USA > West Virginia > Tucker County > History of Tucker County, West Virginia, from the earliest explorations and settlements to the present time; > Part 37
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Some of us elimbed down the bank and tested the temperature of the foaming mud, and to our surprise we found it cold. The boiling is not on account of the escape of caloric, but is due to the escape of gasses from the lower regions. This is in reality a volcano. although a small one. What kind of an arrangement is connected with it under the ground, of course we can only guess ; but it may not be too wild a conjecture to predict a modern Vesuvius or ZEtna there,at some unexpected hour.
The surroundings were equally wierd and fantastic. The mirage was most wonderfully distinct. Lakes and rivers could be seen in every horizontal direction. Rivers seemed to flow among groves of the most luxuriant trees and lakes outspread in cahnness and beanty.
Mr. Maxwell next stopped at Los Angeles. From there he traveled north, passed through the Mojave Desert over Tahachapa Pass into the basin of Lake Tulare. He then stopped at Fresno City and made that vicinity his head- quarters for some months, but he was seldom there more than a day or two at a time.
It was now getting late in the spring. He went to the
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mountains in company with his brother, Cyrus H. Maxwell, to spend a few months. They took up their head-quarters on the upper waters of the San Joaquin River, about 5,000 feet above the sea. From there they made excursions into the surrounding canons, wildernesses and mountains. One of these excursions was to the Nihilvideo Abyss. Mr. Max- well wrote up the excursion for the Eastern press, and from his vivid description of the awful sublimity of the rocks, crags and shadows of this abysmal wonder, we extract the following :
We were by this time drawing near to Nihilvideo ; everything indicated that it was not far off. We had rounded a curve in the canon of Stephenson Creek, and the canon thence ran straight about a half a mile, when we could see that there was a precipice, because everything seemed to end there in abrupt nothing. We pressed forward over rocks, logs, brush or whatever was in our path. We were growing enthusiastic. Each was ambitious to be foremost. Our hands were cut on the rocks and bleeding, our faces were scratched by thorns and our clothes were rent like Rip Van Winkle's. It was now noon, on the 20th of May, and our eight iniles were at an end.
Nihilvideo ! What an impression the first sight made upon the minds of my companions, I knew not: I scarcely knew what passed through my own mind. Ten seconds were as momentous as ten years among ordinary things. Never before had such a train of swift visions passed before me. Never before had I beheld such a manifestation of awful sublimity, the infinite and the eternal, and never before had the frailty of man and the immensity of creation burst upon me as it did then. Like the Austrian geologist, who stood upon the crest of the Himalaya Mountains and watched the morning sunshine light up the glaciers of the " Everlasting Valley," I could only stand mute and let my thoughts and imaginations whirl whither as ever they would. No language could paint that panorama. I was looking down into an abyss thousands of feet deep whose ragged sides yawned asunder, hungry to swallow the world. I instinctively shrunk back. One moment everything was clear, rocks, crags, shadows, depths, all was visible. The next, the
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brain grew dizzy, everything was spinning around, nothing was seen but the whirl of fading objects, and the mist of deluded vision which enshrouded everything.
It surpassed anything of the kind I had ever seen. I was once in the midst of a thunder-storm on one of the highest peaks of the Appalachian Mountains. The lightning in vivid flashes filled the air, and in quivering tints played on the rocks and pinnacles. The dense clouds hid everything else. I thought that this was the grandest display of nature possible; but this Nihilvideo surpasses it-in all that raises the thoughts to a sense of the sublimity of inorganic things.
Gradually the overwhelmed feelings recovered somewhat, and I stepped forward to take a more practical view of what lay before me. About a mile distant, and fully 3,000 feet below me, I saw the San Joaquin River, like a narrow band of white running along its gorge between perpendicular banks thousands of feet high. Stephenson Creek had originally plunged over the bank directly into the river ; but the wear of ages had cut away the rock half a mile back from the river's edge, thus forming the deep abyss which it was our mission to explore. Along each side of this gorge is a wall of rock, rising nearly perpendicular, and very rough in its formation. This canon extends from the foot of the falls to the river, a distance of-say a mile, although it may be much farther. It varios in width from two hundred to one thousand feet, in differ- ent parts. Then, in substance, Nihilvideo is a pit 6,000 feet long, 500 feet wide, and from 1,000 to 3,000 feet deep. These calculations are not founded upon any measurement at all, except the depth, which I tried to estimate by the velocity of falling bodies, the ve- locity of sound, and such other crude data as I had. Mr. Stephen- son calculated that the pit, from the foot of the falls to the river, was 10,000 feet long ; but I guessed it to be abont 6,000.
