USA > West Virginia > History of West Virginia > Part 31
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PART II.
THE COUNTIES OF WEST VIRGINIA.
PART II.
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INTRODUCTION.
COUNTY DEPARTMENT.
Date of Formation-For whom Named-Why so called-Date of Legal Estab- lishment of Towns with Names of First Trustees and Date of Incorporation- Pioneer Recollections and Historic Events of each of Fifty-four Counties of the State.
IN 1634, twenty-seven years after the founding of Jamestown, Virginia was divided into eight counties or shires, similar to those of England. These, the first counties organized in the New World, were named as follows : James City, Henrico, Elizabeth City, Warwick River, Warrosquyoake-now Isle of Wight-Charles River and Acomack. Virginia ever tried to keep civil government abreast of her most adventurous pioneers, and to accomplish this, her House of Burgesses con- tinued to make provision for the formation of new coun- ties. After the eight original ones came others in the order named : Northampton and Gloucester, in 1642; Northumberland, in 1648; Surry and Lancaster, in 1652 ; Westmoreland, in 1653 ; Sussex and New Kent, in 1654; Stafford and Middlesex, in 1675 ; Norfolk, Princess Anne, and King and Queen, in 1691 ; Rich- mond, in 1692 ; King William, in 1701 ; Prince George, in 1702; Spottsylvania, King George, Hanover, and Brunswick, in 1720; Goochland and Caroline, in 1727 ;
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Amelia and Orange, in 1734 ; Augusta, in 1738 ; Albe- marle, in 1744; Amherst in 1761, and Botetourt, in 1769.
When Augusta county was formed, it included all of the "utmost parts of Virginia," and extended from the Blue Ridge on the east to the Mississippi on the west. From its original limits have been carved the States of West Virginia, Kentucky, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois and Michigan. Its western boundary was the French pos- sessions of Louisiana.
. Botetourt was formed from the southern part of Au- gusta, from which it was separated by a line drawn westward from the point at which the James river breaks through the Blue Ridge, and terminating near the present site of Keokuk, on the Mississippi. In 1772, Fincastle county was formed from the southern part of Botetourt, but its existence was of short dura- tion, for it was extinguished in 1776, by an act of the General Assembly, which created from its territory the three counties of Montgomery, Washington and Ken- tucky, the boundaries of the latter being almost iden- tical with those of the State now bearing that name.
In 1778, Virginia made her first effort to establish civil government west of the Ohio. In October of that year, the Assembly passed an act creating the county of Illinois from Botetourt. It included all of Virginia west of the Ohio river, by which it was bounded on the south and southeast ; Pennsylvania lay on the east ; the Great Lakes bounded it on the north and the Missis- sippi washed it on the west. John Todd was appointed County Lieutenant and Civil Commandant of Illinois County. He was killed at the battle of Blue Licks, in Kentucky, August 18, 1782, and his successor in office was Timothy de Montbrunn.
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But Virginia's authority was not long to continue beyond the Ohio. On the 20th of October, 1783, the Assembly passed an act entitled " An act to authorize the delegates of this State in Congress to convey to the United States in Congress assembled all the rights of this Commonwealth to the territory northwestward of the river Ohio." This offer the United States accepted, and the Deed of Cession was promptly made March 22, 1784, and signed on the part of Virginia by Thomas Jefferson, Samuel Hardy, Arthur Lee and James Mon- roe, members of Congress from Virginia. This deed may be seen in "Henning's General Statutes," Vol. XI, p. 571, and in Chapter xiii of this work.
Before entering upon the history of the individual counties, it is proper to notice what was for some time known as the "District of West Augusta." The boundaries, which will be best understood by the reader with a map of the State before him, were de- fined by Act of Assembly in 1776, as follows : " Begin- ning on the Allegheny Mountains between the heads of Potowmack, Cheat, and Greenbrier rivers ; thence along the ridge of mountains which divides the waters of Cheat river from those of Greenbrier, and that branch of the Monongahela river, called Tygart's Val- ley river, to the Monongahela river; thence up the said river and the West Fork thereof to Bingamon's creek, on the northwest of the said West Fork ; thence up the said creek to the head thereof; thence in a direct course to the head of Middle Island creek, a branch of the Ohio ; and thence to the Ohio, including all the waters of the aforesaid creek in the aforesaid District of West Augusta, all that territory lying to the northward of the aforesaid boundary and to the
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westward of the States of Pennsylvania and Mary- land, shall be deemed and is hereby declared to be within the " District of West Augusta."
