USA > West Virginia > History of West Virginia > Part 39
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come them. Indeed, there seemed on the part of all the Indians, especially the squaws with whom I had been living, an attachment toward me as ardent and affectionate as any I ever knew among my own kin- dred and friends. My feelings toward the old chief were, of course, anything but affectionate after I dis- covered his desire to sacrifice me and my child to appease his anger on account of the death of his son, and when I perceived that the only obstacle to my redemption was his will, it will not be wondered at that I wished, nay, that I prayed fervently for his death. My prayer, however sinful it may seem, was followed by his death. On the day before he died I was sum- moned to attend him, when he expressed a conscious- ness that his end was nigh. Directing my attention to a point in the sky, he informed me that when the sun reached that place his spirit would take its flight. This presentiment was correct, for precisely at the time he appointed he expired. He expressed great concern for my situation, was fearful that my cabin would not be supplied with wood, and manifested a regard for me which he could not have felt had he known my anxiety for his death. My friend, Mr. Higgins, immediately after the old chief's death, commenced negotiating for my ransom with the son of the old man, into whose custody I had gone, and after a short time succeeded by paying the sum of two hundred dollars. Yet there was an obstacle-the Indians were desirous of detain- ing my child, having taken it into their heads that it was not included in the bargain. A general council of the Shawnees was assembled, before which I was summoned and their views made known regarding my child. They alleged that if they were to keep the
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child they would thereby have a pledge that I would occasionally visit them-to all of which I replied that I would never go without my child, that if it remained I would likewise. After this reply and a short consulta- tion, it was announced to me that I should be per- mitted to go and take my child with me. When I made known to the squaws my determination of leaving, their demonstrations of sorrow at parting with me were truly affecting. Notwithstanding the prospect of again meeting with my friends, I could not but shed tears upon parting with the poor creatures, who seemed so sincerely attached to me, and I shed tears of both joy and sorrow. Poor little Jacky ! what would I not have given to have taken him with me when he was exclaiming, " What shall I do now?"
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I was taken to Mr. McCormick, where I lived until the following spring, when I set out for my home in company with eight other ransomed captives, and had a tedious travel through a wilderness the greater part of the way, during which time we suffered much for want of something to eat. For three days we had nothing whatever to eat, and my poor child would have died had it not been for the nourishment afforded by a few seeds with which I provided myself before leaving the Indian settlement. I had the good fortune soon afterward to procure a pheasant from a hawk, which enabled myself and my child to stand it better. After eight days we reached Pittsburgh, when I was made sensible of the effects of habit by being placed on a feather bed, where it was impossible for me to sleep. From Pittsburgh home we had a very pleasant journey.
My son John Paulec grew up with every promise and prospect of doing well. He went as secretary to
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a fur company, and had succeeded in laying in a fine quantity of furs, with which he and the company were descending the Yellowstone river, when they were attacked by a tribe of Mandan Indians, who murdered nearly all, he being among the number. Little Jacky was redeemed about a year after I left him, and came to Kentucky, where he lived to a good old age.
Polly Paulee, my sister-in-law, who belonged to a couple of squaws, succeeded in making her escape about a year before I was redeemed. She had been permitted to go on a visit to Detroit for the purpose of trading, and while there gave them the slip. She was protected by the Governor of Detroit, at whose house she afterward married an officer named Myers. This officer tried hard for my redemption. With this man she went to England, and afterward returned to Georgetown, where she was finally murdered. -
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JEFFERSON.
Jefferson county was formed by Act of Assembly, January 8, 1801, from Berkeley, and named in honor of President Jefferson. The Act provided that from and after the twenty-sixth day of October next, "all that part of the county of Berkeley lying eastwardly of a line beginning at Opeckon creek in the Frederick line ; thence with the said creek to the bend immedi- ately below Wallingford's tavern; thence running a direct line to Wyncoop's spring on the public road leading from Martinsburg to Shepherdstown, and thence with the meanderings of the spring run to its confluence with the Powtomac, shall form one distinct county, and be called and known by the name of Jefferson."
The Act made Charlestown the county seat, and provided that the first court should be held at the house of Bazil Williamson.