After a hasty survey of it in general, we began to look for a way to get down into the abyss. Standing as we were on the brink, we could not see the waterfall after it passed over the verge of the precipice. But we could hear a confusion of sounds and echoes coming up out of the depths. The bottom was almost constantly hidden in fog and vapor, especially near the foot of the falls, and, at intervals, dense columns of mist rolled upward through the opening, like the smoke of a volcano.
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We had come, not only to look into the gulf. but go into it. We had expected to be able to elinh down the side, through cracks and rifts and thus reach the bottom. But now, with the undertaking full in view, we began to weaken on the eu- terprise. It was plainly an impossibility, unless we would throw ourselves headlong down. The perpendicular walls of rock offered no means of descent. There were a few jutting crags, but these would be perilous footings, and one misstep would land us into unknown worlds. We crept cautiously along the brink of the overhanging cliff, to the eastward, and one hundred yards from the point where the water goes over. We amused ourselves rolling rocks over the edge, and hearing them strike the bottom. The time required in falling from our hands till we heard them strike the first time was ten seconds. This, allowing one second for the sound to reach us, was 1,296 feet, or thereabout. But when they struck they were not at the bottom. They went bonnding from one cliff to another hundreds of feet further.
We found a boukler, weighing fully four thousand pounds, on the very brink of the cliff, tottering ou its frail support. By a united effort, we pushed it off. For many seconds all was silent. We held our breath and listened for it to strike. We could not see it. but we knew it was still falling. and seconds seemed minutes. At length, a jarring erash and thousands of repeating echoes an- nonneed that it struck terra firma. The echoes from the sides rolled back and forth, dying away in rythmic undulations, ahost as regular as the vibrating chords of a musical instrument.
" The owlets started from their dreams, The eagles answered with their sereams."
And all was still, save the never-tiring fall and dash of the cata- raet. Passing on some fifty yards further to the east we discovered a rough abutment of rock standing ont from the main wall in bas relief-like a chimney built up from the bottom of the cliff against its side. It extended more than one hundred feet from the verge of the precipice and we walked out upon it, thinking it possible that we might climb down its uneven side and thus reach the bot- tom. When I reached its outer edge, I found the chimney-like structure composed of huge rocks, one upon auother. All were overgrown with vines and shrubs. I found little difficulty in climb- ing down more than one hundred feet, and I believe that I coukf
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have gone further if my courage had not failed. But I looked be- low and saw the shelving rock on which I stood overhung the gulf beneath, and should the rock give way, I would be precipitated into the dark, yawning chasm, fully fifteeen hundred feet deep from where I stood. With a shudder I looked up. The top of the cliff was overhanging me. Then the thought of how I was to re- turn flashed upon me. The shelving rocks that had furnished me footing coming down, now seemed a solid wall whose beetling brow impended oyer me, with no crag or jutting stone to furnish me a footing in climbing back. I knew from my feelings that I was excited, and I sat down where I was and closed my eyes.
When the confusion passed away, I looked around me. The first cataract of the fall was in full view. So was the second, and part of the third, but further than that I could not trace the course of the water. Its channel was hidden by passing under the base of the column on which I sat. The creek was swollen by the melting snow, and poured a volume of water equal to a small river. The first fall was about 800 feet high. A body of water fell in nine sec- onds. Allowing one-third for resistance of the air, this indicated a distance of 864 feet. But there were other falls immediately be- low the first. The water after passing over the first cataract struck a rock, and from it bounded down a second precipice probably 500 feet high, struck another rock and passed over a third cliff, the height of which I could not tell, since it was hidden by the column on which I was sitting. * *
* * * 1 began my ascent of the cliff. It was a zigzag path. I climbed from shelf to shelf, never turning my eyes downward, for I knew too well what was below. I found it almost impossible to get back, and I promised myself if I got out of that scrape I would be slow in getting into another of the same kind. When I at last stood upon the summit again, I looked down into Nihilvideo, fully resigned to let others reap the honors of its exploration. I was satisfied. It looks as though one might get into it by following up or down the San Joaquin ; but I never expect to do it. I have seen Nihilvideo for the last time, so far as I know or care.
After his visit to Nihilvideo, Mr. Maxwell visited other places of interest among the wonders of the mountains.
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APPENDIX.
