USA > West Virginia > History of West Virginia > Part 40
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CABELL.
Cabell was formed from Kanawha county, by an Act of Assembly passed January 2, 1809. The present area is 300 square miles. By the act creating the county, John Shrewsbury, David Ruffner, John Reynolds, William Clendenin and Jesse Bennett were appointed to locate the county seat.
WILLIAM H. CABELL, in honor of whom the county was named, was born December 16, 1772, in Cumber- land county, Virginia. He was descended from a Spanish family long settled in England, representatives of which came to Virginia in 1724. He attended William-Mary College, graduating therefrom in 1793. He began the practice of law at Richmond in 1794, and was chosen representative from Amherst county in 1796, and served by reelection through six sessions of that body. In 1805, he was elected Governor of Virginia, a position which he held until 1808, when he was chosen a judge of the General Court. In 1811, he was elected a judge of the Court of Appeals, becoming president of that body in 1842, and as such served until 1841, when he retired from the bench. He died at Richmond, January 12, 1853, and his remains were interred in Shocoe Hill Cemetery, that city.
The First Circuit Superior Court held in Cabell county convened at the house of William Merritt, in April, 1809. John Coalter sat as judge. He came from the eastern part of the State for the purpose of holding the court, but upon his arrival was informed by the people that they did not need any court, and furthermore that they did not want to be bothered with "warrants, fines, judgments, etc. But the judge, believ-
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ing that as civil government extended, so extended civilization, proceeded to open court, and appointed Edmund Morris clerk of the same. James Wilson qualified as an attorney and was appointed Prosecutor. Then David Cartmill, Henry Hunter, William H. Cav- endish, John Matthews, Ballard Smith, Lewis Summers and Sylvester Woodward, attorneys of the State, were granted permission to practice in this court. Of these, Lewis Summers was for many years one of the most able jurists of Virginia, and Sylvester Woodward, who had served as the first State's Attorney of Mason county, afterward removed to New York and became Attorney General of that State.
BISHOP THOMAS A. MORRIS .- On a farm, or rather an improvement, in a log cabin which stood seven miles east of the present site of Barboursville, then in Kanawha county, but now in Cabell, on the 29th day of April, 1794, was born Thomas A. Morris, one of the most eminent men whose names appear upon the pages of the Church history of the United States. His parents were members of the Baptist Church, but the son united with the Methodist Episcopal Church in August, 1813; and on Christmas night, 1814, preached his first ser- mon in the presence of an audience numbering about two hundred, composed of his relatives and friends of the Teays Valley country, among whom he had been born and reared.
We will let the Bishop tell of this, his first sermon, him- self, as he told it to a company of friends who gathered at his residence on the occasion of his 79th birthday. Said he: "I had a long, hard struggle to find peace. On Christmas day, 1814, there being no minister pres- ent, Thomas Buffington, a licensed exhorter, and I held
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a meeting for exhortation and prayer. He exhorted and I prayed. When about to dismiss, he suggested a meeting for the evening. I said, 'Just as you like.' Said he, 'If we do have meeting, will you exhort?' With some hesitation I replied, 'Yes, if you judge it best.' Whereupon he announced, 'There will be a meeting to-night at father's, and brother Morris will exhort.' This meeting was on the lower junction of the Ohio and Guyandotte rivers. As it was my first effort at public speaking, I began with fear and trem- bling, though I had often felt before that I should make an effort in that direction. I spoke some forty minutes with a freedom and unction that surprised myself. I was filled with a strange peace of mind, and concluded : ' This is what I have prayed for so long-that is, I am converted.'"
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He married his first wife, Abigail Scales, in the year 1814 ; the ceremony was performed in the house which still stands in the city of Huntington. In the same year he was granted license to preach, and in 1816, joined the Ohio Conference. For several years he traveled a circuit, then served as an elder. In 1836, he was ordained Bishop of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and was the last of the Methodist bishops to make the rounds of his Conference on horseback. He died in Springfield, Ohio, September 2, 1874.
