USA > West Virginia > Tucker County > History of Tucker County, West Virginia, from the earliest explorations and settlements to the present time; > Part 8
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At intervals, deep down under the laurel, streams of water wandered through eternal shadows. But, the hunter might pass and repass that way and never know that he had crossed a stream, unless some accidental opening through the net-work on which he trode should reveal to him the flowing water. In the summer, the ground be- neath the laurel never got dry or warm. The country is nearly as high as the Alleghany Mountains. June comes before the ice and packed snow, that the winter has stored away in the deep crevices of the rocks, and all over the dank ground, begins to yield, in any considerable degree, to the summer sunshine. The hidden brooks and rivulets are nearly as cold as ice all summer. The ground is damp and chill. The huge, cold rocks are constantly beaded with drops of dew. During the summer, the more open parts of the woods, where there is no laurel, become green with
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plants, and weeds; but under the laurel there is little difference between summer and winter, except that in winter the snow hides the desolation and in summer it does not.
The winters in Canada are longer and colder than along the river. Snow lies on the ground from October till May. It is often two or three and has been six feet deep. Such snows bury the laurel thickets so that one cannot well dis- cern where they are. At such times, the wild beasts lie hidden under snow, laurel and all, until hunger compels them to prey upon one another or come out to kill deer and small animals. The snow soon packs hard enough for them to walk upon it. The deer get very poor during a hard winter. There is a large kind of rabbits that live in Canada, and no place else in the country round about. They are said to be so swift that dogs can't catch them. They can also climb a leaning tree. In early times there were wolves and elks in Canada. The country was then all covered with trees and impenetrable thickets. Not all, for, in a few pla- ces, there were open patches, called glades or meadows. These were small, and why they were not covered with tim- ber is unaccounted for, unless it be because the soil will not nourish trees, or because the glades were recently lakes, from which the water has been drained. Be this as it may, the glades are treeless; but the grass that grows on them during the brief summer is immense in quantity. It is well suited for hay ; and, within recent years, it has been har- vested for that purpose. No well directed efforts have so far been made to cultivate the glades, or, for that matter, to cultivate any part of Canada. But it is the opinion of those best qualified to judge, that corn, wheat and oats would not flourish there. In the upper Canaan Valley, farming has been tried with success, but everywhere grass does the best.
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The forests of Canada, except the glades, were unbroken when first the white man went there. The trees stood thick, and seemed as grim and unchangeable as the very rocks among which they stood. They seemed no older or no younger than they had always been. Trees six inches in di- ameter looked as old as the giants five and six feet. All the difference of appearance was in the size.
All Canada and Canaan are essentially the same expanse of country. The whole region is a basin, the rim of which is the Alleghany and Backbone mountains. The Alleghany is on the east, and the Backbone on the west. The two mountains thus surround the whole of Canada and Canaan, except the narrow gap through which Black Fork flows and makes its escape from the valley. The length of this basin, from its northern boundary to the upper end of Canaan, is about twenty miles, and its breadth five or six miles.
It is evident that this whole region was once a mountain lake, with the Alleghany for its eastern and the Backbone for its western and northern shore. There was then no river flowing out of it; for the gap which Black Fork has cut through the mountain was then not there. It must have been a beautiful lake, extending twenty miles one way and five the other. High up, among the very summits of the Alleghanies, the cool, bracing breezes of the mountains blew softly along the tranquil waters ; and the waves, pure as crys- tal, washed the sandy shores for ages and ages, and no hu- man being was there to behold it. In the winter, when the winds were wild and cold, fearful storms must have swept over the lake; and then, the waves rolled upon the beach, freezing into huge drifts, and extending from the shore inward, until the whole lake was frozen over.
This was thousands of ages ago. The rains of summer
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and the snows of winter, in the course of time, filled the lake to overflowing. The water began to flow out over the lowest place in the mountain. That was at the north- western corner, where Black Fork breaks through Backbone Mountain. Year by year, for centuries and millenials, the channel wore deeper and deeper, and at last the water of the lake was all drained off, and Canaan and Canada were left dry land. Then trees began to grow; and, in due time, for- ests covered the whole country, as they did when first the white man found his way into that region.