Charlestown, the county seat, was legally established a town in October, 1786, on lands of Charles Washing- ton, whose Christian name it commemorates. He was a brother of the first President of the United States. The first trustees were John Augustine Washington, William Drake, Robert Rutherford, James Crane, Cato Moore, Magnus Tate, Benjamin Rankin, Thorn- ton Washington, William Little, Alexander White and Richard Ranson. Charlestown Academy was incor- porated December 25, 1797, with Elisha Boyd, John Dixon, Edward Tiffin, William Hill, Thomas Ruther- ford, George North, Alexander White, Ferdinand Fair- fax, George Hite, Samuel Washington, Thomas Griggs and Gabriel Nourse, trustees.
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Shepherdstown, then Mecklenburg, was established a town in November, 1762, and was laid out by Captain Thomas Shepherd. In 1790, just after the Act was passed by Congress providing for the location of ten miles square for the National Capital at some place on the Potomac, Shepherdstown made an effort to secure the prize. A newspaper of that date published the following item of news :---
"SHEPHERDSTOWN ON THE POTOWMACK, November 15, 1790.
" Very liberal subscriptions have, within a few days past, been obtained in the town and vicinity, to be appropriated toward erecting the Federal Building, provided the Seat of Government be located so as to include Shepherdstown within the District."
By an Act of Assembly passed January II, 1798, an extensive addition was made to the town from the lands of Henry Cookcas, William Brown, John Morrow and Richard Henderson, and the name was changed from Mecklenburg to Shepherdstown.
The town is famous in history as having been the residence of James Rumsey, who was the first man in the world to propose steam as a substitute for wind in propelling vessels. He built a steamer on the Poto- mac in 1784, which was tested in the presence of General Washington and other distinguished men of the day. The material and workmanship, together with the tools used, were those of an ordinary black- smith shop, the boilers being made of gun barrels. After patenting his invention Rumsey went to London, where greater facilities were offered for perfecting his engine. There he built a steamer, which, when tested on the Thames, proved but a partial success. After-
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ward, while explaining the principles of his invention before the Philosophical Society of London, he burst a blood vessel and fell dead upon the spot. His enter- prise fell for the time, with its projector, but was after- ward renewed by Robert Fulton, who, by adding paddle or bucket wheels, made steam navigation a success.
Harper's Ferry, famous in history as the scene of John Brown's insurrection, and because of the military operations in and around it during the Civil War, both of which are treated at length in Part I. of this work, was established a ferry in 1748-the first west of the Blue Ridge. It commemorates the name of Robert Harper, who settled near by in 1734, when George Washington was an infant in his mother's arms. The town was incorporated March 24, 1851.
Smithfield was made a town by act of January 15, 1798, on lands of John and William Smith, with John Packett, Moses Smith, John Smith, Jacob Rees and Joseph and John Grantham, Trustees.
In the western part of this county there lived within a few miles of each other, after the war of the Revo- lution, three generals, officers of the American army- Adam Steven, Horatio Gates and Charles Lee. The last will of the latter is now on record in the clerk's office of the adjoining county of Berkeley, and its text throughout is characteristic of its eccentric author. The following is an extract :-
"I desire most earnestly that I may not be buried in any church or churchyard, or within a mile of any Presbyterian or Anabaptist meeting-house, for since I have resided in this county I have kept so much bad company while living that I do not choose to continue it when dead."
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MASON.
The present area is 432 square miles. The county was formed from Kanawha by an Act of the General Assembly passed January 2, 1804, and was named in honor of the celebrated George Mason, one of the prominent actors on the theatre of the Revolution. He was born in 1725, and early in life won the esteem of his fellow-citizens, who paid him homage because of his expansive mind, profound judgment, cogency in argument and learning in constitutional law. He was the deviser of the Constitution of Virginia, and a member of the Convention which framed the Federal Constitution, but he did not sign that instrument. In connection with Patrick Henry he opposed its ratifica- tion by the Virginia Convention, believing that it would be the conversion of the Government into a monarchy. He died at " Gunstan Hall," his country seat, in 1792.
The First Court in the county was held at the resi- dence of William Owens, in the town of Point Pleasant, July 3, 1804. The following justices composed it: Francis Watkins, William Clendenin, William Owen, John Roach, Maurice Reynolds, Edward McDonough, John Henderson, John McCulloch, Michael Rader and Andrew Lewis. Francis Watkins, having received a sheriff's commission, proceeded to open court. Wil- liam Sterrett qualified as Clerk of the court, having received a commission as such from John Page, Gov- ernor of the State. Sylvester Woodward, John Kerr and Robert Robinson were granted license to practice law in the courts of this county. Mr. Woodward was appointed Commonwealth's Attorney, and Samuel Clemens Commissioner of the Revenue. Robert
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McKee was appointed surveyor of lands. William Owens was recommended as a "proper person to be commissioned Colonel of the county, and Jesse Bennett as a suitable person to be made Major of the same."
