USA > West Virginia > Summers County > History of Summers County from the earliest settlement to the present time > Part 26
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HISTORY OF SUMMERS COUNTY, WEST VIRGINIA.
sum of $500. The deed to this property is written in the beautiful handwriting of General Alfred Beckley, the famous scrivener, sur- veyor and graduate of West Point, whose father was the first clerk of the House of Representatives of the United States Congress, and whose son, John Beckley, was for many years the accomplished clerk of the County Court of Raleigh County, and is still an hon- ored citizen residing at Beckley.
We find here and there throughout the county a few of the original land grants or patents from the State of Virginia to various of the early settlers. Among these we have run across the original granted by William Smith, Governor, to Edwin W. Woodson and Jacob Campbell, bearing date of the 14th day of March, 1845, for 259 acres on Bradshaw's Run.
A second grant by said William Smith, Governor, to John Woodrum and Bird Woodrum for 231 acres on Spruce Run in Forest Hill District, granted on the 20th day of November, 1846.
John Tyler, Governor of Virginia, granted unto William Gra- ham, on the 10th day of January, 1810, and in the 34th year of the Commonwealth, 200 acres. The original survey for this grant was on the 12th day of July, 1803. This land is situated on Greenbrier River at Lowell, and is now owned by Andrew Gwinn. Joseph Pierson secured a grant in the same neighborhood on the 10th day of July, 1797, which was conveyed by deed afterward to said Wil- liam Graham, and is described as being on Keller's Creek, a branch of Greenbrier River, adjoining Conrad Keller, Samuel Gwinn, John DeBoy and David Jarred.
A patent was issued to Henry Banks, adjoining and below Captain James Graham, of 2,070 acres ; also another for 1,000 acres, by virtue of Treasury Warrants Nos. 16,854 and 16,865, dated on the 2d of June, 1773, said Banks being the assignee of Malcolm Hart. Date of patent, April 24, 1786. These lands were on Green- brier River.
Thomas M. Gregory, Lieutenant-Governor of Virginia, issued patent to Francis Tyree on the 13th of August, 1842, for eighty- nine acres on Hump Mountain, adjoining the Michael Kaylor, John Gwinn and William DeQuasie land. This land is the David Bowles land, a part of which is now owned by W. W. Richmond. The land had been taken up long before the war by Land Office Treasury Warrant No. 14,032.
James Johnson, Governor of Virginia, issued his patent to Rob- ert Hurt for forty-five acres on Tom's Run, in Pipestem District. on the 11th day of December, 1850, now belonging to Heury N. -.
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HISTORY OF SUMMERS COUNTY, WEST VIRGINIA.
James Johnson, Governor, issued his patent also to Andrew Farley, Jr., October 21, 1851, for 110 acres, now owned by O. J. Farley, in Pipestem District.
John B. Floyd, Governor, issued his patent to Robert Hurt, on the 29th of June, 1850, in Pipestem.
John B. Floyd, Governor of Virginia, also issued to Albert G. Pendleton and Allen Brown a patent for 320 acres in Pipestem Dis- trict, on the 20th of May, 1850.
John Letcher, who was Governor of Virginia when the Civil War began, issued his patent to James Ellis on June 3, 1859, for 150 acres on Three Mile Branch of Tom's Run, in Pipestem Dis- trict of Mercer County, by virtue of Land Office Treasury Warrant No. 22,577.
Said Joseph Johnson, Governor, also issued his patent to Robert Pine for 200 acres on the head of Tom's Run, on the 10th of June,
Harry A. Wise, Governor of Virginia, issued his patent to Park- erson Pennington on the 13th of June, 1844, for sixty-five acres on Three Mile Branch of Tom's Run.
On the 12th of May, 1858, said Governor of Virginia, Henry A. Wise, issued his patent to David Martin for seventy-four acres on Tom's Run, Warrant No. 22,757.
Governor John B. Floyd also, on the 24th of June, 1850, issued his patent to Hugh Means for six acres between Dry Fork and Tom's Run. Hugh Means was the father of Charles Means, who lived many years on Lick Creek, and was a character in his day.
On the 8th day of June, 1855, Governor Henry A. Wise issued his patent to Gideon Farley, by virtue of Warrant No. 21,724, for 100 acres, on Clay Branch.
On the 23d day of March, 1856, Alexander H. H. Stuart, who once owned the White Sulphur Springs, conveyed to William Brown 100 acres in St. Clair Abbott tract. This deed was recorded in Mercer County.
Henry A. Wise, Governor, also, on the 18th day of June, 1856, granted to John Cawley, at Symmon's Fork of Pipestem, 200 acres, 270 acres, and sixty-five acres, surveyed for Brown and Pennington.
