History of Summers County from the earliest settlement to the present time, Part 23

Author: Miller, James H. (James Henry), b. 1856; Clark, Maude Vest
Publication date: 1908
Publisher: [Hinton? W. Va.]
Number of Pages: 1056

USA > West Virginia > Summers County > History of Summers County from the earliest settlement to the present time > Part 23

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HISTORY OF SUMMERS COUNTY, WEST VIRGINIA.

SOME PRICES DURING THE WAR.

Yoke of oxen, $1,000.00; each horse or mule $1,000.00; candles, $8.75 per pound; beef, $1.00 a pound; pepper, $3.00 per lb .; axes, $12.00 each ; salt, per bushel, $35.00; coffee, Rio, $4.00 per 1b .; flour, $45.00 per bbl .; pig iron, $350.00 per ton; lard, $2.75 per lb .; sole leather, $6.00 per lb .; nails, per keg, $100.00; onions, $8.00 per bushel ; sweet potatoes, $4.00; fresh pork, $2.25 per lb .; cotton cloth, per yard, $1.30; Castile, $8.00 per lb .; shoes, $15.00 per pair; soap, $1.00 per lb .; sugar, $3.00 per lb .; tea, $8.00 per lb .; tobacco, $3.00; duck, $1.50 per yard; whiskey, $10.00 per gal .; wheat, per bushel, $7.50; wool, per lb., $8.00; quinine, $56.00 an ounce; sorghum, $3.50 per gal. These prices were undertaken to be enforced by a statute passed by the Confederate States in 1864. The hardships of the soldiers are beyond belief. The Federals fared better than the Confederates because their supplies were better. The Federal Government had the outside world to draw from. The Confed- eracy had to depend upon home products. The daily rations of the Confederate soldier when marching or fighting was a pint of corn- meal and one-fourth of a pound of bacon. If camping, in addition to this, he would receive a quarter of a pound of sugar, one pint of molasses, three-fourths of a pound of black pease, one ounce of salt, one-eighth of a pound of soap, and on Christmas Day a charger of pine top whiskey, but some days they would start on ten days' march with rations which would be used up by the end of the sixth day. The general would buy whole fields of corn and let the sol- diers help themselves. On many occasions the daily rations would be one ear of corn for one man and three for his horse during the day. When the Confederate soldier reached his home after the war, he was angry as well as hungry, but he soon banished this feeling, and discovered there were victories to be won in peace as glorious as any he had participated in as a soldier.

SOME RESULTS OF WAR.

The Federal troops killed in battle were 67,059; died of wounds, 43,012 ; died of disease, 199,720. Other casualties, such as accidents, etc., and in the Confederate prisons, 4,015. Total, 349,994; Federals deserted, 199,105; number of Federal troops captured during the war, 412,608; Confederate troops captured during the war, 476,169. Number of Federal troops paroled on field, 16,431; Confederate, 248,599 ; number of Federal troops who died in prison, 30,136; Con-

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federate troops dying in prison, 30,153, a difference of only three men in at total of 60,309. Aggregate number of soldiers in Federal Army and Navy, 2,656,553; in the Confederate States (estimated), 700,000. There were mustered out of the Federal service in 1865 186,000 officers and men. There were 1,882 battles fought, being an average of more than one for each day of the war. One-half were fought in Virginia. Of this number in 112 battles there were more than 500 men killed in each battle. The killed in battle would average more than 1,400 men each month of the war, from the beginning to the end. The estimated cost of the Civil War to the Union and to the South both together, regardless of value of slaves, is estimated at $11,000,000,000.00. The Revolutionary War cost $135,193,703.00, and the lives of 30,000 American soldiers. The War of 1812 cost $107,150,000.00 and 2,000 American lives. The Mexican War cost $74,000,000.00 and 2,000 American lives. Indian wars and other minor wars cost $1,000,000 and 49,000 American lives. The estimates above given in regard to number of soldiers, captures, etc., in the Civil War are largely made from estimates. There were 292,627 slaves in Virginia and 12,866 free negroes. That is, according to the census of 1790. In 1860 there were 490,856 slaves in Virginia, freed by President Lincoln's proclamation, and 58,042 free negroes.

SESSION ACTS, 1866, WEST VIRGINIA LEGISLATURE.

Be it Enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia :

1. That no interest upon any debt contracted or liability in- curred prior to the first day of April, eighteen hundred and sixty- five, shall hereafter be recoverable in any action or suit in any of the following cases :

I. Where, during the late rebellion, the real owner or holder of such debt or liability, while he was such owner or holder, was engaged in armed hostility against the United States, or this State, for the time he was so engaged.