Point Pleasant .- The settlement of the town dates back to the battle of 1774, the place never having been abandoned after that time. For several decades after the founding, the town did not flourish. A popu- lar superstition prevailed that a curse rested upon the place because of the fiendish murder of Cornstalk, November 10, 1777. The first mention made of the . place in the Acts of the Assembly was December 26, 1792, when an act was passed establishing a ferry at this place. December 19, 1794, the General Assembly enacted " That two hundred acres of land, the property of Thomas Lewis, at the mouth of the Kanawha river, in the said county of Kanawha, as they are already laid off in lots and streets, shall be established a town by the name of Point Pleasant, and Leonard Cooper, John Van Bebber, Isaac Tyler, William Owens, William Allyn, John Reynolds, Allen Prior, George Clendenin and William Morris, gentlemen, appointed trustees thereof." The town was incorporated in 1833.
The first Englishman, so far as there is any record, who saw the site of Point Pleasant, was Christopher Gist, the agent and surveyor of the Ohio Land Com- pany. In the year 1749, he set out on a tour of explora- tion north of the Ohio, where the lands of his employers were located, and in 1750, when on his return, reached the mouth of the Great Kanawha river, and the histo- rian says : " He made a thorough exploration of the country north of that river." His journal may be seen
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in the library of the Massachusetts Historical Society, where it is preserved.
The first white woman that saw the mouth of the Great Kanawha was Mary Ingles, who was taken prisoner by the Shawnee Indians, July 8, 1755, at the time of the Draper's Meadow Massacre-now Blacksburg, Montgomery county, Virginia. A few days after she passed the site of Point Pleasant on her way to spend a period of captivity beyond the Ohio. Four months later, when returning to her friends on the upper waters of New or Wood's river, she again saw the place.
In 1763, Mrs. Hannah Dennis, when returning to her home on James river, after passing three years in captivity among the Shawnees, crossed the Ohio river on a drift log at the mouth of the Great Kanawha, and many days later reached Fort Young on Jackson's river.
In 1764, Captain William Arbuckle, a daring pioneer, reached the site of Point Pleasant. It is a matter of record that he was the first white man who traversed the Kanawha valley.
Washington reached the site of Point Pleasant in October, 1770. With him were Dr. James Craik, Joseph Nicholson, Robert Bell, William Harrison, Charles Morgan, Daniel Renden and Colonel William Crawford. An encampment was made on the spot where Point Pleasant now stands, and the work of surveying at once began. "A large sugar tree and sycamore at the mouth of the Kanawha and immedi- ately on the upper point," was marked as the place of beginning. From this point a line was run to the mouth of Three-mile creek on the north side of the Kanawha ; then a zigzag line to a point on the Ohio
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one mile below Letart Falls; thence a line with the meanderings of the Ohio to the place of beginning. The survey contained eighty square miles, and was subdivided among the patentees as follows: A tract of 9876 acres, including the present site of Point Pleasant, for Andrew Lewis ; a tract of 5000 acres for George Muse ; a tract of 5000 acres for Peter Hogg ; a tract containing 8000 acres for Andrew Stephens ; another tract of 3000 acres for Peter Hogg ; another tract of 5026 acres for George Muse; a tract of 3400 acres for Andrew Waggener ; a tract of 6000 acres for John Poulson ; a tract of 6000 acres for John West. Operations were then transferred to the lower side of the Kanawha, and a tract of 13,532 acres were sur- veyed for Hugh Mercer, and lastly, a tract of 10,990 acres for George Washington. These lands were granted to the several patentees for services during the French and Indian War. Every one of them, it is believed, was with Braddock at the battle of Monon- gahela.
On the Ist of October, 1774, General Lewis' army, 1100 strong, under the guidance of Captain William Arbuckle, reached Point Pleasant, and on the roth of the same month waged the most fiercely contested battle ever fought with the Indians in Virginia, if not on the continent. That evening, as the sun sank behind the low hills of the western wilderness, one hundred and forty wounded Virginians were borne by more fortunate companions into the encampment. A hundred detailed men at once reared the walls of Fort Randolph, and from that bloody October day to the present time an English-speaking people have dwelt at Point Pleasant.
