USA > West Virginia > History of West Virginia > Part 37
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Robert Aron, William Morris. Such are the names of the men who did guard duty at Point Pleasant just a century ago.
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On the 12th of December, 1791, Daniel Boone wrote Governor Henry Lee regarding the military establish- ment of Kanawha county, which then extended west- ward to the Ohio river, and along that stream from near Belleville to the mouth of Big Sandy river-a distance of more than a hundred miles. The following is his report verbatim. It is characteristic of the man who wrote it :-
"For Kanaway County, 68 Privits, Lenard Cuper, Captain, at Pint plesent, 17 men ; John Morris, juner, Insine at the Bote yards 17 men. Two spyes or scutes Will be Nesesry at the pint to sarch the Banks of the River at the Crossing places. More would be Wanting if the(y) could be aloude. Those Spyes Must be Com- poused of the inhabitence who Well Know the Woods and waters from the pint to belleville, 60 mildes-No inhabitence: also from the pint to Elke, 60 Mildes- No inhabitence : from Elke, to the Bote yards, 20 Mildes, all inhabited."
Here we are officially informed that in the year 1791, there was not a white inhabitant in all the Kanawha Valley, from Point Pleasant to Charleston, nor from the former place up the Ohio to Belleville, now in Wood county ; while from the same source we learn that at that time the cabin homes of the pioneers dotted the banks of the Kanawha from Charleston to the "Bote yards," by which Boone refers to the location at the mouth of Paint creek, where the pioneer who preferred it took water carriage down the river.
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BROOKE.
Brooke county, the smallest in the State, has an area of 80 square miles. It was formed from Ohio county by act of Assembly passed November 30, 1796, and named in honor of Robert Brooke, a grandson of Robert Brooke, who in company with Robert Beverly the historian accompanied Governor Spottswood to Virginia in 1710. Both of these accompanied the Gov- ernor in his famous expedition over the Blue Ridge in 1716. Robert, in honor of whom the county was named, together with his brother Lawrence, was sent to Edinburgh to be educated, the former for the profession of law, the latter for that of medicine. When they re- turned, the Revolution was in progress. Lawrence, going to France, was through the influence of Benjamin Franklin appointed surgeon of the "Bon Homme Richard," and was in all of the engagements of that historic ship. Robert was captured on the voyage to America and sent back to England. Escaping, he went to Scotland, thence to France, and sailed for America in a French cruiser laden with arms for the colonial troops. He entered the army, and in 1781, was taken prisoner in an engagementat Westham, six miles from Richmond. He was soon exchanged, and returning to the army served to the close of the war. In 1794, he was a member of the General Assembly from Spottsylvania county, and the same year was elected Governor of Vir- ginia. In 1795, he was made Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of Ancient Free and Accepted Masons. He was elected Attorney-General of Virginia in 1798, over his opponent, Bushrod Washington, a nephew of George Washington. He died in 1799, aged fifty-eight years.
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The first Court in Brooke county convened May 23, 1797, at the house of William Thorpe, in Charlestown, now Wellsburg. The following were the justices com- posing it: John Beck, William Griffith, John Hen- derson, Alexander Stephenson, John Connell, Richard Elson, Francis McGuire, Isaac Meek, George Ham- mond, Josiah Gamble, Robert Colwell, James Griffith. John Beck qualified as sheriff for the county. John Connell was elected clerk and John Relfe, Common- wealth's Attorney. The following were appointed con- stables for the county : Samuel Litton, Roger Hill, Wil- liam Baxter, Elijah Rittenhouse, Jacob Walker, James Perry, Samuel Dunlap, Hugh Brown and Adam Sulli- van. John Relfe and Philip Doddridge were granted license to practice law in the courts of Brooke county.
