USA > West Virginia > Summers County > History of Summers County from the earliest settlement to the present time > Part 15
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HISTORY OF SUMMERS COUNTY, WEST VIRGINIA.
ments, and also for State officers. The result in this county, so far as is disclosed by the records, is as follows :
For ratification of the Constitution and Schedule. 451 votes
For rejection 262
Total vote in the county 713
For Governor:
J. N. Camden, Democrat. 480
J. J. Jacobs, Independent. 290
For Attorney-General :
H. M. Mathews, Democrat. 516
G. Cresap, Republican
For Treasurer :
John S. Burdette, Democrat. 517
W. P. Rathburne, Republican 191
For Auditor :
E. A. Bennett, Democrat. 490
A. M. Jacobs, Republican. 199
For Superintendent of Schools :
B. W. Byrne, Democrat. 483
J. B. Hardwick, Republican 213
For Judges Supreme Court of Appeals :
A. F. Haymond. 496
James Paull 495
J. S. Huffman. 677
R. L. Berkshire. 162
M. Edmiston 162
E. Maxwell 162
For House of Delegates :
M. Gwinn, Democrat 637
D. Fox 20
And the following order was entered :
"Be it ordained by the board that the following persons are declared elected for the following county offices: For State's at- torney, W. G. Ryan ; for president county court, Wm. T. Meador; for sheriff, Evan Hinton; for clerk of circuit court, A. H. Meador ;
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HISTORY OF SUMMERS COUNTY, WEST VIRGINIA.
for clerk of the county court, J. B. Pack; for surveyor, M. Smith; for assessor, Wellington Cox.
"Be it ordained that the following township officers are declared elected: Forest Hill Township: for justice of the peace, A. L. Harvey; for constable, J. C. Allen. Jumping Branch Township: for justice of the peace, A. Parker (which was intended for J. A. Parker) ; for constable, J. S. Lilly. Pipestem Township : for justice of the peace, Robert Gore; for constable, C. M. D. Spraddling, Greenbrier Township; for justice of the peace, C. R. Hines and Henry Milburn; for constable, Alma Willey and J. P. Rollyson. For judge of the circuit court R. F. Dennis received 388 votes, and Homer A. Holt 241 votes, and J. W. Davis 78 votes, making a total of 607 votes cast in the county."
This election was a general election for State and county offices, to be elected under the new Constitution in the event of its rati- fication. It was ratified in the State, and the officers elected at that election and those which were not vacated by the new Con- stitution took office on the first day of January, 1873, and under which the Board of Supervisors retired, and the county courts, as hereinafter shown, were composed of the respective justices of the peace, as elected at this election.
At the Presidential election held on the 5th day of November, 1872, Horace Greely, Independent Republican, received 290 votes, and U. S. Grant. 206 votes. The candidate for Vice-President at this election on the Independent Republican ticket was B. Gratz Brown. The Presidential electors on the Greeley ticket are familiar to many of the present citizens of Summers County, being Joseph Spriggs, Okey Johnson, Wm. P. Hubbard, Daniel B. Lucas and Edmund Sehon. The electors on the Grant ticket were W. E. Stevens, Thomas B. Swan, Charles F. Scott, Thomas R. Carkscadon and Romeo H. Frier.
Henry Wilson was the Republican voted for for Vice-President. Charles O'Connor, Democrat, for President, received eighteen votes; John Quincy Adams, for Vice-President, seventeen votes. The electors on this ticket were Thomas O'Brien, Alex White, A. E. Duncan, William T. Ice and John S. Swan. Horace Greeley was the Independent Republican candidate, and was generally sup- ported by the Democrats. General U. S. Grant was the Republican candidate, and a number of Democrats voted for General Grant.