The boundaries thus defined, if delineated on a map of the present State, would begin on the summit of the Alleghenies at the northeast corner of Pocahontas county and run thence southwest between that county and Randolph to Mingo Flat in the latter ; thence north through that county, northwest through Barbour and Taylor into Marion with the meanderings of Ty- gart's Valley river to its confluence with the Monon- gahela ; thence up the West Fork of that river to the mouth of Bingamon's creek in Harrison, and thence west with that stream to its source, and thence south- west through the latter county to the head of Middle Island creek in Doddridge; thence northwest centrally through that county and Tyler to the Ohio; thence northeast with that river to the present site of Pitts- burg; thence with the Monongahela and Cheat river through the southwestern part of Pennsylvania and Preston and Tucker counties, to the beginning. The territory thus embraced included two-thirds of the county of Randolph, half of Barbour, a third of Tucker, half of Taylor, a third of Preston, nearly the whole of Marion, Monroe and Monongalia, a fourth of Harrison, half of Doddridge, two-thirds of Tyler, and the whole of Wetzel, Marshall, Ohio, Brooke and Hancock in West Virginia, and the whole of Greene, Washington and parts of Allegheny and Beaver coun- ties in Pennsylvania.
A succeeding section of the same act provided for the division of West Augusta into three counties to be known as Ohio, Yohogania and Monongalia. By
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the westward extension of Mason and Dixon's Line in 1784, the greater part of Yohogania fell into Pennsyl- vania and the remainder was, by act of Assembly in 1785, added to Ohio county. Thus Yohogania be- came extinct.
Having thus briefly noticed the efforts of Virginia to establish civil government in her western domain, we proceed to the counties of the State in detail, taking them in the order of their date of creation, believing that a better idea of their position and extent will be obtained than by an alphabetical arrangement.
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HAMPSHIRE.
1 Hampshire is by twenty-five years the oldest county in the State. Frederick county was formed from Orange in 1738, and included all the territory lying north of Augusta and south of the Potomac river. In 1754, it was enacted by the Lieutenant-Governor, Council and Burgesses, "That on the first day of May next ensuing, all that part of the county of Augusta which lies within the bounds of the Northern Neck be added to and made part of the county of Frederick, and that said part of the county of Frederick so to be added to, shall, from and immediately after the said first day of May, the said county of Frederick and the said part of the county of Augusta so to be added to, and made part of the county of Frederick, as afore- said, be divided into two counties; and that all that part thereof lying to the westward, of the ridge of mountains commonly called and known by the names of Great North, and Cape Capon mountains and Warm Spring mountains extending to Potomac river, be one distinct county, to be called and known by the name of Hampshire ; and all that other part thereof, lying to the eastward of the said ridge of mountains, be one distinct county and retain the name of Frederick." It will be observed that the western boundary is not de- fined. It was not necessary, for the county extended to the "utmost parts of Virginia" which were bounded west and northwest by the Great Lakes and Missis- sippi river.
At the time of its organization its settled portion lay within the Northern Neck, the Royal Grant of which was vested in Lord Fairfax, and the county owes
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its name to an incident related in Kercheval's "History of the Valley." "Lord Fairfax, happening to be at Winchester, one day observed a drove of very fine hogs, and inquired where they were from. He was told that they were raised in the South Branch Valley ; upon which he remarked that when a new county should be formed to the west of Frederick to include the South Branch Valley, it should be called for Hamp- shire county in England, so celebrated for its fat hogs."
Owing to the continuation of the French and Indian War, the county was not organized until 1757, when the first court convened, the presiding justice being the Right Honorable Thomas Bryan Martin, a nephew of Lord Fairfax.
The present area is 630 square miles.