Pioneers .- Henry Hervey settled in Brooke county in 1772, entering his land midway between the Ohio river and the Pennsylvania line. Richard Wells the same year located a tract of 400 acres in what is now Brooke county, between Cross and Harmon's creeks. He returned to his native State, Maryland, and brought back with him a party of Irishmen from an emigrant ship. In 1790, he brought with him from the east his aged parents, James and Honora Wells. William and Samuel Strain, natives of Ireland, settled on Cross creek in 1774. Ten years later their brother John settled near them. William Boner came to Brooke county in 1774. Charles Wells settled on Buffalo creek in 1775. About the same time his brothers, William, Absalom, Caleb and Amon, settled in the county. Joseph Colben settled on King's creek about the year 1776. About 1787 Moses Decker, Peter Cox and Benjamin Wells located patents in this county. Two
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years previous Benjamin Johnson located 7000 acres of land. In 1786, William McMahon located a tract of land embracing the hills back of Wellsburg. Samuel Archer removed from Pennsylvania to Brooke county in 1798. Bernard Brady settled on a farm near Cross creek, in 1799. Asa Owings in 1796, purchased a tract of land south of Harmon's creek. Jeremiah Browning, with his sons, Lewis, Joseph and Jeremiah, Jr., with their families, moved to " Mingo Bottoms " in 1812.
Here, as elsewhere on the frontier, the pioneers suf- fered much from the Indian wars.
Captain Van Buskirk Killed .- In the summer of 1792, the last contest between the Indians on the upper Ohio and a party of Virginians organized for that pur- pose took place. The settlements in that part of the Panhandle now comprised in the counties of Brooke and Hancock had suffered greatly from savage ma- rauders. A party of men organized under the leader- ship of Captain Lawson Van Buskirk-a man well adapted to lead such an expedition. He was able and courageous, and more than any other in the company had reason to desire revenge-his wife having been murdered by the savages less than a year before.
A band of savages, about thirty in number, on no mission of mercy, were on the Virginia shore, and it was quite certain that, retreating, they would attempt to cross the Ohio at a point not far below the present site of Steubenville. Captain Van Buskirk with his forty brave frontiersmen crossed the river and marched cautiously in search of the Indian trail. After following it some distance it was lost, but as the party neared the river again near the site of an old Mingo town, near
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where they had crossed the stream, they discovered the Indians concealed in a dense thicket of pawpaw bushes. Captain Van Buskirk fell pierced by thirteen bullets. The contest lasted more than an hour, but the Indians were defeated. Several of their number were killed. The Virginians lost only their brave captain.
JOHN DECKER was the last white man killed by an Indian in Brooke county. He lived in this county, but only a short distance from West Liberty. As he was riding to Holliday's Cove along the ridge on the east side of Scott's run he discovered Indians in pursuit. They fired and a ball broke his horse's leg. He then attempted to escape on foot, but was overtaken and killed. Thomas Wiggins, who lived near, alarmed by the firing, seized his rifle and hastened to the spot whence the sound proceeded. He found only the life- less body of Decker.
Wellsburg .- The town was laid out by Charles Prather, and in honor of the proprietor received the name of Charlestown. It was established by legis- lative enactment, December 7, 1791, with William M'Mechan, Benjamin Biggs, George Cox, George White, James Marshall, James Griffith, John Green, John Connell and Samuel Brown, trustees. By act of the General Assembly passed December 27, 1816, the name of Charlestown was changed to that of Wells- burg, in honor of Alexander Wells, who married the only daughter of Charles Prather. It became the county seat at the formation of the county.
Brooke Academy was incorporated by Act of Assem- bly passed January 10, 1799, with William McKennan, Bazaleel Wells, Charles Wells, James Marshall, Joseph Doddridge, Philip Doddridge, John Connell, Moses
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Chapline and Thomas Mckean Thompson, trustees. By an Act of Assembly passed in 1852, the trustees of Brooke Academy were authorized to transfer their property to the Meade Collegiate Institute. But by Act of February 6, 1862, the Corporation of Brooke Academy was revived, and Hugh W. Crothers, Dan- forth Brown, Sr., David Fleming, Obadiah W. Langfitt and Samuel George appointed trustees.
Bethany .- The village, seven miles southeast of Wellsburg, was laid out in 1847 by Alexander Camp- bell, and as his home will ever be prominent in history.
CAPTAIN OLIVER BROWN, who resided many years in this county, was a native of Lexington, Massachusetts. His ancestors were among the first settlers of that State. He was an eye witness of the "Boston Tea Party," and a participant in the battle of Lexington. He commanded the party of volunteers who converted the leaden statue of King George into bullets for the American army. He served throughout the war, and in 1790, moved west and settled in Wellsburg, then Charlestown, where he died in 1846, aged ninety-three years.