Not being satisfied with the action of the Democratic Conven- tion in ratifying the nominee, Horace Greeley, Charles O'Conner was nominated by a faction of the Democratic Party as the straight-
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HISTORY OF SUMMERS COUNTY, WEST VIRGINIA.
out Democratic nominee by a convention held in Baltimore. Greeley was the great editor of the New York Tribune, and had shown a liberal disposition towards Confederate leaders after the close of hostilities, having, with August Belmont, gone on the bail bond of Jefferson Davis, the president of the Confederacy. General U. S. Grant was the great Federal general to whom General Lee sur- rendered at Appomattox, and was generally beloved in this country by reason of his magnanimous action towards General Lee and his Confederate soldiers after the collapse of the Rebellion.
Charles O'Connor was an eminent Democratic lawyer in the city of New York. Frank Hereford, who was elected to Congress, was a prominent attorney in Union, Monroe County, who after- wards served a term in the Senate of the United States at the same time that the Honorable Henry G. Davis, of this State, late Demo- cratic candidate for Vice-President, was in the Senate. Captain R. F. Dennis was the regular nominee for judge of the circuit court, and was defeated by Homer A. Holt, an independent candi- date. J. W. Davis was the Republican nominee. Captain Dennis was an officer in the Confederate Army and a distinguished lawyer at Lewisburg ; afterwards served several years in the State Senate, and was a candidate for Congress, and defeated by C. P. Snyder for the nomination. Homer A. Holt, who was elected judge, was a Democrat, and was elected for a second term, and served as judge of the circuit court of this county and circuit for sixteen full years, . and was afterwards elected to the Supreme Court of Appeals of the State, and served a term.
J. W. Davis was a militia colonel at the beginning of the war and was a lawyer of great prominence in Greenbrier County, and only died recently at a very advanced age. After the war he was a Republican in politics, and so continued, but in 1896 was an ardent free silver advocate, and earnestly supported William J. Bryan, the Democratic candidate, for President, and at one time was the nominee of the Populist Party for Congress, and was the Republican nominee at one time for judge of the Supreme court of Appeals on the Republican ticket, and the Republican nominee for Congress at one or two elections in the Third District, of which this county was a part when the district was largely Democratic.
I omitted to give in the foregoing statement of election the election returns for the county, which were as follows:
For county superintendent of schools for the election held on the 26th day of October, 1871, John H. Pack received 493 votes, and he seems to have had no opposition for said office. For the
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HISTORY OF SUMMERS COUNTY, WEST VIRGINIA.
office of representative in the House of Delegates for the delegate district of Monroe, Summers and Greenbrier, for the election held on the 26th day of October, 1871, George Williams received 514 votes ; Gordon L. Jordan, 504 votes ; A. Nelson Campbell, 511 votes ; Robert Lilly, 84 votes; S. W. Nickell, 58 votes, and H. P. Brown, 63 votes. Hon Gordon L. Jordan was elected in the county, and was the first representative in the Legislature from Summers County. He resided in Pipestem District, and was the father of John H. Jordan, the present cashier of the Bank of Summers. C. A. Sperry for State Senate, at that election, received 475 votes ; S. C. Luddington, 123 votes.
The elections seem to have been held frequently in that period of our history, the first being held on October 26, 1871; the second, August 22, 1872; the third on November 5, 1872. Those were stir- ring times in this region. The war having closed in April, 1865, reconstruction was still in progress, and under the first Constitution and legislation in the State a large part of the people were dis- franchised by reason of their either having been in the active service of the Confederacy, or having been sympathizers therewith. All those persons, which consisted of the majority and the most substantial class of citizens in the territory of this county, were in- cluded under this ban, and not permitted to vote. A strict registra- tion law was then in force, and every voter had to register before a board of registration, composed of three registrars, who were ap- pointed as strict partisans of the party then in power, and no person was permitted to register or vote unless he could subscribe to a certain test oath, which was in effect, "that the voter had not aided or abetted in the late Rebellion, or had sympathized therewith." This, of course, excluded all ex-Confederates and voters who sym- pathized with the Southern cause in any way. Every voter was required to register at his precinct, and if a liberal registrar saw proper to permit persons to register who had been in sympathy with the Confederate cause, when the returns were sent in to the county seat to the board of registrars, they deliberately threw out all necessary votes to make the results of the election satisfactory to themselves.