When he left the mountains he went to the plains and worked a month in the harvest field. By this time it was late in July, and the weather was very hot. He and his brother, and a young Kentuckian, procured a span of horses and a spring wagon and set out for a thousand miles of travel over the coast counties of California. They first visited Lake Tulare, the largest lake west of the Mississippi, the Great Salt Lake excepted. This lake is rapidly drying up while the water of the Great Salt Lake is rising. After spending a day studying the peculiarities of this wonderful lake, they turned westward across the desert,-one of the most desolate portions of America-got lost, and wandered for twenty-four hours without finding water. The hills were bare and gloomy. The night was lit by the weird light of the moon and the landscape looked like a desolate and neg- lected resting-place for the dead, where only sand-storms and hot winds moaned mournfully their requiems. But Maxwell and his two companions pushed on. At 2 o'clock in the morning they reached Avernal Pass, where they got water. The next day they reached the mouth of Cholame River, and camped, with little to eat and no feed for their horses. The next day they reached San Luis Obispo and and staid there a few days, visited the beach, and, for the first time looked upon the plaeid waters of the Pacific. It is a wild, rugged coast about Avalda, and Maxwell and his brother-the Kentuckian not going-climbed the cliffs, where probably no white man ever went before, and had a splendid view of the ocean and the sea birds.
From San Luis Obispo they went sonth to Santa Bar- bara, whence they went off to the sea in a boat; got wrecked on the Santa Barbara Islands, and came near star- 34
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HISTORY OF TUCKER COUNTY.
ving .* After their return from the islands to Santa Barbara, they went to Lom Poc, a community where "prohibition prohibits." From Lom Poc they went to Monterey, where they spent a few days; thence north to the mouth of the Pajaro River, up that stream to San Juan, and over the Coast Mountains to the San Joaquin Valley. They then started to cross one hundred miles of desert to Fresno City. Their horses gave out and they were left in charge of the Kentuckian. Maxwell and his brother now proceeded afoot and reached civilization after they had traveled two nights and a day. During this time they had drunk a quart of water, which they carried with them in a canteen, and eaten a few raw potatoes and two biscuits. Their feet were so chafed and burnt by the hot sands that it was weeks before they recovered.
The remainder of Mr. Maxwell's stay in California was chiefly devoted to a revision of the "Conquest." He spent the winter there, and in the spring visited Sacramento, San I'rancisco, some of the old mining country, and Humboldt Lake, in Nevada. He then turned eastward, across the Rocky Mountains, home, which he reached late in April, 1884, after an absence of more than thirteen months.
Since his return to West Virginia he has been engaged in editing the Tucker County Pioneer, in the publication of his " History of Tucker County," and other literary work.
He has written much, both in prose and verse, and his writings are always chaste and pure and of a high literary order. In this sketch we have no space for extracts from any of his poems, and but little for any of his writings for the press describing the many exciting scenes witnessed
* For a fuller account of this voyage, see sketch of C. II. Maxwell, in "Brief Biogra- phies," beginning on page 139 of this book.
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during his extensive travel. We deem extensive extracts in this case unnecessary, for the subject of this sketch, as & writer, is known beyond the bounds of the circulation of a single county history, and will soon be known more widely than now, though we doubt if more favorably known.
Mr. Maxwell is a model of physical manhood and an in- defatigable worker. He drinks nothing but water and is master of his temper. It is impossible to excite him so as to make him lose his presence of mind. He never forgets a friend.
Politically, Mr. Maxwell is a Democrat. He believes that the South had right on their side in the Civil War. But he does not tolerate a belief in the institution of slavery. He hates it with a lasting and inappeasable hatred. He believes that the white man is superior to every other race of the earth.
He believes that a man merits honor only for what he accomplishes-not for what he attempts to accomplish. He might try to build a world; but he should have no praise for trying unless he succeeds.
Mr. Maxwell is an advocate of the doctrine of Carlyle, concerning social order and organization. He is with Emerson and Herbert Spencer. In science he is a fol- lower of Proctor, Tyndall, Huxley and Darwin. He believes that the Scriptures are inspired, and that the human soul is immortal. His belief in the immortality of the soul is as firm and unshaken as the rocks. He believes nothing, will hear nothing, and hate everything, that conflicts with this one prime corner-stone of all his beliefs and creeds-that which brings the pleasing, dreadful thought of eternity to man.
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POLITICAL STATISTICS.
After the formation of Tucker County, in 1856, the officers which up to this time had been elected by Ran- dolph, including Tucker, were elected by Tucker alone. The first election was held May 22, 1856, with the following results :
VOTE AT THE FIRST ELECTION.