II. Where, during said rebellion, such real owner or holder of such debt or liability, while he was such owner or holder, in any way gave voluntary aid to said rebellion, during the time he was so aiding the said rebellion.

III. Where, during the said rebellion, such real owner or holder of such debt or liability, while he was such owner or holder, was a voluntary resident within the military lines of the so-called Con-

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HISTORY OF SUMMERS COUNTY, WEST VIRGINIA.

federate States of America, beyond the boundaries of this State; during the time of such residence.

IV. Where, during the said rebellion, such real owner or holder of such debt or liability, while he was such owner or holder, was in sympathy with the said rebellion, and voluntarily left his home and went within the military lines of the so-called Confederate States of America ; for the time he remained within said lines.

THE LAST FIGHT OF THE REBELLION.

One of the last, if not the very last, fights of the Rebellion was fought on Greenbrier River, seven miles east of Hinton, at what is known as the Big Rock. Thurmond's Rangers were coming down Greenbrier River in a large canoe made from a big poplar tree; others coming down the road, when a squad of Union men fired on them from the bluff above the big road. They shot bullet holes through the big canoe and buttons off of the coats of the Rebels, but no blood was shed; it was a bloodless fight. Both parties es- caped without anybody being killed or wounded. Jackson Grim- mett and Rufus Grimmett, John Bucklen and Clark Grimmett and others of this county were on the Union side; Joseph Hinton, George Surber and others were on the Rebel side. This battle was in the latter part of April, 1865, after Lee's surrender at Appomat- tox on the 9th of April, 1865.

The "Pet Lamb" was a famous spy in the United States service during the Civil War. He visited the Flat Top Mountain region. and was at Griff Miller's house along with a few Federal soliders. Eight of them hid behind a fence, and Miller went out and ran the whole gang off by having his negroes behind his yard fence yelling like fury, as though the whole Confederate Army was on hand.

NATHANIEL HARRISON.

This man was living in Monroe County before the war. He had married into the William Erskine family, which owned the Salt Sulphur Springs. He was a brilliant man, and had been prose- cuting attorney. Immediately after the close of the war he was made judge of Greenbrier, Monroe and Mercer Counties. He ap- pointed Benj. White sheriff of Mercer, and George Evans, clerk. White had been a violent secessionist at the beginning of the war, but at the close changed his principles, if he ever had any. George Evans was a Northern man and a Union man, and not a degraded

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HISTORY OF SUMMERS COUNTY, WEST VIRGINIA.

citizen. Judge Harrison had been a Confederate as late as 1862, and had applied for a staff position under General A. A. Chapman. He suddenly changed his views for office sake. He was for the side that was in the saddle. There was more than one, Judge Harrison and Benj. White, affected with an easy character and an easy political virtue. They start out with the party in power, but desert when adversity comes; they abandon their friends in ad- versity-floppers for office they become-as detestable as those who take the oath to support a cause, and desert to the enemy. Their characters are detested in all history. There were a good many of this kind at the close of the war when fortune had deserted the Southern cause.

Judge Harrison went to Princeton to hold his first court in the fall of 1865. He was held in such detestation that not a soul spoke to him or asked him to alight from his horse; therefore he turned round about, without alighting, rode back to Concord Church, and held, in the old Methodist church at that place, the first term of the court for that county held after the war. The ex-Confederates who had been elected that fall in each of the counties were by Harrison arbi- trarily turned out and refused permission to qualify, and no man who would not swear he had not aided, abetted or sympathized with the Southern cause was permitted to hold any office. This extended to school trustees, as well as to any young lady who de- sired to teach free school.

This judge was a very corrupt and venal man, and, of course, the political lease of his official life was numbered. No free people. regardless of political differences, will long permit themselves to be ruled by corrupt or venal officials. Articles of impeachment were preferred against this corrupt judge in 1866 by a Republican Legis- lature, of which party he was then an adherent, and thereby he was forced to resign.