For instance, in Greenbrier County, directly after the war, about 113 voters were permitted to vote out of a vote of probably 1,500 or 2,000. This statement is given from information, and I give it to show the feeling existing in those days soon after the war and during the stirring political times in that era.
When the adoption of the new Constitution for ratification or
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HISTORY OF SUMMERS COUNTY, WEST VIRGINIA.
rejection, and the first Democratic State officers were elected since the formation of the State, the elective franchise had been extended largely by reason of the Flick amendment to the Constitution, which amendment took its name from its author, Honorable Wm. H. H. Flick, a broad-minded Republican of considerable influence in the Legislature, and the vote at the elections taken in 1872 were after the adoption of this amendment, which entitled many more voters to participate in the elections than had heretofore been permitted, the restrictions in franchise and the abominations perpetrated upon the people of this section from the close of the war until the adoption of the new Constitution were not chargeable to the broad-minded and liberal statesmen and members of the Republican Party, but to those narrow-minded partisans, illiterate and bigoted, as well as carpet-bagger's who came into the country as jackals follow their prey-who had not been accustomed to power or authority, and who did not have either the sense, honor or broadness of character to exercise the power which was thrust upon them, by reason of the conflicts, agitations and unsettled con- ditions resulting and growing out of the Civil War, and the people in authority undertook to exercise that authority in many instances in the suppression of justice, but as time went on more liberal, broad-minded and patriotic persons came into control, and matters soon righted themselves.
The feeling between the parties from 1865 to 1875 was exceed- ingly bitter, and the Republican Party in those days was obnoxious to a large class of the citizens, so-called Republican "Radicals."
I give an instance as the result upon registration and election at Green Sulphur precinct, some time after the war, when I was a boy, and I remember distinctly upon hearing of the occurrences :
John Gwinn was one of the respected citizens of that district, a brother of E. J. Gwinn, the owner of Green Sulphur Springs, who had been a strong Democrat before the war, but was a Union man and a Republican after the war, and a man of broad information and liberal towards his section. Mr. Gwinn was registrar for that precinct, which was then in Blue Sulphur District, Greenbrier County. When registration day came, he permitted every person to register-Democrat, Republican, Confederate, Union and Yankee, all voters He sent his returns into the court house, where there was a board of registration, or supervisors of election, or something of that kind, consisting of Joe Caldwell, who was nicknamed "Old Scratch," and two others whose names I have forgotten. They threw out the registration of Mr. Gwinn, although Mr. Gwinn was
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HISTORY OF SUMMERS COUNTY, WEST VIRGINIA.
one of their own party, and none, or but few, of the votes of that precinct were counted.
The first division of the county roads of the county were laid off into precincts by a committee appointed by the Board of Super- visors on the third Monday in January, 1872.
The committee of Pipestem Township consisted of James Rolls, N. H. Neely and Robert Gore; for Jumping Branch Township, David Lilly, Sylvester Upton and Michael Harvey ; for Forest Hill Township, Lewis Shanklin, Lewis Simms and Joseph Ellis; for Green Sulphur Township, John B. Walker, Harrison Gwinn and David Bowles; for Greenbrier Township, Isaac G. Carden, James P. Rollyson and James W. Meadows, who made the report and division of the county roads into precincts at the March Term.
On the 21st day of October, 1872, the board entered the following order :
"Ordered : That the clerk of this court be and is hereby required to communicate with Judge McWhorter, requesting him to hold a special term of court for Summers County for the trial of the criminals of the said county, now in the jail of Monroe County."
Carlos A. Sperry was the first prosecuting attorney of Sum- mers County by appointment of Judge McWhorter. W. G. Ryan was the first elected prosecuting attorney of this county, elected in 1872, and took office January 1, 1873, under the new Constitution. J. Speed Thompson, Esq., one of the first lawyers who located in the county, qualified as the assistant of Mr. Ryan. On the 21st day of October, 1872, the following order was entered :
"Ordered: That William H. Lilly, son of 'Barwallow Bob Lilly,' be appointed a road surveyor."