* District No. 1 .- County officers : For clerk of the cir- cuit court, Arnold Bonnifield received 12 votes; William Ewin, 34 votes. For clerk of the county court, Arnold Bonnifield, 13 votes; William Ewin, 33 votes.+ For sheriff, Jesse Parsons received 18 votes, William Corrick 7, and S. W. Bowman 22. For commonwealth's attorney, Samuel P. Wheeler, 31 votes, Rufus Maxwell 8 and John N. Hughes 7. For commissioner of the revenue, Daniel C. Adams, 41 votes, Thomas Bright 5 and Job Parsons, Jr., 1. For sur- veyor of lands, Jacob W. See, 34 votes, David Wheeler 8, and Solomon Bonner, 4. District Officers : Adam H. Bow- man, James W. Miller, John Jones and Jacob Dumire were elected justices of the peace. James C. A. Goff, Adam Dumire and William Lipscomb were candidates for con- stable. Goff was elected by two majority over Lipscomb and four over Dumire. Goff received 17 votes. Daniel K. Dumire was elected by 7 majority over A. Loughry as over- seer of the poor.
#District No. 2 .- The election was held at Enoch Mi-
* Almost Identical with the present (1884) Licking District.
t John Goff voted for Bonnifield for county clerk and Ewin for circuit clerk.
# Almost identical in territory with the present (1884) districts of St. George and Clo- ver, except part of Clover District which was taken from Barbour County and annexed to Tucker, by act of the Legislature of W. Va., passed February 7, 1871.
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APPENDIX.
near's Stone House .* For clerk of the circuit court Bonni- field and Ewin each received 44 votes; but, for clerk of the county court Bonnifield received 45 and Ewin 42.+ For sheriff, Jesse Parsons received 49 votes, William Corrick 24 and Samuel W. Bowman 14. For commonwealth's attor- ney, Rufus Maxwell received 41 votes, John N. Hughes 26 and Samuel P. Wheeler 21. For commissioner of revenue, Daniel C. Adams received 43 votes, Job Parsons, Jr., 33 and Thomas Bright 12. For surveyor of lands, Solomon Bonner received 44 votes, Jacob W. See 25 and David Wheeler 20. District Officers: There were four justices of the peace to be elected. There were nine candidates, and they received votes as follows: John Kaler 52, Isræl Phillips 43, F. D. Talbott 43, John Yoakam 38, Samuel Rudolph 36, James W. Parsons 30, W. R. Parsons 30, David Bonnifield 32, James Long 11. Kalar, Phillips, Talbott and Yoakam were elected. For constable, Alfred Phillips received 43 votes and N. M. Wilmoth 41. For overseer of the poor, Jonathan M. Par- sons received 49 votes and Washington A. Long 36.
District No. 3 .- The election was held at the house of Andrew Fansler.# County Officers : For clerk of the circuit court, Arnold Bonnifield received 55 votes and William Ewin 2. For clerk of the county court it was the same. For sheriff, Jesse Parsons received 25 votes, William Cor- rick 34, and S. W. Bowman none. For commonwealth's attorney, John N. Hughes received 28 votes, Rufus Maxwell 27 and Samuel P. Wheeler 2. For commissioner of the revenue, Job Parsons, Jr., received 32 votes, Thomas Bright
* This house stands near the present Court-house, and is the old Minear Homestead. t Samuel MInear voted for Bonnifield for county clerk and for Ewin for circuit clerk. F. D. Talbott voted for Ewin for circuit clerk and did not vote for any one for county clerk.
# Near the confluence of Black Fork and Dry Fork.
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23 and Daniel C. Adams 1. For surveyor of lands, Solomon Bonner received 48 votes, David Wheeler 7 and Jacob W. See 1. District Officers : Four Justices of the peace were elected. There were six candidates, who received votes as follows: Jacob Kalar, 44; Jacob H. Long 51, Ebenezer Flanagan 47, Enos Carr 31, John R. Goff 26, W. R. Parsons 17. Kalar, Long, Flanagan and Carr were elected. For constable, Garrett J. Long received 29 votes, Robert Flana- gan 19 and John Bright 8. Abraham Parsons was elected overseer of the poor by 14 majority over John Wolford.
RECAPITULATION.