This was John Losh's hunting ground. The story of his adventures is known beyond Tucker County. Before he was fully a man, he commenced making expeditions to Canada, and seldom returned spoilless. He had two dogs almost as famous as himself. He trained them himself, and they were his companions in many a bear hunt. If they once came up with a bear, it had little show of getting away. They fought it in such a manner that they wore it down. One dog would bay it from the front while the other knabbed it by the ham. It would turn to lay holl of the rear dog, when the other would seize it by the other ham. Again it would wheel and give chase to the dog that bit it last. This would give the first dog a chance to come up and take another nip from behind. Thus, up and down through the woods, the fight went on. The dogs would not join in pitched battle with the bear; nor would they allow it to escape, or to climb a tree. If it attempted to climb, they would pull it down. In this manner, they worried it and kept it at bay till their master could come up and end the encounter by shooting bruin.
Such a scene was common ; but it was varied when, as on an occasion, the bear caught one of the dogs. The other
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dog flew upon the beast and fought it, and both dogs fought, but it could not be forced to slacken its hold upon the dog, which must soon have been killed had not Losh come up at that moment. He saw the situation and would have shot the bear, but was afraid of hitting his dogs. But he would not see them killed ; so, he drew his butcher knife, and run- ning up, leaped upon the bear and stabbed it to death.
That winter was very cold. The snow fell nearly con- stantly for several weeks, till it was six feet deep in Canada. All the rocks, logs and laurel were so entirely covered that the whole country seemed one vast, unbroken plain of snow, with the bare, black trees rising sheer out of it. After the snow fell it packed hard enough to bear the weight of a man.
John Losh was soon in Canada. He took as a compan- ion his brother-in-law, James Evans, and they roamed over the plains and hills, and passed above the vast laurel thick- ets, and had a smooth floor to walk on all the while. The top of the snow was frozen into a crust, resembling ice ; and, on this they must walk with care, where the ground was not level, lest they should fall. But on level ground, they could skate if they liked.
As they came into camp the third evening, Losh was walking in front of Evans, and they talked as they pro- ceeded till at length Evans quit talking. Losh looked back, and his companion was no where to be seen. He had sud- denly disappeared; and Losh knew not but that he had been taken off after the manner of Elijah the Tishbite. However, he turned back to look for him, and shortly found a hole through the snow and heard Evans yelling to be helped out. He had broken through and had fallen into the cave under a laurel thicket, where the snow could not
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reach the ground by reason of the matted laurel branches. Losh helped him out, and they proceeded to their camp. They caught more deer than they knew what to do with, The animals, in attempting to run, would stick fast in the snow, and the men could walk up and kill them. After they had killed as many as they wanted, they let the rest go, having first marked them by cutting their ears. Thus em- ployed, they spent several days, and were on the point of starting home when they became bewildered, and lost their way. It is a singular thing that a lost person is so entirely devoid of reason. Familiar objects are as strange to him as those are which he never saw or heard of. North of the equator, a lost person goes round a circle, always bearing to the left, while south of the equator it is said to be just the reverse in direction-whirlwinds north of the equator move to the left, and south of it they move to the right. 'There seems to be some common law of nature that controls both a lost man and a whirlwind.
When Losh and Evans first became bewildered, they were carrying a deer which they had killed; but after they had described two or three circles they threw the deer down, and ran on without it. When night came on, their situation became worse. It was cold, and the woods were very dark. They might have built a fire had they not been lost; but a lost man builds no fires. They ran as fast as they could all night, and went round and round a cirele without knowing it. When morning came they were still running, although nearly starved, and scarcely able to keep on their feet. If left alone, they never could have gotten out. But they had already overstaid their time from home, and their families had become uneasy. A company of men from Horse Shoe Run went in search of them.
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Their tracks were found, and then the deer, and finally the men themselves. They were in the last stage of despair. They had eaten nothing for several days, and were badly frozen. They were walking round and round a tree, and there they would probably have died, had not the relief party come up. They were taken home, and they hunted no more in Canada that winter.