James Pleasants, Governor of Virginia, issued his patent to Asa Ellison, by virtue of Land Office Warrant No. 6,802, on the 23d of September, 1822, for forty-six acres of land on Tom's Run, then Giles County.
On the 24th day of May, 1850, John B. Floyd, Governor of Vir- ginia, issued a patent to Larkin T. Ellison for 150 acres in Mercer
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County on Tom's Run, the waters of New River, which Ellison conveyed to William Hughes and D. R. B. Greenelee, October 10, 1853.
And Henry A. Wise, Governor, issued a patent on the 12th day of May, 1858, for seventy-four acres to David Martin in Pipestem.
And the said Henry A. Wise, as Governor of the Commonwealth of Virginia, on the 29th of June, 1845, issued his patent to William Phillips, for sixty-five acres on the waters of Two Mile Branch.
Each of the fifteen last-named patents or grants were involved in the suit in equity of Sarah A. A. Gerow, plaintiff, against John R. Newkirk and others. They were each junior grants to the grant to a large tract of 2,050 acres, which she claimed. Her title came from the grant known as the Samuel McCraw patent. Mrs. Gerow was a descendant of Abram Owen, who made his last will in 1811, November 13th, by which he devised this tract to John and Ebenezer Owen, his two sons. Abram Owen was a New Yorker. John Owen died intestate and without issue, and the property came to Ebenezer and a sister, Mary Ann, who married Steven Newkirk. Ebenezer Owen died, leaving as his only children, Sarah A. A. and John, who conveyed his interest to his said sister, who married H. S. Gerow. Steven Newkirk died, leaving two children, John R. and William H., as his only heirs, and inherited one-fourth of said lands, and Mrs. Gerow the other three-fourths.
Steven Newkirk moved on the land and took possession. He and his children sold off a large amount and made deeds to more than one-fourth of their interest. Mrs. Gerow and her ancestors lived in the East, and depended on them to look after it for their joint benefit. A large part of it was entered on by junior patentees, who took actual possession.
Finally, John R. Newkirk had the land sold for the non-payment of taxes, and bought it in for his own benefit and for his brother, Wm. H., who took deed thereto, which was in March, 1875.
In 1883, Mrs. Gerow and her husband came to this country to look after their inheritance, and discovered that it had apparently disappeared. A large part had been sold by the Newkirks, and another large part had been entered by junior patents, and the remainder of her title sold for taxes, and purchased by the New- kirks. She employed an attorney, James M. Malcolm, then prac- ticing law in Hinton, to institute and prosecute a suit for its re- covery. Every person who had title to any part of the land was made a party defendant, including W. D. Wyrick, Isaiah Rogers, John Cawley, Mary Blunt, Josephus Anderson, Joseph Heslip, John
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HISTORY OF SUMMERS COUNTY, WEST VIRGINIA.
Williams, Henry Noble, O. J. Farley, H. W. Straley, L. W. Farley, Ira Hall, John A. Douglas, W. P. Rogers, Robert Elliott, Ellen Farley, wife of James Farley, James R. Farley, Chas. A. Farley, Richard Campbell, Joseph E. Farley, Rufus Clark, Wm. D. Wyrick, David Martin, Henry Lilly, A. J. Bragg and others, who employed an attorney to defend them. Long litigation followed; additional attorneys were employed by Mrs. Gerow, including E. W. Knight, of Charleston, and Col. J. W. Davis, of Greenbrier County.
Finally a decree was entered, by which Mrs. Gerow recovered her three-fourths, less those lands which had been entered by junior patents. The tax deed was set aside and held void, and the lands sold to the extent of one-fourth of the Newkirk's interest. Commis- sioners were appointed to make partition, composed of Wm. B. Wiggins, John P. Duncan, and Lewis A. Shanklin, who filed their report, and out of the whole 2,500 acre patent she recovered 800, largely in small and detached tracts. Only one or two of the de- fendants lost, John A. Williams being the only one except one of the Halls.
Mrs. Gerow still resides in Hinton, and has not sold any of the land. She is a lady of accomplishments and of fine business attain- ments, and has accumulated a handsome fortune, in some of the best real estate in the city. Her husband, Henry S. Gerow, a very worthy gentleman, died several years ago. When the yards were about to be removed from Hinton, Mrs. Gerow contributed $100.00 towards purchasing the upper Hinton land, which shows her patri- otism towards the town.