By a recapitulation it is seen that Arnold Bonnifield was elected clerk of the circuit court by 31 majority and of the county court by 36 majority. Jesse Parsons was elected sheriff by 27 majority. Rufus Maxwell was elected com- monwealth's attorney by 15 majority. Daniel C. Adams was elected commissioner of revenue (assessor) by 19 ma- jority. Solomon Bonner was elected surveyor of lands by 36 majority.
SPECIAL ELECTION, AUGUST 23, 1856.
A special election was held on August 23, 1856, to elect a sheriff to hold office until the first day of January, 1857, it having been decided that the sheriff elected in May could not hold office until January 1 .* Jesse Parsons (the sheriff elected in May) was chosen at this election without material opposition. At the Presidential election held in November of this year, the Buchanan electors received, in the county, 137 votes each, and the Filmore electors received 16 votes each. Buchanan's majority was 121 votes. There was no other ticket voted in the county, and no state, county or district officers were chosen at this eleclion.
* Tucker County was organized in July, 1856.
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APPENDIX.
ELECTION OF 1857.
An election was held in Tucker County on May 28, 1857, for an attorney general of Virginia, for a commissioner of the board of public works of Virginia, for a member of con- gress, for a state senator and for a member of the House of Delegates of the Legislature of Virginia. In Tucker Coun- ty at this election, John Randolph Tucker received 114 votes for attorney general. No other candidate was voted for. Z. Kidwell received 117 votes for commissioner of the board of public works. There was no other candidate. For congress, Albert G. Jenkins received 94 votes, and John S. Carlile 21. For senator, John Brannon received 116 votes. There was no opposition. For house of delegates, Samuel Crane received 82 votes, Jacob Conrad 18, William Hamilton 17, and Henry C. Moore none. At that time, and ever since, in both states, Tucker and Randolph together composed a delegate distriet, and the race between Crane and Conrad in the district was very close , but Crane got the certificate of election, and Conrad contested his seat, and after a protracted struggle in the house of delegates, succeeded in ousting him. But Conrad did not venture to be a candidate at the next election .*
A special election was held, December 14, 1857, in Dis- trict No. 2, for overseer of the poor, in place of Jonathan M. Parsons, at which election David Wheeler received 8 votes and Samuel Kalar 7.
SPECIAL ELECTION, 1858.
A special election was held on the first day of January, 1858, in District No. 1, to fill a vacancy in the office of over- seer of the poor, occasioned by the retirement of D. K. Du-
* Crane, Conrad, Hamilton and Moore were all citizens of Randolph County, but Moore lived within what is now Webster County.
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mire. At this election Aaron J. Loughry was elected, hav- ing received 8 votes. Bazil Moats received 1 vote.
GENERAL ELECTION, 185S.
A general election was held on May 27, 1858, for the pur- pose of electing a lieutenant-governor for the State of Vir- ginia, a clerk for the circuit court, a clerk for the county court, a sheriff, commissioner of the revenue and surveyor of lands. A constable was to be elected for each district.
In the county William L. Jackson,* a candidate for lieu- tenant-governor, received 126 votes.+ He had no opposi- tion. For clerk of the circuit court, Arnold Bonnifield re- ceived 54 votes and William Ewin 71 .; For clerk of the county court, Bonnifield received 73 votes and Ewin 70. For sheriff, Jesse Parsons received 103 votes and William Corrick 16. Daniel C. Adams was elected without opposition to the office of commissioner of the revenue. For surveyor of lands, David Wheelers received 86 votes and Nelson Par- sons 46. Solomon Boner, who was not a candidate, re- ceived 8 votes.
In District No. 1, James C. A. Goff was elected constable without opposition. In District No. 2, S. D. Kalar was elected constable without opposition. In District No. 3, John Bright was elected constable.
A special election was held in District No. 1, November 11, 1858,/ to fill a vacancy in the office of justice of the peace, occasioned by the resignation of John Jones. At this elec-
* William L. Jackson has since become known by the name of " Mudwall Jackson."
+ There was no poll opened for him in Dry Fork Precinct.
# In Dry Fork Precinct no poll was opened for clerk of the circuit court.
§ In Black Fork District David Wheeler lost votes from a false report that he was not a candidate.
& At the residence of A. H. Bowman.
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tion George M. Nester was elected without opposition, re- ceiving ten votes.
SPECIAL ELECTION, 1859, IN DISTRICT NO. 1.
A special election was held March 12, 1859, in District No. 1," to fill the vacancy in the office of justice of the peace, occasioned by the resignation of John Jones, at which election Aaron J. Loughry received 8 votes and Geo. M. Nester 6.+
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