Romney, the county seat and the oldest town in the State, was laid out in November, 1762, by Lord Fair- fax, who named it "Romney" after the town of that name in England, one of the Cinque Ports on the English Channel. It, together with Hastings, Hythe, Dover and Sandwich, received peculiar privileges on condition of furnishing ships in time of war. By an Act of Assembly, December 4th, 1789, Isaac Parsons, Isaac Miller, Andrew Woodrow, Stephen Colvin, Jona- than Russell, Nicholas Casey, William McGuire, Perry Drew and James Murphy were appointed trustees of the town. In 1792 it was shown to the Assembly that it was "uncertain and unknown to whom many lots in the town of Romney legally belonged, for the reason that the late Lord Fairfax hath made no deed," and on the 27th of December that year, that body enacted that "the title to said lots shall be vested in the trustees, whose title to them shall be valid in law." January IIth, 1811, it was enacted that "it shall not be law-
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ful for any person or persons to play at the game called and known by the name of Bullets, or to run any horse race on the streets of Romney." February 24th, 1818, the Assembly appointed a new board .of trustees for the town, consisting of James Daily, John Jack, John McDowell, Warner Thorcmorton, Thomas Mullady, Samuel Kercheval, Christopher Heiskell and James Gibson. The town is beautifully situated on a bluff overlooking the South Branch river, sixteen miles south of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad at Green Spring Station, which is fourteen miles east of Cumberland City, and one hundred and sixty-four miles west of Baltimore. Washington, on his journey to the Ohio, spent the night of the 9th of October, 1770, in Romney.
Watson Town, in the extreme southern part of the county, is a famous resort visited by several hundred guests annually. It was established by law December 12, 1787, on lands of Joseph Watson; and Elias Poston, Henry Fry, Isaac Hawk, Jacob Hoover, John Win- terton, Valentine Swisher, Rudolph Bumgardner, Peter Mckeever, John Sherman and Isaac Zane were ap- pointed trustees. December 27, 1800, the following additional trustees were appointed: Andrew Woodrow, James Singleton, John Little, Stephen Pritchard, Moses Russell, Henry Beatty, John Croudson, and Henry Powell. January 4, 1816, new trustees were appointed as follows: Charles Brent, Philip Williams, David Ogden, John Little, George Huddle, William Herron and Archi- bald Craigwell. March 8, 1849, an addition of ninety- five acres was made to the town. It was surveyed by John B. Sherrard, deputy surveyor of the county.
Springfield, in the northwest, named from a Massa-
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chusetts battle field of the Revolution, was established December 16, 1790, at the Cross Roads on the lands of William and Samuel Abernethy, with John Taylor, William Campbell, Robert Reynolds, Jacob Earsom, John Pancake, Fielding Calmes and Andrew Hughes, trustees.
Ancient Battle Field .- Tradition tells of a fierce battle between the contending tribes of the Delawares and Catawbas, which occurred within the present limits of Hampshire county. Of this contest Kercheval says :-
"A great battle between these hostile tribes, it is said, was fought at what is called the Hanging Rocks. on the Wappatomaka, in the county of Hampshire where the river passes through the mountain. A pretty large party of Delawares had invaded the terri- tory of the Catawbas, taken several prisoners, and commenced their retreat homewards. When they reached this place they made a halt, and a number of them commenced fishing. Their Catawba enemies, close in pursuit, discovered them, and threw a party of men across the river, with another in their front. Thus enclosed, with the rock on one side, a party on the opposite side of the river, another in front, and another in their rear, a most furious and bloody onset was made, and it is believed that several hundred of the Delawares were slaughtered. Indeed, the signs now to be seen at this place exhibit striking evidence of the fact. There is a row of Indian graves between the rock and public road, along the margin of the river, from sixty to seventy yards in length. It is believed that very few of the Delawares escaped."
Indians Approach the Fort near Romney .- A few
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miles below the present site of Romney stood one of those primitive works of defense against savage incur- sion. Shortly after Braddock's defeat, there was among the inmates of this fort a family named Hogeland. During harvest, Mrs. Hogeland, with two men acting as guards, went a short distance from the fort to gather beans. Suddenly eight or ten Indians made their ap- pearance, when one of the guards took to flight. The other, whose name was Hogeland, placed himself between the woman and the savages, and, with rifle presented, retreated from tree to tree, until both reached the fort unharmed. The old men within gave the alarm to the harvest hands by a discharge of rifles. The men hastily retreated to the fort. The same day, while returning to work, they were fired upon by Indians, and Henry Newkirk wounded. They returned the fire, and the Indians fled.