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Captain Arbuckle was placed in command of the fort, and in this capacity he was serving in February 1778, when visited by General George Rogers Clark, then on his way to Kentucky to lead the expedition against the British posts of Kaskaskia and Vincennes. Captain Arbuckle left Lieutenant McKee in command and accompanied Clark in his western campaign.
Grave of Cornstalk .- At the time of the murder of Cornstalk (see Chapter X., Part I.), his remains were buried near the fort where he fell, at the intersection of the present Viand and Kanawha streets, but August 4, 1840, when the former street was opened, his remains were removed and reinterred within the court-house enclosure, where they now repose; but like those of his illustrious adversary of 1774, there is neither stone nor mound to indicate the spot. The place, however -thirty yards or less from the rear entrance to the court house-is well known. Prior to the late Civil War, Charles Rawson, son of the jailer, at his own expense, put a rail fence around the grave, and his sister, Susan Rawson, planted rose bushes upon it. During an occu- pation of the town by Federal troops in 1863, the rails were burned and cattle destroyed the roses, since which time the grave has been neglected.
Eulin's Leap .- In the spring of 1788, Benjamin Eulin, who was then insane, was out hunting in the woods below Point Pleasant, when he was discovered and pursued by an Indian. He threw away his silver- mounted rifle to arrest the attention of the Indian and gain time for himself. The Indian stopped to pick it up. Eulin unexpectedly came to a precipice and fell headforemost through a tree, striking a branch, which threw him over so that he came to the ground upon
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his feet. The fall was fifty-three feet. He then leaped another precipice twelve feet in height and escaped. This precipice is in sight of Point Pleasant and may be seen from steamers on the Ohio.
Murder of Rhoda Van Bebber .- One morning, a few years after the close of the Revolution, a daughter of Captain John Van Bebber, named Rhoda, aged seven- teen, and Joseph Van Bebber, a lad of thirteen, a brother of Captain John Van Bebber, crossed in a canoe to the west side of the Ohio, opposite Point Pleasant, to see Rhoda's father, who was living tempo- rarily on that side of the stream. Suddenly Indians made their appearance. Dave, a black man belong- ing to Captain Van Bebber, gave the alarm and rushed into the house. The Indians attacked the house, but were driven off by Dave and Captain Van Bebber, with a loss of two of their number. Joseph and Rhoda in terror fled to the canoe. The Indians pursued, killed and scalped Rhoda and took Joseph a prisoner to De- troit. Rhoda's scalp the Indians afterward divided. in two pieces, which they sold to traders at Detroit for thirty dollars each, the object in purchasing was to encourage Indian incursions, thus preventing the settle- ment of the country by the whites, and rendering it easy to monopolize the Indian trade. Joseph stated that the barrel into which the scalps were thrown was filled with the horrid trophies. He remained with the Indians two years, during which time he learned their language and served them as an interpreter. He made his escape, and after Wayne's victory returned home. While at Detroit he made the acquaintance of Simon Girty, then a British pensioner for services during the Revolution. Girty denied to him that he
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was the instigator of Colonel Crawford's death, claim- ing that he went so far to save him that his own life was in danger.
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The Last Incursion made by any considerable force of Indians in the county was in May, 1791, when a party of eighteen white men were attacked by thirty Indians at a point on the Ohio, one mile north of the fort at Point Pleasant. The whites were defeated. Michael See and Robert Sinclair were killed, and Thomas Northrop Hampton and a black boy belong- ing to See, were borne off prisoners. William See, son of Michael, was born in the fort at Point Pleasant the same evening his father was killed. The black boy never returned; he became a chief among the Indians and took part with the friendly tribes against the British during the War of 1812. William See went as a volunteer with the Mason County Riflemen to the Northwest in 1813, and there became acquainted with the colored chief, and was informed by him that the Indian who shot his father twenty-two years before was still living, but very old and totally blind. See desired to see him, but the chief, fearing he would avenge the death of his father, refused to reveal his whereabouts.