ALEXANDER CAMPBELL .- This noted man was born in Ireland, September 12, 1786. His maternal ancestors were French Huguenots, and fled from their native country upon the revocation of the Edict of Nantes by Louis XIV. in 1685. He completed his studies at Glas- gow University, and in I SOS, came to America and joined his father, who was laboring as a Minister of the Gos- pel in Washington county, Pennsylvania. In ISII, he married Margaret Brown. Shortly after his marriage he removed to what is now Bethany, Brooke county. Here in his own house he opened a school which was
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designed to prepare young men for the ministry. It was called Buffalo Academy, and resulted in the found- ing of Bethany College. He died in 1866. Samuel M. Schmucker says of him : "Alexander Campbell, the chief founder of this denomination-the Disci- ples of Christ-was, without question, one of the ablest polemics and theologians in this country. He spent a long and active life in preaching the doctrines he believed and establishing churches and institutions which are intended to diffuse education and theological knowledge." Two thousand churches, with one hun- dred thousand members in our own country and many followers in other lands, attest his success.
PATRICK GASS, author of Gass' Journal of the Lewis and Clarke Expedition to the Pacific, was long a resi- dent of this county. He was born near the present site of Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, June 12, 1771. Soon after the family removed to Maryland, but soon returned to Pennsylvania, and settled near where Washington, in that State, now stands. In 1792, Patrick served as a soldier on the frontier, and after the close of the hostilities on the upper Ohio, accompanied the command of General Wilkinson in the descent of that river. In 1802, he was with the detachment of Captain Bissell on the Tennessee river, and the next year went with the same to Kaskaskia, Illinois. Here he enlisted as a member of the Lewis and Clarke Ex- pedition, then fitting out at St. Louis for the exploration of the Pacific Coast. The story of his adventures, together with that of his companions, is told in his "Journal " printed at Philadelphia in 1812. After the return of the expedition, he lingered for a few months at Wellsburg, then again went west. When the War
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of 1812 came on, he was at Nashville, Tennessee, and enlisting in the command of General Gaines, served throughout the struggle, participating in the battles of Chippewa, Lundy's Lane and Fort Erie. In 1831, he wedded a daughter of John Hamilton, of Brooke county, and reared a family of seven children. He died April 2, 1870, at the advanced age of nearly ninety-nine years. He was the last survivor of the Lewis and Clarke Expedition.
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WOOD.
Wood county was formed from Harrison by Act of Assembly passed December 21, 1798, by which it was declared, "that all that part of the county of Harrison, lying westwardly of a line to begin thirty miles from the Ohio river, on the line dividing the counties of Harrison and Kanawha ; thence northeasterly to inter- sect the line of Ohio county at twenty-one miles distance , from the Ohio river on a straight line from that point where the Ohio county line strikes the said river, shall, from and after the first day of May next, form one dis- tinct county to be called and known by the name of Wood county."
JAMES WOOD .- The county was named in honor of James Wood, the son of Colonel James Wood, the founder of Winchester, Virginia; he was born about the year 1750, in Frederick county, which he rep- resented in the Virginia Convention of 1776, which framed the State Constitution. He was appointed by that body, November 15, 1776, a colonel in the Virginia line and did valiant service in the cause of Freedom. He was long a member of the Council of State, and by seniority, Lieutenant-Governor of Virginia. He was elected Governor of the State, December 1, 1796, and served until December 1, 1799. Governor Wood was subsequently commissioned Brigadier-General in the United States Military, and served long as President of the Order of Cincinnati. He died at Richmond, June 16, 1813.
First Courts .- August 12, 1799, the Justices of Wood county met at the house of Hugh Phelps. They were John Bennett, Thomas Pribble, John Henderson, Caleb
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Hitchcock, Abner Lord, Joseph Spencer, Thomas Lord, and Ichabod C. Griffin. William Lowther became the first sheriff and John Stokely first clerk. The court then fixed the location of the Court house and other public buildings at Neal's Station. John Neal and Peter Misner were recommended to the Governor as fit persons for coroner, and Harman Blennerhassett, John Neale, Daniel Kincheloe, Jacob Beeson and Heze- kiah Bukey for justices. John Stephenson was appointed Commissioner for the county, at the November term, 1799.
There was some difficulty in getting a sufficient number of justices to serve, and it was not until March 10, 1800, that there was a full bench. Then the jus- tices were Hugh Phelps, Thomas Pribble, John G. Henderson, Hezekiah Bukey, John Stevenson, Daniel Kincheloe, William Hannaman, Thomas Lord, Caleb Hitchcock, Abner Lord and Ichabod C. Griffin. Na- thaniel Davison was appointed Attorney for the State ; Robert Triplett qualified as Surveyor, and Peter Mis- ner as Coroner. Elias. Lowther was appointed to ascertain and mark the boundaries of the county.