The election records up to this date were very imperfectly kept, though, no doubt, entirely correct. The vote for the county officers is not given except in a few instances, the Board of Supervisors simply declaring the result, showing who were elected.
About this time the roads up New River from the mouth of Greenbrier were beginning to be agitated, and the following order was entered :
"Be it ordained by the board that Rufus Pack, E. B. Meador and John G. Manser be and are hereby appointed viewers for the purpose of locating a road from the Baptist Church to the mouth of James W. Pack's lane, and that they report to this board the advantages and disadvantages, etc., attending the location of same."
At the formation of this county there was but one piano or musical instrument of that character in the territory of Summers
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HISTORY OF SUMMERS COUNTY, WEST VIRGINIA.
County, and that was owned by William B. Crump, then the owner of Crump's Bottom, and resided at the place where Mr. George W. Harmon now resides, and who is the present owner of that mag- nificent plantation.
The last order entered by the Board of Supervisors before it went out of existence was one directing a census of Green Sulphur District, to ascertain the population and for the purpose of inform- ing the authorities as to whether or not that district was entitled to two justices of the peace. Wm. P. Hinton was appointed to take the census and report to the new county court, which came in office January 1, 1873. This order was made on the 22d day of August, 1872, and on that date the following and final order by the board was made, which is as follows :
"Ordered: That this board adjourn sine die. (Signed), James A. Hutchinson, president ; J. B. Pack, Deputy clerk, for M. Gwinn, clerk."
From this date on the affairs of the county were conducted by
. the county court, composed of the justices of the peace elected in 1872, until an amendment to the Constitution about 1881, which abolished these county courts.
After the fire which destroyed the court room occupied in Hin- ton, a small paper-backed book of 232 pages was used as the order book of the circuit court, which would cost about fifty cents, such as a shoemaker would keep his accounts in.
The first circuit court after the fire was on September 8, 1874, Judge Homer A. Holt being the new judge, elected in 1872, to succeed Judge McWhorter. Judge Holt was the father of Honor- able John H. Holt, who is a warm personal friend of the writer, now practicing law at Huntington, West Virginia, and is one of the most celebrated lawyers of the State. He and the writer ran together on the Democratic ticket in 1900, Mr. Holt being the nominee for governor, and the writer was chairman of the Demo- cratic State Executive Committee and nominee for auditor.
At the time of the above-named term of the court, ex-Governor Samuel Price, of Lewisburg, and Hon. John W. Harris and F. P. Snyder of Pocahontas, a brother of Judge Adam Snyder, were admitted to practice in this circuit, and the following order was entered :
"Samuel Price, John W. Harris and C. P. Snyder, gentlemen who are regularly licensed attorneys to practice law in the courts of this State, on their several motions, have leave to practice in this court, whereupon they took the oath prescribed by law."
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HISTORY OF SUMMERS COUNTY, WEST VIRGINIA.
James A. Hutchinson and twelve other gentlemen composed the grand jury, one of whom was honorable Gordan L. Gordan; another was Capt. A. A. Miller, A. P. Pence and James Cales. Only two days' proceedings being recorded in this book, covering about six pages, the orders being signed by Judge Holt.
Charles H. Graham was appointed and qualified as notary pub- lic, and executed bond before the county court on the 10th day of September, 1878, with John Graham as security. E. H. Peck was elected clerk of the county court on the 30th day of August, 1873. and on the 8th day of September of that year, executed bond before the judge of the circuit court, with Elbert Fowler, T. R. Wiseman, C. R. Hines and Joseph Ellis as his sureties. Mr. Peck was ap- pointed commissioner in chancery of the circuit court on the 12th day of April. 1875, and gave bond, with M. Smith, G. W. Chattin and Elbert Fowler as his security.