James Wood, Governor of Virginia, granted to Mathias Kis- singer, on the 8th day of August, 1799, 350 acres of land on Green- brier River, just below Greenbrier Springs (Barger's), where An- drew L. Campbell now lives. Kissinger's Run, which runs through the lower end of this place, was named after this grantee. A part of the second house ever built on this land is still standing, and is a hewed poplar log house, with a stone chimney 7 x 10 feet, and wood can be burned in it seven feet long. The house is known to be over 100 years old. But three corner trees are standing on this grant ; one large oak on the bank of the river was cut by A. L. Campbell in January, 1905, and the growths, which he counted care- fully, showed the tree to be over 320 years old. The tree was entirely dead, but perfectly sound, and had been for several years, and was cut by Mr. Campbell to save the stump for a corner.
John Page, Esquire, Governor of the Commonwealth of Vir- ginia, issued his patent to David Graham and William Graham for
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HISTORY OF SUMMERS COUNTY, WEST VIRGINIA.
284 acres, by survey bearing date the 19th day of November, 1798, and the patent issued on the 19th of January, 1800, and is for a tract of land lying and being in the county of Greenbrier on the south side of the Greenbrier River on Blue Lick Run, joining the lands of William Graham, John Lockridge and John Canterberry. This is the Blue Lick that now runs by Greenbrier Springs, and the land therein described is now owned by Mrs. N. M. Bacon. This, with a number of other old patents, including the "Chattin" or "Mathews" place at Talcott, are in her possession in a fine state of preservation. She also has the Polly Graham patent, at which Bacon's Mill is situate, all preserved by Mr. Robert C. Bacon, who seems to have been scrupulously careful in the collection and pres- ervation of his land title papers, an example followed by his son, Nathaniel, and which might, with profit, be followed by a great many others at this day and time.
On the 22d day of April, 1788, Edmund Rudolph, Governor, also issued his grant by patent to Benjamin Pollard, assignee of Henry Banks, for 2,500 acres, by survey bearing date of the 8th day of March, 1786, and in the twelfth year of the Commonwealth of Virginia, by virtue of Land Office Treasury Warrants No. 21,563 and No. 16,055, of the 8th day of May, 1783. This is described as being in Greenbrier County on Bradshaw's Run, a branch of Indian Creek, which is a branch of New River, and adjoining a survey made for William Bradshaw. This survey is in Forest Hill District and is cut up and now occupied by innumerable little farms, by thrifty, independent and well-to-do citizens.
The noted ejectinent case of Turner vs. Hutchinson was over lands included in these Pollard patents, the Turners claiming under the 1,390-acre patent, and the Hutchinsons under the 2,500-acre patent. One trial was had and a hung jury resulted, and later a compromise was effected, each party paying his own costs. There is one long line between the surveys of four miles. A fine map of these surveys was made by Hon. William Haynes, who was ap- pointed to execute an order of survey. It is a very handsome piece of draftsmanship. It is now in the hands of Mr. A. M. Hutchinson, of Forest Hill.
There is also in the hands of the M. E. Church trustees at Forest Hill a deed dated the 19th day of October, 1835, from John H. Vaw- ter and Clara S., his wife, and Allen T. Caperton and Harriet, his wife, to George W. Hutchinson, Alexander Byrneside and Peter Minner, Henry Maggart, John Thomas, Richard MeNeer, William Arnett, David Pancoast and Jacob Cook, trustees for the uses and
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HISTORY OF SUMMERS COUNTY, WEST VIRGINIA.
trust, conveying to them one acre of ground between Spruce Run, a branch of Greenbrier River, and Bradshaw's Run, a branch of Indian Creek, on which was to be erected a house of worship to be held according to the uses of the members, ministers and conference of the Methodist Church of the United States of America, and it provided for the selection of a new trustee when one shall die, by vote of the members, after being nominated by the preacher in charge, each voter to be twenty-one years of age, and nine trustees to be maintained forever, the preacher to cast the deciding vote in all cases of a tie of the votes. This is an ancient and interesting document. The Pollard survey had been sold and one-half con- veyed to said Caperton and Vawter, who were then owners, under a decree of the court of Petersburg, Va., where it seems the Pollard heirs resided, and had a decree entered directing a sale of the prop- erty. This is an ancient deed for church property, and there is a Methodist Church still maintained on this lot-probably the first frame church built in the territory of the county. There is also an ancient graveyard on this grant, and a monument to the gallant Confederate soldier, Mike Foster, will soon be erected nearby by the old comrades of this brave man, who have formed the Mike Foster Monument Association, of which Allen Ellison is treasurer ; I. G. Carden, Richard McNeer, Theodore Webb, W. L. Foster and others are interested.
This deed was acknowledged before two justices of the peace, Robert Coalter and Conrad Peters, without dates.