October 13, 1800, it was "ordered by the court that the necessary public buildings be erected on the lands of Isaac Williams, on the Ohio, opposite the mouth of Muskingum river, where the said Williams' barn now stands, and that the court be held at the house of Isaac Williams. Here the court convened at the next term, November, 10, 1800, and a vote was again taken on the location of the county seat, when ten to six voted to return to the house of Hugh Phelps, and the court adjourned to meet there the next morning."
The same term, "at a full court held at the house
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of Hugh Phelps, it was unanimously agreed that the point above the mouth of the Little Kanawha river, at the union of the said Kanawha and Ohio rivers, on lands owned by John Stokely, is the proper place for the seat of justice, and it is accordingly ordered that the necessary public buildings be erected thereon." It was further unanimously agreed by each member of the court: "We will support the above order and never will raise any legal objection to the same." Then the court adjourned "to meet at the point at the upper side of the Little Kanawha where a block-house has been built."
February 1, 1802, it was ordered that a jail, stocks and pillory be built at the point on the Kanawha on the ground laid off for that purpose. This order was carried into effect by the commissioners, Joseph Cook, John Stephenson and Thomas Lord, who contracted with James G. Laidley to construct the same.
August 28, 1803. The grand jury returned into court with two indictments, to wit: Samuel Pugh, Jr., for swearing seven profane oaths within two months past ; and Evan Pugh, for swearing nine profane oaths within two months past."
Parkersburg .- In the year 1773, Robert Thornton, of Pennsylvania, made his settlement right-a toma- hawk entry-to four hundred acres of land, including that on which the town now stands, and in 1783, it was confirmed to him by the Virginia Commissioners of lands.
In December, 1783, James Neale, assistant of Samuel Hannaway, surveyor of Monongalia county, surveyed two tracts of land for Alexander Parker, of Green county, Pennsylvania, assignee of Robert Thornton, and July 3, 1787, patents were issued by the State.
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Mr. Parker died about the year 1800, and the lands descended to his daughter Mary, who married William Robinson, Jr., of Allegheny City, Pennsylvania. The title was as usual disputed, John Stokely, being one of the contestants. The Parker heirs saved about seven hundred acres. At the time the county seat was located the town was called "The Point." A half-dozen log cabins composed it. Occupying them were the families of William Enoch, Caleb Bailey, John Stephenson, Jesse Murdock, Edward Stephenson and John Stokely. Stokely's patent was dated December 8, 1800, and he laid out the town of Newport on the Parkersburg side, and it was so known until 1809; then the above- mentioned heirs of Parker gained the land from Stokely, and December 11, 1810, the town was laid out and named Parkersburg. The plat was recorded in 1816. The present court house was built in 1815. The first was a log house in Stokely's town of Newport.
Blennerhassett's Island is situated in the Ohio river two miles below Parkersburg. Its historical associa- tions render it an object of interest to all. To tell the story would be to write a volume. Once the home of luxury and refinement, it has become a "Deserted Isle." In its desolation is told the fate of ambition.
Harman Blennerhassett was a representative of a distinguished and wealthy Irish family, but was born in England during the temporary residence of his parents in that country. He began his education in England, but graduated at the University of Dublin, after which he entered the profession of law. In England, he married Miss Adeline Agnew, who was a grand- daughter of General Agnew, who was with Wolfe at Quebec. Soon after he sold his estate in Ireland and
THE BLENNERHASSETT MANSION.
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sailed for America, landing at New York, where he was hospitably received by the first families. In .1797, he journeyed to Philadelphia, and from there came to Marietta in 1798. Having purchased the beautiful island which now bears his name, he began the erection of a splendid mansion, the architect being a Mr. Greene of New Castle, Pennsylvania, and the carpenters coming from Philadelphia.