But no sooner had the summer sun taken the snow off, than John Losh was again in Canada. This time he was looking more for bear than deer, for bear were his chief ob- jects of hunting. As he passed through the woods, he saw three cub-bears playing. They were quite small, and had not sense enough to run. He kept a sharp lookout for the old bear, and cornered the cubs between two logs and caught them. It would have been an easy matter to have killed them; but he was like Wetzel, who dragged an Indian a hundred miles to show the people in the settlement what a live, wild Indian was like. Losh preferred to carry the bear-pups home alive. So he pulled off his drawers, tied up the legs and put his three black prisoners into them. They fought some, and sometimes they bit him: but he slung them over his shoulder and toted them home. He kept them about the house until they grew so large that they bit the children and were continually doing acts of violence. Then he made a stout cage and kept them in it. This cage is still to be seen in William Losh, Jr.'s barn. The bears were kept there awhile, and finally they broke out and ran off; but, one was shot.
This experience did not satisfy the romantic hunter. He again went to Canada and built bear-pens. Soon he cap- tured a bear, half-grown. He resolved to take it home, ten miles through the woods and over mountains. It was too
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heavy and fought too much for him to carry it. He tied it by a short rope to the end of a long pole, and led and pushed and coaxed and drove it till he got it home. When it would get mad and try to bite him, he would hold it off with the pole. Thus, he got it home and put it in his cage ; but, it was so wild and incorrigible that it could not be tamed.
Losh next made a new departure. He made him a com- plete snit of clothes from dressed bear skins, the fur outside. Thus dressed, he went to Baltimore. From his own ac- count he must have attracted as much attention as the President would have done.
As an adventurer, he was fearless and rash. A consid- eration of danger never entered into his plans. That he escaped unscathed from so many and so perilous under- takings, is marvelous. Indeed, sometimes his salvation seemed miraculous, as when he was washed over a water- fall in the Kanawha, and was held down and whirled over and over by the water that fell upon him, and only got out by seizing the rocks in the bottom and clinging to them as he dragged himself from under the fall, whence he came to the surface just in time to save his life.
This time, he had not voluntarily placed himself in the almost fatal danger; but, it would only have been in ac- cordance with his nature to have done so. For, once when Cheat River was overflowing its banks, and nearly all the bottom lands from hill to hill were under water, he was in the Horse Shoe and wanted to go home. To do so he must cross the river. With a good canoe, the crossing of the river would have been exceedingly dangerous, and proba- bly not another man in the county, except in a case of life and death, would have undertaken it. But Losh was de-
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termined to cross. The only canoe at hand was Wm. R. Parsons' and the owner would not let Losh have it, because, by so doing, it would seem that he was only hurrying the rash man to his doom. But the want of a canoe did not. serve to change Losh's determination to cross the river.
He proceeded to the river, at Neville's Ford, and pulled three or four rails and slabs from a drift, and tying them together, made of them a raft on which he proposed to cross the river. It would scarcely bear his weight in still water. But, nothing daunted, he pushed his fragile craft from the shore and was instantly borne off down the foam- ing torrent of the river. A piece of board was all he had for an oar; and with it he rowed the best he could for the opposite side of the stream. The river was some three or four hundred feet wide exclusive of the overflowed lands on either side. The raft was so nearly sunken that those who saw Losh could see him only from his waist upward, and could not discern that he was riding on anything but water. But, all the time, he was rowing and made some progress toward the desired bank. When he reached the Turn Hole, where, at the month of Coburn Run, the river turns to flow northward and then westward, the current beat strong to the eastern shore; and, taking advantage of this, he was able to come to shore. There is recorded only one instance wherein the river has ever been crossed when so high. That was during the war, and was done in a canoe by William Harper, brother to Dr. E. Harper, to escape from a band of guerrillas that were after him.
Daring as this feat of John Losh's was, he equaled it on other occasions. He was a capital swimmer and relied on his skill in many dangerous adventures. When he was coming up from St. George, he found that Horse Shoe Run
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was over its banks. This stream is more dangerous than the river. It is swifter, and the numerous drifts and un- dermined banks make it a formidable flood when deep. Ho took off his outer clothing, hid it in a waste house and plunged into the stream that ran with a velocity of more than fifteen miles an hour. He crossed it safely, althoughi the chances were ten to one against him. The run when so high, has been swum twice since. Once by James Hebb, in 1876, to win a bet of fifty cents. He swam it twice for good measure, and was satisfied with the money thus won.