Who the first Methodist minister here was, is not known, but in a work entitled " Progress of Method- ism in Ohio and Western Virginia," bearing publisher's date of 1822, we find the following in relation to the work within the present limits of the county. After speaking of several points on the Ohio, the author notices the work at "Guiandot," and in connection
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therewith says : " An old man by the name of Miller -a member of the society from Washington county, Pennsylvania, had settled near a place called Green Bottom, between Big and Little Guiandot, and seeing the deplorable state of the people, his pious soul was grieved, and he got up a petition signed by near one hundred persons of every sex and character, and sent it to some of the preachers of the Redstone District, Pennsylvania. The result was that some time in the year 1803 William Steel, then a traveling preacher belonging to the Baltimore Conference, was sent to explore the country. Thus this region was provided for by the Baltimore Conference."
After noticing the Church established here, the writer says further : "At least three traveling preachers have been raised up by this Church, one of whom, Samuel Demont, has already finished his work. He was a young man of deep piety and good natural and acquired ability, and an excellent preacher. He died on his way to work, among strangers, in the year 1820. Old Brother Miller lived to see his wishes crowned with success, and multitudes assembled in his settle- ment at the quarterly and camp meetings."
One of the other two ministers referred to by the writer was, doubtless, Thomas A. Morris, the cele- brated preacher, editor, elder and bishop mentioned above.
THE FIRST BAPTIST ORGANIZATION within the county was perfected in 1807, and known as the " Mud River Baptist Church." Its founder was the celebrated John Lee, one of the earliest Baptist ministers west of the Alleghenies. He was born and grew to manhood in the southern part of Virginia, and near the close of
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the last century, like many others, he crossed the mountains to seek a home in the "Far West." Mr. Lee, before leaving the scenes of his childhood, had become a member of the Baptist Church, and felt it his duty to call others to repentance. He located in Teays Valley, and soon began to proclaim the Glad Tidings to those around him. When he began preach- ing he was very illiterate, but by persevering industry he not only learned to read, but became well acquainted with the Scriptures. He was remarkably successful in the ministry, and in him was verified the Scriptural declaration, that " God hath chosen the weak to con- found the mighty."
By the year 1807, he had organized the Teays Valley Baptist church, which in that year was admitted into the Greenbrier Association, with a membership of fifty-two. Mr. Lee extended his field of labor, and continued to gather in the sheaves. At the meeting of the Association in 1808, the Mud River church, organized entirely by his own efforts, was admitted into the body with thirty-two members. When we remember how sparsely settled was the country at that time, we are astonished at the success that crowned the efforts of this extraordinary man, and at once re- cognize in him the ordained of God to proclaim the Gospel of His Son to the inhabitants of the wilderness. After a number of years' residence in the valley, Mr. Lee left behind him the two monuments reared by his own hands-the Teays Valley and Mud River churches -and removed beyond the Ohio, where he continued his labors until he passed from among the living.
Guyandotte was established a town by legislative enactment January 5, ISIo, on lands of Thomas Buf-
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fington, with Noah Scales, Henry Brown, Richard Crump, Thomas Kilgore, Edmund Morris and Elisha McComas, trustees. The town was incorporated January 20, 1849, and Peter Clarke, John P. Hite, Augustus S. Walcott, Robert Holderby, Alfred W. Whitney, James Emmons, Henry H. Miller, William Buffington, John W. White, Percival S. Smith and Jacob Miller were appointed trustees.
Barboursville .- By Act of Assembly passed Janu- ary 14, 1813, Barboursville was made a town, on the lands of William Merritt, with Edmund Morris, Elisha McComas, Edmund McGinnis, Sampson Saunders, Thomas Hatfield and Manoah Bostwick, trustees. The town was incorporated January 20, 1849, and was granted a charter February 12, 1867, when Greenville Harrison, Oscar W. Mather, J. V. Sweetland and J. B. Bumgardner were appointed commissioners to con- duct the election of corporate officers.
Huntington was incorporated under the title " The City of Huntington," by an Act of the Legislature passed February 27, 1871, and named in honor of C. P. Huntington, of the Chesapeake and Ohio Rail- road. The first election of corporate officers occurred on the first Thursday in September, 1871.