Capture of the Misses Tyler .- About the year 1792, there resided within the fort at Point Pleasant a family of the name of Tyler, in which there were two young ladies. It was customary at that time to put bells upon the cows and to permit them to graze without the stockade, into which, however, they were driven at night. One evening in the autumn of the year, these ladies left the fort for the purpose of driving in the COWS. Hearing the bells on the hill in the rear of the
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fort they proceeded in the direction from which the sound came. On reaching the top of the hill several Indians, who had taken the bells from the cows and were using them as a decoy, rushed upon the ladies and made them prisoners. Having cut the skirts from their dresses that they might travel the more rapidly, they at once began the long and tedious journey to Detroit, where shortly after their arrival the younger died of a broken heart. The elder remained a prisoner until after Wayne's treaty in 1795, when she was married to a French trader in Canada, after which she returned to Point Pleasant and spent six months with her friends, then bidding a final adieu she departed to again join her husband who awaited her in Detroit. She died at an advanced age in Montreal.
HON. JOHN HALL, President of the Convention that framed the first Constitution of West Virginia, was a resident of this county. He was born in County Tyrone, Ireland, April 11, 1807. His parents were John and Margaret Houston-Hall, who emigrated to America in IS13, and settled in Rockingham county, Virginia. They had issue two sons-John and Thomas -- the latter of whom removed to Pennsylvania, and his descendants still reside at Little Washington in that State. The former, together with his parents, removed to Mason county in 1829, but two years later the parents returned to Rockingham county, leaving the son residing in the family of Robert McDonough, at Point Pleasant. Here he began life as a farmer, culti- vating the lands upon which the town of Henderson now stands. In 1833-4, he rode deputy sheriff, the first year under Major John Cantrell, and the second under John McCulloch. It was while thus engaged, while
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serving in the capacity of jailor, that he obtained his knowledge of mathematics, his tutor being a prisoner confined upon the charge of kidnapping slaves, but who was afterwards released through the efforts of William Allen, late Governor of Ohio. In the last named year Mr. Hall was united in marriage with Olivia, a daughter of Thomas Hogg, who was the youngest son of Peter Hogg, the emigrant ancestor of the family of that name in Virginia. Mr. Hall was elected a member of the General Assembly in 1844, and by reelection served two terms in that body, and was then chosen to a seat in the State Senate. He was an elector on the Whig ticket in 1852. In 1861, he was chosen a member of the Convention which framed the first Constitution of West Virginia, and was by that body made its president. No one did more to secure the admission of the State into the Union than he. In 1874, he was nominated for Con- gress to again enter the political arena. Later he was engaged in manufacturing, and was at one time presi- dent of the Clifton Iron and Nail Company. He died April 30, 1882, and was buried in the cemetery at Eight Mile Island. His two sons, James R., born in 1838, and John T., born 1842, both studied the science of war in the Virginia Military Institute, and both entered the Federal Army at the beginning of the Civil War. The former served with the rank of Major in the 4th West Virginia Infantry and was killed at the battle of Kennedy's Hill, August 6, 1862. The latter was Lieutenant-Colonel of the 13th West Vir- ginia Infantry, and was killed at the battle of Cedar creek, October 19, 1864. Both are buried beside the father.
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MAJOR JOHN CANTRELL was among the early pio- neers of this county. His mother was Mary, a daughter of Charles Clendenin, who, with his sons, built the fort where Charleston now stands. He was born in Green- brier county, on the banks of Greenbrier river, Sep- tember 17, 1780, and at the age of fourteen he, together with his mother, emigrated to the banks of the Ohio, and settled in Pleasant Flats, near Eight Mile Island. In 1802, he was united in marriage with Mary, daughter of George Clendenin, and in the same year settled on the north bank of the Kanawha, two and one-half miles from its mouth. At this time there were but two set- tlements on the Kanawha river between Point Pleasant and Charleston, one at the mouth of Cole river and the other eight miles from the mouth of the Kanawha. John Cantrell had issue, three sons, who all died in childhood, and one daughter, who grew to womanhood and became the wife of Charles C. Miller, of Point Pleasant. Major Cantrell was one of the first justices of the county, and in 1805, became the second repre- sentative from the county in the General Assembly of the State, a position which he filled for ten years. In ISII, he was commissioned Major in the county Militia, and during the War of 1812, he had charge of the government stores at Point Pleasant, from which place he sent supplies to the army of the Northwest. In 1830-I, he was high sheriff of the county, and from that time to the formation of the New State he was almost constantly connected with the county courts. He died June 17, 1863.
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