The circuit court then had authority to appoint administrators and qualify , personal representatives. M. Smith was appointed commissioner of school lands on the 10th day of September, 1878, and held that office until his death, about twenty-five years. John K. Withrow was appointed constable on the 15th day of September, 1879, with S. F. Taylor as his surety. M. Gwinn gave bond as clerk of the Board of Supervisors on the 28th day of March, 1871. Wil- liam Hughes was appointed justice of Pipestem Township on the 29th day of April, 1871.
Revenue stamps were required on all legal documents at the time of the formation of the county, and were continued for a number of years, in order to pay off or reduce the debt of the gen- eral government contracted in prosecution of the Rebellion.
John H. Pack was appointed by Judge Mc Whorter as the first superintendent of schools for the county, and gave bond on May 3. 1871, in the sum of $500.00, with C. E. Stevenson, Allen H. Meador and William T. Meador as his sureties. Allen H. Meador gave bond as assessor on the 3rd day of May, 1871, with David Lilly and Wm. H. Meador as his surety; penalty, $3,000. Jacob C. Allen was the first constable in Forest Hill District, and gave bond May 4, 1871, with Samuel Allen as his surety; penalty, $1.000. John Graham, the first commissioner of school lands for the county, qualified and gave bond on the 26th day of September, 1871 : $2,000 penalty, with David Graham and Joseph Grimmett as sureties. John F. Deeds gave bond as justice of the peace November 29, 1871. to hold until January 1, 1876; Levi M. Neely, W. T. Meador and A. J. Martin, sureties ; penalty, $3,000. M. Gwinn gave bond as
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HISTORY OF SUMMERS COUNTY, WEST VIRGINIA.
justice of the peace of Green Sulphur District; penalty, $3,000, with H. Gwinn as surety, on January 1, 1872. Mathias Cook gave bond as constable in Jumping Branch District, with W. T. Meador and G. W. Crook, as sureties; Charles N. Miller gave bond on the 27th day of December, 1871, as constable of Greenbrier District, with John Buckland as surety; S. W. Willey gave bond as con- stable of Greenbrier District on December -, 1871, in the pen- alty of $3,000; Samuel K. Boude gave bond in December, 1871, as justice of the Forest Hill District, with I. G. Carden and James A. Hutchinson, sureties; penalty, $2,000; Henry Milburn gave bond as justice of the peace of Greenbrier Township, with S. W. Willey, surety, on December - -, 1871; penalty, $4,000; Reuben Hop- kins gave bond as constable of Pipestem District, December 30, 1871; penalty, $2,000, with James Cook and Milburn Farley, sureties.
Evan Hinton, sheriff, was required to give an additional bond on the 10th day of December, 1872, in the penalty of $8,000, with Silas Hinton, John Hinton and Avis Hinton as sureties, which was approved by J. M. McWhorter, judge. James Farley gave bond as justice of the peace of Pipestem District July 1. 1871, with T. R. Thrasher and James Roles as sureties. Allen H. Meador executed bond as clerk of the circuit court on the 25th day of September, 1872, with Wm. T. Meador and John A. Lilly as sureties. M. Smith as surveyor gave bond on the 25th day of September, 1872, with A. L. Harvey as surety, in the penalty of $1,000. Alma Willey gave bond as constable, with S. W. Willey, surety, on the 22d day of October, 1871, as constable of Greenbrier Township.