Bowers and York Attacked .- Another of these early forts was at the Forks of Capon, in the present county of Hampshire. Four or five miles distant was a fertile field which the inmates of the fort cultivated. About the year 1758, two men-Bowers and York by name- returning from the field to the fort, were waylaid by seven Indians. Bowers was shot and fell dead. York fled, pursued by three of the savages, and, after a des- perate race, reached the fort in safety.
FURMAN'S FORT was situated about one mile above the Hanging Rock on the South Branch. In the year 1764, Henry Furman and Nimrod Ashby left the fort to hunt in the Jersey mountains. They were discov- cred and both killed by a party of eighteen Delawares, who thence passed into Frederick county, where they divided into two parties, and continued their savage
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work. One of the parties returning with a number of helpless victims whom they were carrying into captivity, encamped near Furman's Fort. Early in the morning, alarmed by the report of guns at the fort, they fled across the Wappatomaka. In their haste one of the prisoners, Mrs. Thomas, being left to ford the river without help, succeeded in escaping, and found refuge in William's Fort, two miles below the Hanging Rock.
THOMAS and SAMUEL MULLADY. Prominent among those whom the county has given to public life were the Mullady brothers, two sons of Thomas Mullady, an Irish Catholic. The sons, Thomas and Samuel, were both educated at the Propaganda at Rome. After two years devoted to study, Thomas served two years as tutor of the Crown Prince of Naples, after which he returned to his own country and was soon made President of Georgetown College. That institu- tion never had in its faculty a riper scholar than he. He was perhaps the most accomplished scholar in the language and literature of Italy which this country has produced. Samuel, scarcely inferior to his brother, died while serving as President of Worcester College, Massachusetts. Both stood high as preachers and eccle- siastics.
CAPTAIN WILLIAM KEITER, of the Tennessee Artil- lery, Confederate Army, was a native of Hampshire county. He was the son of Benjamin Keiter, whose father emigrated to the county from Pennsylvania about the year 1790. Young Keiter was born June 3, 1830, and after attending two terms at Romney Academy, he entered the Virginia Military Institute, from which he graduated July 4, 1859. Repairing to Shelbyville, Tennessee, he there engaged in teaching.
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In 1861, he entered the Confederate Army, and was made captain of an artillery company. He was killed in 1862, by the explosion of a gun.
REV. WILLIAM HENRY FOOTE, D. D., an eminent Presbyterian divine and author, was long a resident of Romney. He was born at Colchester, Connecticut, December' 20, 1794, and after attending Bacon Academy in his native town, entered Yale College in 1814, where he graduated two years later. He came to Fredericksburg, Virginia, and united with the church in 1817, after which he studied theology at Princeton, and was licensed to preach by the Winchester Presby- tery at Gerrardstown, October 21, 1819, and entered upon his pastoral work at Woodstock. In 1824, he became pastor of the Romney Church, then known as Mount Bethel Church, at the same time serving the congregations at Springfield and Patterson's Creek. In 1835, he was appointed agent for the Central Board of Foreign Missions, and removed to Philadelphia, where he resided until 1845, when he again assumed charge of the Romney Church, in which connection he continued until his death, November 22, 1869, with the exception of the years of the Civil War which he spent in East Virginia employed as a missionary among the wounded. He was a voluminous writer, and in addition to his contributions to the periodical literature of the day, he was the author of several published works, among them being "Sketches of North Carolina," "The Huguenots, or Reformed Dutch Church," and "Sketches of Virginia," the last published in Philadelphia, in 1850.
CRAIG W. MCDONALD, of the Confederate States Army, was born in this county in 1837. His maternal
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grandfather was William Naylor, a prominent lawyer and distinguished member of the Virginia Constitu- tional Convention of 1829-30. His father was Colonel Angus McDonald, a son of Major Angus McDonald, who was the builder of Fort Henry at Wheeling, and long prominent in the Border Wars. He was descended in a direct line from the McDon- alds of Glengary, so famous in Scottish history.
Young McDonald, after a thorough course in the Romney Classical School, entered the Virginia Military Academy in July, 1855, but in the following October became a student in the Virginia University. When the Civil War began, he was teaching school in Cul- peper county, but with the call to arms he hastened to Winchester, where he joined the command of General Elzey, who made him his aid-de-camp. He followed the fortunes of his commander to the battle of Gaines' Mills, where he was struck in the breast by a grape shot and fell dead upon the field. His remains now repose in Hollywood cemetery-the Beautiful City of Dead-at Richmond.
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BERKELEY.