He was arbitrary and corrupt, as well as dissipated. A great many ex-Confederate soldiers were sued in his court for acts done during the war. The defendants could not defend before him be- cause they could not take the oath. The juries were selected of the same character as the court. Many could not read or write, and had never been at a court house before. The judgments neces- sarily went in large amounts against the defendants, and the only result was utter bankruptcy. A number of these old judgments still stand uncollected, as things were changed by reason of an amendment to the Constitution introduced by Hon. W. H. H. Flick. a liberal man and lawyer from Martinsburg, Berkeley County. The

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judgments stand as monuments to the ignorance and fallacy of people gone mad with greed, political folly and power thrust on them, without the intelligence, education or intellect to use that power with justice, sense or principle. (See Second West Virginia Reports, page 496, Lewis Ballard v. Christopher Lively, as an ex- ample. This judgment was for $2,779.70.)

This vicious situation was to be voted on for perpetuation by the people by reason of the joint resolution passed by the two houses of the Legislature, submitting the amendment to the Constitution in 1866, which would have had the effect of decitizenizing all ex- Confederates or their sympathizers. No one was permitted to vote execpt those who would take the infamous "test oath," which pro- vided that-

"No person who, since the first day of June, 1861, has given or shall give voluntary aid or assistance to the rebel- lion against the United States, shall be a citizen of this State, or be allowed to vote at any election held therein, unless he has volunteered in the military or naval service of the United States, and has been or shall be honorably discharged therefrom."

Thus the Legislature of West Virginia intentionally and plainly subverted the Constitution of the State, and openly violated the Constitution and the oaths of those who perpetrated the act. It was an open perversion of the Constitution in this. The Constitu- tion then provided, "That white male citizens of the State shall be entitled to vote at all elections held within the election districts in which they respectively reside." At the election at which this amendment was voted on, which was held on the 24th day of May, 1866, and was ratified by a vote of 22,224 votes to 15,302 against it, only seventy-five votes were permitted to be cast in Mercer County, of which Jumping Branch and Pipestem were then parts and par- ticipated, sixty-one for ratification and fourteen for rejection, al- though the voting population of that county under the Constitution as it was then in force and effect was 1,000. Is not this a com- mentary? Out of a thousand legal voters in the county of Mercer, only seventy-five were of sufficient loyalty under the Nat Harrison regime to be allowed the elective franchise. Col. Thomas Little was a member of the Legislature from Mercer, which passed the resolution submitting this amendment, and a Republican; and to his eternal honor be it said he is recorded as voting against this iniquity, which meant to disfranchise and decitizenize his neigh-

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bors; also David Lilly, Hon. Sylvester Upton, Russell G. French, the latter being classed as an ex-Confederate soldier. These men recorded their votes against this iniquity.

In Greenbrier County there were about 117 votes permitted to be cast, out of 1,300 votes in the county ; and in Monroe County, about 300 votes were allowed to be cast and counted, and these three counties then included practically all of the territory of the unformed county of Summers.

- Nathaniel Harrison was a native of Virginia, connected by descent with the family of that ancient and honorable title, which has produced Presidents of the United States, generals of its ar- mies and statesmen of great sagacity, loyalty, honor and renown. He was educated at the University of Virginia ; a lawyer of accom- plishment ; a most polished and ornate orator, distinguished and even handsome in appearance, but Satan had set his mark upon him. After failing to secure a place on the staff of General Chap- man during the war, he went to Richmond, squandered his patri- mony in tobacco speculation and dissipation, and when the result of the Civil War could be plainly seen and the life of the Confed- eracy was drawing to a close and trembling in defeat, he was an adventure- of fortune; returning to Monroe County, a dangerous and embittered man, he secured the circuit judgeship by protesta- tions of loyalty to the Federal cause, and administered the duties of that high office in the manner herein described, a description of which we are unable in language to do justice.

It was he who went to Philadelphia, selected and induced an educated and finished lawyer, Major Cyrus Newlin, who was then living in that town, to come to his circuit, locate at Union and enter the practice of his profession. Newlin was a thoroughly educated, smart, bright lawyer, without · principle or honor-a typical carpet-bagger. His family were of the wealthiest in the country, his mother having died while traveling on the continent of Europe. He located at Union, and at once entered into a co- partnership with the judge (Harrison) in Mercer, Monroe and Greenbrier Counties. He instituted and prosecuted suits for dam- ages against the old soldiers of the Confederacy and others who had taken no part therein, for offenses alleged to have been com- mitted during hostilities. Harrison, as judge, tried the cases, determining arbitrarily in favor of Newlin and his clients and against those in opposition. It was currently reported that the income of Harrison at one time was $20,000.00 a year from this source.