Harman Blennerhassett was an accomplished scholar, well versed in mathematics and languages and possessed of refined tastes and manners. So perfect was his mem- ory, that it is said he could repeat the whole of Homer's Iliad in the original Greek. He brought with him to his island home a library of choice and valuable works and a complete set of chemical apparatus and philo- sophical instruments, to the accommodation of which one wing of the mansion was appropriated. Possessed of an ample fortune to supply every want, a beautiful and accomplished wife and lovely children, he was sur- rounded with everything which can make life desirable and happy. The adjacent settlements of Belpre, Parkers- burg, and the more distant one of Marietta, although buried in the heart of the wilderness, contained many men of cultivated minds and refined manners, with whom he held constant and familiar intercourse, so that there was lacking none of the social advantages which his remote and insular situation would seem to indicate. Beneath his hospitable roof were many merry gather- ings of the people of these towns, when song and dance echoed through the halls.
In 1805, Aaron Burr, the slayer of Alexander Ham- ilton, when descending the Ohio, landed uninvited upon the island, but met with a cordial reception. He re-
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mained only three days, but that was too long. In this short period he succeeded in enticing the unsuspecting Blennerhassett into his plans. These were to settle an armed force on the Wichita, for the purpose of coloniz- ing that region, and, in the event of a war between Spain and the United States-at that time threatened -to conquer Mexico. To Burr, Blennerhassett ad- vanced large sums of money, the former giving as his security his son-in-law, Joseph Alston, afterward Gov- ernor of South Carolina. The scheme progressed, and in the meantime Blennerhassett had a flotilla of small boats, about twenty in number, built at Marietta, destined for use in the southern expedition. The peculiar form of the boats excited apprehension, but there was no interference, and on a December evening in 1806, with supplies and thirty men on board, the fleet began the descent of the river. On the same day Colonel Hugh Phelps, commandant of the Wood county militia, received orders to arrest Blennerhassett and his associates. Late at night, with a body of the military, he proceeded to the island; but it was too late. Colonel Phelps at once began an overland journey to Point Pleasant, hoping to intercept the boats at that place, but they had passed when he arrived. The troops were met by Mrs. Blennerhassett, who forbade them touching anything not named in the warrant. But the mob spirit ran riot, the well-stored cellars were assailed, the mansion sacked, balls fired into the rich gilded ceilings, fences pulled down to light the sentinel fires and the shrubbery trampled under foot. By the aid of friends, Mrs. Blennerhassett was enabled a few days later to embark on a flatboat with her two children and black servants, and finally joined her husband at
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Louisville. Well might they look with grief in after years to the fair Eden from which they had been driven by their own indiscretion and the deception of Aaron Burr.
In the year 1812, the mansion was destroyed by an accidental fire ; the garden with its beautiful shrubbery and rare plants was converted into a cornfield ; the graveled avenue leading to the river was turned by the plowshare, and since that time nothing remains of the once beautiful home of Harman Blennerhassett save the name. More than fourscore years have passed away since the once happy occupants left it, still the thousands of travelers who annually pass it by rail and river, eagerly inquire after and gaze with pathetic interest upon the island.
Burr and Blennerhassett were both arrested, taken to Richmond and confined in the penitentiary. The former was acquitted and the latter never brought to trial. Blennerhassett and his family afterward went to Europe, where he died on the island of Guernsey, at the age of sixty-three years. The widow afterward returned to the United States and died in great poverty in New York, in 1842. But one representative of the family is now known to be in this country-that the wife of Joseph Lewis Blennerhassett, now residing at Troy, Missouri.
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MONROE.
On the 14th day of January, 1799, the General As- sembly of Virginia passed a bill entitled, "an Act to provide for the division of Greenbrier and the forma- tion of a new county." This was the twelfth sub- division of Virginia formed west of the Alleghenies, and was named in honor of the fifth President of the United States.
The First County Court .- In compliance with the third section of the bill creating the county, the first court convened at the house of George King, which stood one mile east of the present site of Union, on the 21st day of May, 1799. The following-named justices, each holding a commission from James Mon- roe, the Governor of Virginia, composed the court : William Hutchinson, James Alexander, Isaac Estill, William Haynes, John Hutchinson, John Grey, John Byrnesides, William Graham, James Hanly and William Vawter. John Hutchinson was chosen clerk. John Woodward was granted license to practice law and appointed Commonwealth's attorney. Then, it being noon, it was "ordered that the court adjourn from George King's house to his barn for conveniency." Upon reassembling, Isaac Estill presented a commis- sion from the Governor appointing him sheriff of the county. James Alexander, William Haynes and John Byrnesides became his bondsmen. John Byrne- sides was recommended as a suitable person to be appointed surveyor of lands. John Arbuckle was appointed deputy sheriff.
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