Robert Gore, J. A. Parker, Henry Milburn, gentlemen justices." The county court was then composed of the justices of the peace of cach district of
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HISTORY OF SUMMERS COUNTY, WEST VIRGINIA.
the county, except the president of the court, who was elected as such.
At this term of the court the bonds of J. B. Pack, as clerk; Evan Hinton, as sheriff ; Michael Smith, as surveyor; Wellington Cox, as assessor, J. S. Lilly, as constable of Jumping Branch Dis- trict, and Jacob C. Allen, constable of Forest Hill District, were approved, and at this session the Rev. John Bragg was appointed and qualified as deputy clerk of the county court, and Joseph Ellis and B. P. Shumate were appointed deputy sheriffs. William H. Lilly was appointed deputy assessor for Wellington Cox. J. M. Mc Whorter and N. M. Lowry were qualified to practice law in the courts on the motion of W. G. Ryan. S. W. Willey, the present postmaster at Hinton, was appointed constable for Greenbrier Dis- trict.
At this term of the court a motion was made by R. A. Vincent, who resided one mile and a half from New Richmond, on Lick Creek, in Green Sulphur District, for the appointment of justice of the peace, which was rejected. Said Vincent claimed that the district was entitled to two justices, by reason of the population at that time being sufficient therefor, and submitted his motion to the old Board of Supervisors for his appointment. W. P. Hinton was appointed by the Board of Supervisors to make a census of the population of Green Sulphur District, and report. His report was made to the county court (as the Board of Supervisors had been abolished), and was then rejected, and said Vincent took his bill of exceptions from the action of the county court, which is the first record of any appeal from the action of any court in the county, and which apeal was lost to Mr. Vincent.
Albert J. Austin, at this term, was appointed constable for Pipe- stem District on the motion of Robert Gore. On the 21st day of January, 1873, Robert Gore, E. B. Meador and Wm, Haynes were appointed by the county court commissioners for the purpose of drafting a plan for the court house and other public buildings. On motion of C. R. Hines, W. G. Ryan, N. M. Lowry and E. H. Peck were appointed commissioners in chancery of the county court, and they were the first commissioners in chancery of the county court, and on this date the following motion was recorded :
"On motion, the Baptist Church heretofore used as a court house is hereby adopted as the court house of the county."
The March and July Terms were designated as the levy terms of the court and for transacting the fiscal affairs.
Henry Milburn and J. A. Parker were selected as associate
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HISTORY OF SUMMERS COUNTY, WEST VIRGINIA.
justices to hold the January Term of the court, and C. R. Hines and Robert Gore were selected as associate justices to hold the May Term of the court, and A. L. Harvey and Marion Gwinn as associate justices to hold the November Term. The May and No- vember Terms were designated as Grand Jury Terms.
From the foregoing proceedings it will be observed that there was a great contrast between the judicial machinery of the courts then and at the present time, and that great advancement for the better and improvements have been made in the operation of the machinery of justice and in legal affairs.
This court was composed solely of justices of the peace, except the president, neither of whom was required to be a lawyer or a person learned in law, and had jurisdiction to try actions at law and suits in chancery, with grand juries to indict persons accused of crime, and petit juries to try indictments and all character of criminal offenses, as well as civil actions. In the absence of the president, a justice of the peace acted as president pro tem.
The next term of this court was held on the 18th day of Oc- tober, 1873. At this term Erastus C. Stevens was granted a license to keep a house of entertainment, and Erastus H. Peck was ap- pointed and qualified as deputy clerk of the county court. David G. Ballangee, of Clayton, was appointed a road surveyor, also Andrew Gwinn and Osborne Kesler, of Lowell, were appointed road surveyors, and Robert Gore, a member of the court, qualified as administrator of the personal estate of Nancy Dwiggins, de- ceased, and two of the other "gentlemen justices of the court," Allen L. Harvey and C. R. Hines, became his surety on his bond in the penalty of sixteen dollars ($16.00), according to the record; evidently intended for sixteen hundred dollars ($1,600.00).
Hon. A. N. Campbell, who was afterwards judge of the circuit court of this county, was admitted to the practice of the law in this court, at this term, on the motion of W. G. Ryan.