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Newlin was also dissipated and dissolute, and his ill-gotten fees passed through his hands as sands through a sieve. He took an active part in politics, and stopped at nothing to further and secure his purposes and ends and to further the interests of his party and to retain it in power, and his influence was very great over the ignorant and uneducated, many of whom had been thrust into power during the days of the reconstruction. He continued to practice after the overthrow and disappearance of his corrupt ally, until soon after the formation of Summers County, while at Hinton for the purpose of attending court, he was stricken with paralysis one evening, carried to his room in the Wickham House, and there died the next day at two o'clock, and was buried in the old thicket on the hillside near where the old peddler had been murdered, and which was converted into a graveyard, the first in Hinton, but which is now open to the commons and generally desecrated, although there are many people buried at that place. There is nothing to mark the grave of this brilliant, though mis- guided man, and there is not a human being at this day can point out his grave, and no mortal eye to tell in what spot of the earth his remains rest. Forgotten and neglected, he has passed from the affairs of men.

Augustus Gwinn was sued as a defendant in the Circuit Court of Monroe County before Judge Harrison for one of those trespass and harrassing actions, by James T. Dempsey, of Possum Hollow. He went to Union for trial, desiring a continuance, being one of the few who still possessed a twenty-dollar gold piece, carried throughout the four years of the war. He saw Judge Harrison coming out of the court room, walked over, met the judge on the street, and began a conversation, in the meantime throwing the gold coin up and catching it in his hand in the presence of the judge. He finally told Harrison that he wanted a continuance of that suit. The judge asked some questions, and finally said, "What is that you have in your hand?" Gwinn gave it to him. After talking a moment, he looked at it, turned it over a few times in his palm, finally stuck it in his pocket, winked at Gwinn, Gwinn did likewise at him, and turned and walked away, and Gwinn never afterwards heard of that suit in that or any other court, and Brother Dempsey, who still lives, is none the wiser to this day.

After Harrison had been deposed, J. M. McWhorter was ap- pointed to fill the unexpired term of about two years, and was therefore the judge at the time Summers County was formed, and held that office at the time of its formation, and therefore

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appointed the first official in the organization of the new county. He was defeated for re-election by Judge Holt. Judge McWhorter was regarded as an honorable man and a just judge, though strongly partisan in his politics.

CHAPTER XIII.

HINTON.

Hinton was founded in 1874, the first town lot being sold on the 18th day of May, 1874. It is ninety-six miles from Charleston, fifty miles from Bluefield, sixty from Lewisburg; it is now the chief . city in population between Staunton, Va., on the east, and Charles- ton, W. Va., on the west. It is the most accessible point from all directions in the Bluestone, New River and Greenbrier Valleys, and for all the mountainous and plateau regions of the counties of Greenbrier, Mercer, Fayette, Raleigh and Wyoming. It is the natural location for the center of population for all this section of the State; there are now six country postal routes into the city. It is the end of the railway mail division between Cincinnati and Washington, it being the half-way point between those cities. There are now twenty railway postal clerks, who make their head- quarters in Hinton, a postmaster, assistant postmaster and five clerks; the income from the post office at this time is over $10,000 per annumn ; there is building a new public school building at a cost of $30,000, two large wholesale establishments, the New River Grocery Company, and the Hinton Hardware Company, whose busi- ness aggregates over $400,000 per year. At this time there is a two-story brick passenger depot, valued at $50,000, brick freight depot, valued at $10,000, and railway round-house and machine shops, valued at $100,000. The C. & O. Railway Company has more than $1,000,000 invested in tracks, yards and property in this city.

There are three well-established banking institutions, the Na- tional Bank of Summers, capitalized at $100,000.00; First National Bank of Hinton, capitalized at $50,000.00, and the Citizens, capital- ized at $50,000.00. Three modern hospitals, Cooper's, Bigony's and Holly's; a $50,000 bridge now spanning the New River, con- necting Hinton with Brooklyn on the Raleigh side; three large lumber and planing mills, ninety mercantile establishments, and numerous other business institutions. There are twelve public roads running into Hinton from the surrounding country, with four

HENRY S. GEROW, The First Quaker to Settle in Hinton.