There is another old land grant of a large boundary of land in that district granted to Watkins, and which is also divided up into small boundaries owned by independent citizen farmers. Allen F. Brown lives on this patented land.
The Bradshaw claim included the lands where Thomas G. Lowe, O. C. Fleshman, Albert Bolton and others now live. Brad- shaw built a cabin near where Thomas G. Lowe now lives, and was killed by the Indians.
The Boardman patent covered all the region of the Little Wolf Creek country, and contained 9,800 acres, all of which, like all other patents of any size, has been divided up and is owned by great numbers of farmers. The Boardman patent, the Watkins patent and the Pollard patent have a common corner, as shown on the Haynes map, at a white oak and a chestnut, and the Pollard and Boardman patents run from that point to "Wikel's" peach orchard, four miles together as a common line to two poplars.
The oldest land paper I have been able to see is dated February
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HISTORY OF SUMMERS COUNTY, WEST VIRGINIA.
1, 1781, issued by Thomas Jefferson, who was then Governor of Virginia, by virtue of a survey of the 6th day of May, 1772, and was for sixty-five acres in Botetourt County.
The land on the opposite side of Greenbrier River at Talcott, the Chatting and Bacon farms, was owned by Jeptha Massy, the patent bearing date August 15, 1794, and was issued by Henry Lee, then Governor of Virginia. Jeptha Massy and his wife moved from the eastern shore of Maryland to Keezletown, Virginia, and from there to Greenbrier County, and from thence to lands above men- tioned, and raised the following named children: Reuben, Moses, Jeptha, Henry, John and Jonathan, and Hanna, Lana and Navagal, girls.
Moses Massy was one of the scouts who, on foot with General Lewis, made the trip from Point Pleasant through the wilderness to notify the people of the Indian marauders, and that they should go into the forts at Lewisburg. Later, this land passed to David Mathews, the father-in-law of Chas. K. Rollyson. The scouts ar- rived at Lewisburg only a few hours before the Indians, and were so exhausted from traveling night and day that, arriving at the fort, they dropped on the first beds they came to.
Jeptha Massy built the house now resided in by Mrs. George W. Chattin. He and his wife resided there, and at their death were buried in the cemetery at Barger's Springs.
Jonathan Massy came from Philadelphia to Greenbrier County, on Muddy Creek, to the Jarretts, to whom he was related. He married Hanna Massy, a daughter of Jeptha, and lived and died in the present Chattin house, leaving three boys, David, George and Alfred, and the following named girls: Margaret, Sarah, Susan, Nancy, Laney, Eliza and Miriam J. Miriam J. Massy was the grandmother of Nat. Bacon, who now lives near Talcott. She married Jacob Fluke, who came to that county from Botetourt County, Virginia. He was born in Hagerstown, Maryland. They raised four children, William Campbell Fluke, who was killed in the fight at Fisher's Hill, Virginia, and was buried at Newmarket. Virginia; George Abraham Fluke, who died from typhoid pneu- monia, contracted in the army; John Shanon Fluke, who died of consumption, and both were buried at Barger's Springs. Jacob Fluke and his wife are also buried at Barger's Springs. Miss Nancy Mathews Fluke was the only daughter of Jacob Fluke, and she married Robert Carter Bacon, who came to that region on the 23d of November, 1853. They were married June 8, 1858. They raised two children, Nathaniel Bacon and Mary Jane Bacon. The latter
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HISTORY OF SUMMERS COUNTY, WEST VIRGINIA.
died at maturity in New Mexico, where she had gone for her health. Robert C. Bacon is buried at Barger's Springs. He was a man of strong intellect and personality, enterprising and farseeing. He built the present Bacon's Mill. At the time of the agitation of the question of secession of the Southern States he was a strong seces- sionist and a violent partisan of the South, believing in the rights of secession under the Constitution.
JOHN WEST LANDS.