The first jail occupied in the county was a small, one-story, hewed log house, located near the railroad crossing in the city of Avis. It was entirely insecure, and was principally used for pris- oners charged with misdemeanors. The jails at Lewisburg, Beck- ley and Monroe being adapted and used from time to time, until the present jail was built, about the year 1884, from bonds issued by the county after the question of bonding the county had been submitted to a vote and adopted. The present jail and only one built by the county is two-story, of brick, with modern steel cells, there being two cells in the upper story used for female and mis-
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demeanor prisoners. These were not placed until within the last four or five years as demand for more room, the upper part of the jail building being originally occupied by the jailer's family. The old log jail house is owned by Joseph Hinton, and is about twelve feet square. The present brick jail house is about 20 x 30 feet, and is heated by steam.
The first session of any judicial body in the county was of the Board of Supervisors, who met in the old log residence of Avis Hinton, on the railway track (later torn down for double track room), at the foot of the hill near the railway and street crossing, but nothing seems to have been done and no record made. A con- sultation.
West Virginia. In Summers Circuit Court, September 8, 1874. Present, His Honor, Homer A. Holt, Judge.
The following are the names of the first grand jury that was impanneled in the circuit court that we have a record of in the county, a portion of the first records of the county having been destroyed by fire: Maj. James A, Hutchison, foreman, dead ; A. A. Miller, dead; A. P. Pence, living ; James Cales, dead; Charles Gar- ten, living; Lockridge Gwinn, dead; James Ferrell, dead; Robert W. Meadows, dead; J. S. Dodd, dead ; O. H. Caperton, dead ; G. L. Jordan, dead; Jacob Mann, living : Henry Gore, dead; Robert W. Lilly, living (Shooting Bob).
Since writing the previous chapter, we have fortunately been able to resurrect the record book of the Board of Supervisors, which was preserved from the fire which destroyed the first court room in Hinton, and also the Mountain Herald printing office, situated near the railway crossing at the foot of the hill.
The first recorded meeting of the Board of Supervisors for the county was held at the mouth of Greenbrier, in the old log store- house (one-story) which is still standing and used by Miller Brothers as a storage place for junk, etc.
The first order of record ever entered in and for the county was by the Hon. Marion Gwinn, a son of Ephraim and Rachel Gwinn, of Green Sulphur Springs, as clerk of the Board of Super- visors, which we give below :
"State of West Virginia, mouth of Greenbrier River, March 28, 1871. This day, in pursuance of an act of the Legislature of West Virginia, passed on February 27, 1871, the Board of Super-
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HISTORY OF SUMMERS COUNTY, WEST VIRGINIA.
visors, composed of Samuel Allen, Joseph Cox, E. J. Gwinn and William Haynes, met at the mouth of Greenbrier River for the purpose of organizing the county of Summers, and, after being qualified by a justice of the peace, Samuel Allen was chosen presi- dent, and Marion Gwinn was elected and qualified as clerk of said board."
The board then proceeded to divide the county into five town- ships-Forest Hill, Greenbrier, Jumping Branch, Pipestem and Green Sulphur. Then this board proceeded to give the boundary lines of each township, all of which boundaries remain the same to this day, except Greenbrier, which was afterwards divided, and Talcott District formed therefrom in 1877.
The place of voting at Forest Hill Township was fixed at James Keatley's, at the mouth of Indian Creek; Green Sulphur Springs was fixed as the voting place of Green Sulphur Township; Jumping Branch for Jumping Branch Township, and the court house for Greenbrier Township.
Michael Smith was appointed constable for Forest Hill. Of this Board of Supervisors appointed by Judge McWhorter, two were Republicans, Samuel Allen and Joseph Cox, and two were Democrats, William Haynes and E. J. Gwinn. Joseph Cox resided near Jumping Branch, at which place he continued to reside until the date of his death a few years ago. He was the Republican party's candidate for commissioner of the county court at the elec- tion in 190 -. Samuel Allen was a resident of Wolf Creek in Forest Hill District, where he continued to reside until his death a few years ago. William Haynes resided at Haynes' Ferry, on Green- brier River, in Talcott District, and E. J. Gwinn resided at Green Sulphur Springs in Green Sulphur District, at which places they resided until their deaths.
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