After the stormy adventures and romantic wanderings of his earlier life had spent their novelty, John Losh settled down to married life in Marion County, and was living there when the Civil War came on. He was a Union man, which was different from the majority of his relations. As a scout and a guerrilla leader, he would probably have be- come noted, had not his deathi ended the whole matter. He died of the small-pox at Parkersburg early in the war. His widow and children still live at Urbana, Ohio.
Among the old residents who helped to shape the desti- nies of the county, may be mentioned Job Parsons, Sr., Nathan, Enoch and Adam Minear, Thomas and D. C. Adams, and the Goffs and Fanslers of Black Fork. All these, and others, have lent their influence on the past and present of our county. Job Parsons was a soldier of the War of 1812, through which he served with honor. He held the office of Magistrate for many years, and was always a citizen of the county. He died in 1883 at the age of ninety-four. We shall find him prominently forward again during the Civil War, in which he sympathized with the South, and was never slow in expressing his sympathy.
The Minears, during the early part of the present century,
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were principally noted as leaders in internal improvements. None were more forward than they in settling up the coun- try and finding means to develop intrinsic wealth, and of bringing outside wealth to our county. A mere outline of the sub-divisions of John Minear's family will show to what extent they pushed their farming interests ; and wherever they went they were always respected citizens.
David Minear, son of John Minear, died at St. George in 1834, in the seventy-ninth year of his age. He left nine children, who, some later and some earlier, began to emi- grate to different parts of West Virginia and to other states. Manassa, as already narrated, created a romance in his earlier days by eloping with Lyda Holbert. His son, William, went to Ohio when a young man, and his descend- ants are still living there. David Minear's daughter Nancy married Rodham Bonnifield, a brother to Dr. Arnold Bon- nifield. They went to Illinois, and raised a family that has exerted and still exerts a wide influence for good. One of their sons, McKensie, is now a brilliant lawyer in Nevada ; while William, another son, is a resident of Colorado, and has held many offices of trust and honor. Allen, Gregory, Ellis and W. B. Bonnifield are other sons of Rodham Bon- nifield. Three of them made Iowa their home ; but Ellis is a farmer at Beloit, Kansas. Gregory is also a farmer. Allen is dead, but was Sheriff, and Clerk of the circuit court. W. B. Bonnifield, an educated man, possessing fine literary abilities, is connected with the First National Bank of Ottumwa, Iowa. Samuel, a seventh son, is a cattle king in the far West, and one of his sons is a lawyer and another is a judge.
Nathan Minear, second son of David Minear, married the widow of Gregory Bonnifield. Their children, for the most
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part, did not go far from St. George. Emily married Dr. Call, Sirena married Theodore Lipscomb and Elizabeth married S. W. Bowman, late Sheriff of Tucker County. Another, Mary, married Frank Tolbott, and lives in Iowa, while Katie married Samuel Woodring.
William, one of David Minear's sons, lived in Harrison County, West Virginia. Adam Minear, Sr., brother to David Miner, Sr., made his home on the Valley River, in Barbour County; and, his family became connected with the Woodfords of that county, through the marriage of a daughter of his with John Woodford. The Woodfords are well known throughout West Virginia as cattle dealers. Harvey, Isaac and Adam live in Barbour County, and Asa in Lewis County, of which he was recently Sheriff. Hon. Reuben Davisson, for many years Sheriff of Taylor County and often its representative in the Legislature, is also a de- scendant of the Minears.
One of David Minear's sons was drowned in the Hock Hocking River, in Ohio. Enoch and Nelson Marsh, now of Florida, are grandsons of Sarah Minear, David Minear's daughter. Of his other children, Mary married William Miller and Elizabeth, Dr. Arnold Bonnifield.
David Minear had a sister who married Nimrod Haddix. He took delight in jumping into the mill-pond to scare his wife, who never failed to become alarmed and to try to pull him out. But, he carried his sport too far, inasmuch as he came down head first, and striking the bottom with great violence, he broke his neck.