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public ferries and a bridge now building by The Foss Bridge Com- pany across Greenbrier River. More than 6,000 cars pass over the railway yards, east and west, each month, handling more than 7.000,000 pounds of freight. The railway company employs about 1,000 men in Hinton, with a payroll of $55,000.00 per month. There is now on deposit in the Hinton banks nearly $1.000,000. The new McCreery Hotel is now nearing completion, at a cost of $105,000.00. There are fourteen lawyers located at Hinton in active practice, and twelve surgeons and physicians; there are now three weekly newspapers, "The Independent Herald," Democratic, "The Hinton Leader," Republican, "Summers Republican," and two dailies, "The Hinton News," Independent, and "The Daily Herald," Democratic. "The News" is published by The Franklin Publishing Company, and "The Herald" by The Herald Publishing Company, with the Hon. William H. Sawyers as general manager and editor. The people of Hinton are enterprising, progressive and industrious, educated. intellectual and patriotic, and the general morals good.

There has been an active effort made within the past two years to secure for this city a modern government building, to be con- structed by the United States in Hinton. Through the efforts of the Hon. Joseph H. Gaines, a member of Congress, and Senator N. B. Scott, an appropriation of $10,000.00 was secured in 1906 for the purchase of a lot, on which this building is to be constructed. A very aggressive and somewhat acrimonious fight grew out of the location to be secured for this building, a large majority of the people of the county favoring the location on the public square, and that site was selected. The fight grew largely out of selfish interest of persons desiring the location near their private prop- erties. The contest became so aggressive that a number of our citizens desired to defeat the establishment of a government build- ing in the city, rather than not secure their personal preferences. The principal of these gentlemen were W. H. Garnett, R. F. Dun- lap, R. H. Graham. R. D. Rose, R. R. Flannagan, C. H. Hetzel. Dr. O. O. Cooper and L. E. Dyke and others, who opposed the location selected, claiming, as their reason, that no part of the court house square should be used for any purpose, except for a public park, desiring a location on Third Avenue, or below. Those citi- zens principally making a fight for a government building and its location in a central place, the court house square, were Sira W. Willy, Upsher Higginbothem, E. C. Eagle, T. N. Reed. A. R. Heflin, Harvey Ewart, T. G. Mann, Jas. H. Miller. A. D. Dailey, John M. Carden, T. H. Lilly. J. D. Humphries, William Plumley

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and others. Delegations representing each interest visited Wash- ington, and the advocated location of the court house square loca- tion finally succeeded, the government having adopted that lo- cation at a cost of $5,000. The county court offered the government a lot, the southeastern corner of the court house square, for the erection of this great public and beneficial enterprise, at $5,000. Free delivery of the mails is inaugurated in the cities of Avis and Hinton in 1907. Much of the credit for the establishment of the government building at this place is due to Hon. Sira W. Willy, Upsher Higginbotham, E. C. Eagle and H. Ewart.

The first train which was made up of flat cars that ever ran into Hinton was in 1872, carrying material for construction. This train was in charge of George Thomasson, conductor, and Seth Mack, engineer. The first person to die in Hinton was a child of Captain N. M. Lowry; the first person born was John Orndorff, son of the railroad conductor, John Orndorff. The second child born in Hin- ton was Dr. J. A. Gooch; the first telegraph operator was a Mr. Baird, who had his office and residence in a box car. In 1872, Joseph and Silas Hinton started a moderate mercantile venture near the Upper Hinton ferry, which marks the commencement of commercial industry in Hinton. The first divine edifice erected in Hinton was the little Catholic chapel, erected by Father Walsh, in 1874, where the present imposing Catholic Church now stands. Rev. V. M. Wheeler was the first Methodist pastor sent to Hinton. The first person to operate a saloon in Hinton was W. C. Ridge- way, whose establishment was at the railroad crossing in Upper Hinton. The Y. M. C. A. building of Hinton is located near the passenger depot, and was constructed by the Chesapeake & Ohio Railroad Company, the citizens providing the ground for its loca- tion at their own expense.

THE CITIES OF HINTON AND AVIS.

The history of these two municipalities is so intertwined as to make it proper to write them in conjunction. While there are two separate city governments, there is but one town and no natural division line. At the time of the formation of this county there were but two houses within the corporate limits of the two corpo- rations. One was the old "Jack" Hinton residence, a hewed log building situate near the railroad crossing at the foot of the hill in Avis on the railroad right of way ; the other was in the center of the yard near the round-house; the former was occupied as the

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History of Summers County from the earliest settlement to the present time, Part 23

Author: Miller, James H. (James Henry), b. 1856; Clark, Maude Vest Publication date: 1908 Publisher: [Hinton? W. Va.] Number of Pages: 1056

Author: Miller, James H. (James Henry), b. 1856; Clark, Maude Vest
Publication date: 1908
Publisher: [Hinton? W. Va.]
Number of Pages: 1056