Berkeley, the central county of the Eastern Pan- handle, has an area of 320 square miles. It was cre- ated by an act of the House of Burgesses passed February, 1772-the twelfth year of the reign of George III. By it two new counties were formed from Frederick, viz., Berkeley and Dunmore. By act of October, 1777, the name of the latter was changed to Shenandoah. The act creating the counties declared : " That from and after the said fifteenth day of May next, the inhabitants of the said counties of Berkeley and Dunmore respectively, shall discharge all fees due from them to the secretary, clerks and other officers in said counties at the rate of eight shillings and four pence for every hundred weight of tobacco."
SIR WILLIAM BERKELEY, from whom the county derived its name, was born near London, England, about the year 1610. He graduated at Oxford in 1629, and afterwards traveled extensively on the con- tinent. He was appointed Governor of Virginia, and arrived in the Colony in 1642. During the period of the Commonwealth in England, he adhered to the Royal cause, and Virginia was the last of the American colonies to acknowledge the authority of Cromwell. In 1652, he was succeeded by Richard Bennet, but upon the restoration of the monarchy in 1660, Charles II. once more made Berkeley Governor of Virginia. Bacon's Rebellion occurred during his second adminis- tration, and he rendered himself unpopular because of his severity against the followers of that leader, twenty- three of whom he caused to be executed. Charles II., when he heard of this, exclaimed : "The old fool has
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taken more lives in that naked country than I have for my father's murder." Berkeley, in describing Virginia in 1765, said : "Thank God, there are no free schools or printing presses in this colony, and I hope there will be none for a hundred years." He was called home and died at Twickenham, England, July 9, 1677.
Martinsburg, the county seat, was made a town by legislative enactment in October, 1778, on the lands of General Adam Steven with James McAllister, An- thony Noble, Joseph Mitchell, James Strode, Robert Carter Willis, William Patterson and Philip Pendleton, trustees. The titles to lots were vested in the trustees, but notwithstanding, General Steven sold and made deeds to several lots. A few years later these titles, were disputed, and in May, 1784, the Assembly passed an act making them as "valid and effective as if the conveyance had been made by the trustees them- selves." November 30, 1793, the Assembly directed the trustees to establish a market house, and appointed a clerk for the same. February 9, 1813, it was enacted that "all free, white, male persons, being citizens of Virginia and freeholders of the said town," should meet at the court house on the first Monday in April of that year and elect seven fit persons to be trustees thereof. The Martinsburg Academy was established January 8, 1822, with David Hunter, Elisha Boyd, Philip C. Pen- dleton, John S. Harrison and John R. Cook, trustees. March 6, 1856, the qualified voters of the town were authorized by legislative enactment to elect a mayor ' and common council. The town derived its name from Colonel T. B. Martin. The following in relation to the county seat is subjoined from Kercheval :-
"Tradition relates that an animated contest took
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place between the late General Adam Steven and Jacob Hite in relation to fixing the seat of justice for this county ; Hite contending for the location thereof on his own land, at what is now called Leetown, in the county of Jefferson, Steven advocating Martinsburg. Steven prevailed, and Hite became so disgusted and dissatisfied that he sold out his fine estate, and removed to the frontier of South Carolina. Fatal remove. He had not long been settled in the State before the In- dians murdered him and several of his family in the most shocking and barbarous manner."
Darkesville, which commemorates the name of the brave General Darke, was established December 7, 1791, on lands of James Buckells, with Andrew Wag- gener, James Strode, John Fryett, John Butler, John Chinowith and Edward Fryett, trustees. December 31, 1810, the freeholders are directed to elect five fit and able men, freeholders and inhabitants of the town, to be trustees thereof.
Middletown-now called Gerrardstown-was estab- lished by legislative enactment in October, 1787. The town was laid off by Rev. David Gerrard, and con- tained one hundred lots. William Henshaw, James Haw, John Gray, Gilbert McKewan and Robert Allen were appointed trustees.
Fort Frederick, situated on the Maryland side of the Potomac, about twelve miles from Martinsburg, was built in 1755 and 1756, under the superintendence of Governor Sharpe, of Maryland. Its walls of solid masonry were four and a half feet thick at the base and three feet thick at the top. It was erected at a cost of sixty-five thousand pounds sterling. Brad- dock's defeat left the western frontier more than ever
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