The immediate family of Enoch Minear, son of David Minear, might have done much for Tucker County, had they staid in it. But, they were dissatisfied, and one by one departed for the West, until David was the only one,
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of a family of ten, left in the county. He chose the occu- pation of a merchant, and, for a few years, was the leading store-keeper of St. George. But he abandoned this busi- ness, and devoted himself wholly to farming and stock- raising. His farm is the one taken up by his great grand- father, John Minear, in 1776, and lies immediately below St. George, on the north side of the river. It is a fine, valuable and highly improved piece of property. Of Enoch Minear's ten children, seven went to California. Adam C. Minear, the youngest, subsequently returned, and is now Sheriff of Tucker County. He traveled extensively through the West, and was for a long time in Idaho. John, Pool and Mary are still in Idaho, Mary having married C. W. Moore, a banker of Boise City. John's wife was an educa- ted lady who had been a missionary in Japan. Pool has been in the mining and railroad business in California and Idaho for many years. He was once president of a Florida railroad. He is now in Idaho.
Some of the members of this family shall be mentioned more at length in other parts of this book. As said, if they had staid in Tucker County, they might have exerted a very controlling influence upon its affairs ; for, they are men of energy ; and, wherever they have been, they have been in the front of advancement. Enoch Mincar still resides in St. George and is its oldest citizen. He has been twice married.
About 1816, Ambrose Lipscomb, an old soldier of the Revolution, settled on the river, near the Preston County line. His descendants are now numerous in the county, and are all noted for great physical strength.
Adam Harper, father of Dr. E. Harper, came to Clover Run, from Pendleton County, in an early day. He lived to
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an old age, and his family, though scattered far and wide, have always possessed wonderful energy. Difficulties and obstacles have been forced to yield before them in whatever direction they turned their hands. His sons have been great travelers. One died on the Rocky Mountains, another at Santa Barbara, California, one still lives on the Pacific Coast, and another, Dr. Harper, now lives in Tucker. Of all of them, and particularly of the last, fuller mention will be made in this book.
CHAPTER V.
FORMATION OF TUCKER COUNTY.
TUCKER COUNTY, West Virginia, was formed from Ran- dolph County, March 6, 1856. The people had long felt the inconvenience of going so far to court, as Beverly was then the seat of justice. From the "Biography of Abe Bonnifield "" the following is taken :
Tucker County was, a few years ago, the northern end of Ran- dolph County; and Randolph was originally a part of Harrison, and Harrison was a part of the great county of Augusta, which when first organized, included nearly all of West Virginia. It has been divided and sub-divided. County after county was struck off, till thirty or more counties have been formed out of the orig- inal territory. Randolph County was organized in 1810. It was a large county, some seventy-five miles long, and the settlements were separated by large tracts of woods, and the roads connecting them were none too good. Thus it came to pass that, for many years, the people of the northern part, now Tucker County, grew dissatisfied that they had to go so far to attend court, which was held at Beverly, then the county-seat. The subject of a new county, to be taken from the northern end of Randolph, was re- peatedly agitated ; but no decisive step was taken, till in the win- ter of 1854, when a general meeting was called at the residence of Enoch Minear, in the old Stone House at St. George.t
A committee of some fifteen or twenty persons was chosen to select a site for a court-house for the contemplated new county. The committee selected a spot on Enoch Minear's farm, where the court-house was afterwards built. Petitions with numerous signa- tures, praying for a new county were sent to the Legislature at
* The biography of Abe Bonnifield, from which the above is taken, has never been published. It was written by Prof. G. B. Selby, near thirty years ago. It will prob- ably be published shortly, as preparations are making for that purpose.
1 St. George was then called Westernford.
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Richmond. In the winter of 1855-6 Dr. Bosworth was the Dele- gate from Randolph; and, in addition to his influence, the inhabi- tants of the intended new county, chose Mr. William Ewin as a Lobby Member to the Legislature. He labored with perseverence and skill, and succeeded in obtaining an Act of the Legislature for organizing the new county, with the Seat of Justice on the site selected by the committee above referred to. The court was or- ganized in the following July, but, owing to several deficiencies, it was attended with much difficulty. The new county was christ- ened Tucker, and the Seat of Justice St. George. Both names are, I believe, in honor of the Clerk of the Senate of Virginia .*
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