James Welch patented many thousand acres of land in the lower end of Mercer and in Pipestem District. This land was acquired by Joseph Mandeville by purchase. Mandeville devised by will this tract to John West. John West was a bastard son of Joseph Mandeville. He lived all of his life in Alexandria, Vir- ginia, and died there. He, once in a while, came out and looked over his lands in Pipestem, which have been known for many years as the West lands. He died, devising the land to Vandalia West, and H. O. Cloughton, trustee, held the title for a number of years. He was a lawyer in Washington City. Finally he died, and the land was conveyed to John E. Reubsam, a doctor in Wash- ington, who was unable to keep the taxes paid, and about 1902 the land was sold and purchased by Kelsoe & Dickey and Robert Jenkins, Jr., of Pittsburg. It amounted to about 4,500 acres when last sold, consisting of many small tracts, the original patent of 28,000 acres having been reduced by sale of small tracts until about 4,500 acres was the remainder, scattered over a large part of the district. Welch also had a patent in Raleigh and Wyoming of 90.000 acres. He devised 10,000 acres to Ellen Mandeville, a natu- ral daughter, who afterwards married a Smith, and 10,000 acres to Joseph Mandeville, his nephew, and the balance to the said natural son, John West. Joseph Mandeville was said to have been a direct descendant of Lord Chief Justice Mandeville, of England. His nephew, Joseph, lived in Wyoming County on Clear Fork. His descendants were unable to maintain the taxes, a considerable part of the tract was sold in small parcels, and his descendants finally removed to Forest Hill District, where Cleo Mandeville died in 1906, nearly one hundred years old. She received a pen- sion from the United States Government as a widow of a soldier of 1812, her husband having been a soldier in that war. Her son, J. W. Mandeville, still lives at Mandeville Post Office. John West
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lived to be an old man and was a wealthy man, especially in real estate and wild lands. West sold his Raleigh lands in 1868, and the land is now known as the Maben and Hotchkiss tract, now owned by the Western Pocahontas Coal & Lumber Company. West died in 1872.
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CHAPTER XV.
ELECTIONS.
In other chapters of this narrative I have given the result of elections in this county from its organization to the 1st of January, 1873. I shall, therefore, not in this chapter repeat those results, but shall proceed with the next succeeding election, which was held on the 13th day of August, 1875, and coming down to the present time, with such details as are material and of public no- toriety as they may occur to us.
Conventions and elections in the county have generally been fair and without fraud. The election officers have always been universally and scrupulously honest and fair, with the exceptions detailed. In the first elections in the county the pernicious and corrupting influence of the dollar was unknown. Its use and in- fluence in this county can easily be remembered by citizens now living who have taken an interest in public affairs. When the writer made his first race for election of county superintendent of free schools, in the year 1882, his actual outlay in cash was $2.50, paid for horse hire, and no money was used on behalf of either can- didate. One of the writer's friends, ex-Sheriff Wm. S. Lilly, told him after the election of having given a constituent a peck of seed potatoes to pay for his time to induce him to go to the polls.
The use of money first began in the payment of incidental nec- essary expenses, and they were originally economical, and such a thing as campaign funds was unknown, but at this day an election is not expected to be held without a campaign fund, and out of the application of this fund by the parties controlling it have grown some strenuous charges and counter allegations by some of our politicians of the present generation.
The use of money and campaign funds in elections is an East- ern innovation more dangerous to the welfare and perpetuity of the republic and purity of the government and the liberties of the great masses of people than any other dangers conceived that may threaten or are likely to threaten the existence of the
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OLD BROAD RUN Baptist Church.
_NEWY, POLIC LIBRARY
ASTOR, LENOX AND TILDEN FOUNDATIONS.
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present Republican Government of this country-more so than the Ku Klux Klans, Force Bills or military supervision. Without it bossism would not be possible. Leaders are necessary for all polit- ical parties, but the difference between the leaders and the legitimate application and the boss is as wide as the pirate of the sea is from the legitimate merchantman.
The campaign funds in this county for the Democratic party are practically all provided by the local candidates, and for the Republican party by the State Committee. This county has never been corrupted nor felt the corrupting influence of money. as is charged, and, no doubt, truthfully, in other counties and sections ; but in the last few campaigns the candidates and committees have learned that the boodler is in the land, and it is a surprising fact that there are many men now in this county who swarm after can- didates for money as a buzzard after a dead carcass. The thirst for the "boodle money" with a certain class of our citizens has grown and developed in individuals as a disease grows into the animal system. But it is not the majority, and it is not our intelli- gent or influential citizens or better class of the citizens who are out for "boodle" or sale, and the better or influential citizens of both parties look down on the "boodler" as dangerous to his neigh- bor and his property, as well as dangerous to his country and his government, and is despised as a "varmint" that has to be borne. If the "boodler" and the "grafter" could feel the utter contempt in which they are held by their neighbors and the public ; if they had the respect of a degenerate, they would hide themselves in shame.
It is also a remarkable fact that there are a number of voters who will dog a candidate, demand money and pay for his vote and influence. They do not appreciate the dishonor and degradation of his acts, and the candidate can not spurn them, because he needs their aid. They do not appreciate the moral degeneracy involved in the sale of their suffrage. Men will demand money for their vote and influence who have property, who are above want, and who are in ordinary business affairs honest and responsible for their debts, and pay their liabilities.
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