Evan Hinton was elected first sheriff of the county on the 22d day of August, 1872. J. H. Harvey was appointed deputy assessor for Wellington Cox on the 8th day of April, 1873, and gave bond, with Wellington Cox and R. C. Lilly as his sureties, in the penalty of $1,500.00. Wellington Cox was the first elected assessor, and executed bond, with John Lilly and W. T. Meador as sureties ; John Lilly, constable of Jumping Branch District, gave bond, with Andrew J. Lilly, surety, on the 19th day of October, 1872; Robert Gore qualified as justice of the peace of Pipestem District, De- cember 20, 1872, with E. B. Meador as surety, in the penalty of $2,000; John H. Pack executed bond as elected school superintefi- dent. December, 1872, with Rufus Pack, surety, in the penalty of $500.00; M. Gwinn gave bond as clerk of the Board of Supervisors, with A. A. Miller as surety, on the second day of January, 1872; T. R. Maddy was elected constable of Greenbrier District, and gave
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HISTORY OF SUMMERS COUNTY, WEST VIRGINIA.
bond on the 31st day of December, 1876; C. L. Ellison was the second elected superintendent of free schools, and gave bond, with I. G. Carden, surety, taking office on the first day of January, 1874. Superintendent of schools, under the law in those days, held office for two years.
M. A. Manning qualified as a notary public at the September Term, 1873, with S. W. Willey as surety ; Joseph F. Wood executed bond as constable of Pipestem District on the 30th day of August, 1873; S. W. Willey was elected constable on the 30th day of Au- gust, 1873; C. L. Thompson qualified as a notary public on the 4th day of December, 1873, by giving bond, with W. G. Ryan, surety ; W. G. Ryan qualified as a notary public on the 24th day of Oc- tober, 1873, with C. L. Thompson, surety.
The first appropriation for the building of the bridge across Indian Creek, at its mouth, was made at the March Term, 1873, and placed in the hands of James Keatley and Joseph J. Christian, afterwards president of the county court.
At the March Term, 1873, an order was entered, directing the prosecuting attorney to condemn an acre and a half of the land of Evi Ballangee for a court house and other public buildings at the mouth of Greenbrier River, it having been decided to construct the court buildings on the Ballangee place just below the ford and ferry at the mouth of the river, but this order of the court was never carried into effect.
In 1874 the round-house in Hinton was under construction. It was 900 feet in circumference. A large portion of the foundation was made by excavation in the cliffs. The work was done by Alexander Atkinson, a native of Ireland, and who, with his brother, Frank Atkinson, of White Sulphur Springs, built the "Stretchers' Neck" Tunnel on the Chesapeake & Ohio Railroad.
CHAPTER X.
SOME CHRONOLOGICAL DATA.
Colonel Abraham Wood was the first to cross the Blue Ridge and to discover New River, and to call it Wood's River, in 1654. In 1666 Captain Henry Batte was the next to cross the Blue Ridge. 1716-Governor Spottswood crossed the Blue Ridge, and claimed the honor of being the first, and for which he was knighted. He crossed at the Swift Run Gap. 1726-Morgan Morgan, a Welshman, was the first man to build a house west of the Blue Ridge and south of the Potomac. 1727-Cornstalk was born in the New River Valley, within the limits of Greenbrier County, and it is possible that it was within the territory of Summers County. 1737-John Salling, captured on the James River, crossed New River en route for the Cherokee towns. He was probably the first white man to cross New River. 1734-Orange County was formed, which embraced all of the territory west of the Blue Ridge. 1735-Christian, Beverly, Patton, Preston and Borden settlements in the New River Valley of Virginia. 1736-John Salling, mentioned heretofore, who was six years in captivity, made a setlement on the James River below the Natural Bridge, which was the first settlement on the James River west of that mountain. 1738-Augusta County formed; organized in 1745. Staunton was laid out in this year, and Winchester had two houses therein. 1744 Rapin De Thoyer's map issued, giving wild guesses at the geography of the great West. 1748-Dr. Thomas Walker crossed New River in the direction of Kentucky. In the same year the Draper-Meadows settlement was made by Ingles and Draper. 1749-the Loyal Land Company organized by Walker, Patton and others, based on a grant of 800,000 acres of land lying north of the North Carolina line and west of the moun- tains. In April occurred the first Indian depredations west of the Alleghenies, upon Adam Harman, at the Draper-Meadows settle- ment. It was in this year that a lunatic from Winchester wan- dered across the mountains westward; found the waters flowing
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