Marshall College .- A branch of the West Virginia State Normal School is located at Huntington. It was incorporated under the name of " Marshall Academy," March 13, IS38, and by an Act of the Assembly of Virginia passed March 4, 1858, was erected into a college, with Samuel Kilby, Staunton Field, Stephen K. Vaught, George W. Poague, Christian M. Sullivan, William Bickens, John F. Medley, Richard A. Claugh- ton, William H. Farnerden, Samuel F. Mallory, George
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L. Warner, Frederick G. L. Beuhring, Peter C. Buf- fington, Charles L. Roffe, James H. Poague, Dr. G. C. Rickets, John W. Hite, St. Mark Russell, Dr. P. H. Mccullough, Henry H. Miller and Tarleton W. Everett, incorporators and trustees. Thus it continued until February 27, 1867, when, in compliance with an Act of the Legislature, the State, aided by local sub- scriptions, purchased it, and it became a "West Vir- ginia State Normal School."
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TYLER.
Tyler county was formed from Ohio, by Act of De- cember 16, 1814, by which the boundaries were defined as follows : Beginning at the southwest corner of the Pennsylvania line; thence a due west course to the Ohio river ; thence with said river to the Wood county line ; thence with said line to the line dividing Monon- galia from Ohio county ; thence with said line to the Pennsylvania line, and with it to the beginning."
The commissioners to locate the seat of justice for the new county were Dudley Evans and Levi Morgan of Monongalia, Moses Congleton and Samuel Cham- bers of Brooke, and Benjamin Robinson and David Davidson, Jr., of Harrison.
The county was named in honor of John Tyler, who was born in James City county, Virginia, February 28, 1747. He graduated at William and Mary College, then studied law in the office of Robert Carter Nicho- las at Williamsburg. He was long a member of Assembly, and commanded a body of Charles City troops during the Revolution. In 1780, he became a member of the Council of State, and, December I, 1808, was elected Governor of Virginia. Before his term expired President Madison appointed him to the judgeship of the District Court of the United States for Virginia, in which capacity he served until his death, January 6, 1813. He was the father of John Tyler, tenth President of the United States.
Middlebourne was established a town by legislative enactment January 27, 1813, on the lands of Robert Gorrell, then in Ohio county, with William Wells, Sr .. Joseph Martin, Joseph Archer, Thomas Grigg, Daniel
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Haynes, William Delashmult and Abraham S. Birck- head, trustees. The town was incorporated February 3, 1871.
Sistersville .- A ferry was established from the lands of John McCoy across the Ohio at this place, January 28, 1818. The town was incorporated February 2, 1839.
CHARLES WELLS, THE PIONEER .- One of the first pioneers on the banks of the Ohio, below Wheeling, was Charles Wells, who settled near the present site of Sistersville in 1776. Here he was residing in 1812, when he was visited by a Pittsburg gentleman, who the same year published a work descriptive of the Ohio Valley. From it we extract the following :-
"Mr. Charles Wells, Sen., resident on the Ohio river, fifty miles below Wheeling, related to me while at his home in October, 1812, the following circumstances : ' That he has had two wives (the last of which still lives, and is a hale, smart, young-looking woman) and twenty- two children, sixteen of whom are living, healthy, and many of them married and have already pretty large families. That a tenant of his, a Mr. Scott, a Mary- lander, is also the father of twenty-two, the last being still an infant, and its mother a lively and gay Irish woman, being Scott's second wife. That a Mr. Gordon, an American German, formerly a neighbor of Mr. Wells, now residing on Little Muskingum, State of Ohio, has had by two wives twenty-eight children. Mr. Gordon is near eighty years old, active and hale in health.' Thus these three worthy families have had born to them seventy-two children, a number unexam- pled perhaps in any other part of the world, and such as would make Buffon stare when he ungenerously
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asserts, as do several other writers of Europe, that 'animal life degenerates in America.'"
Tyler was the only West Virginia county created during the Second War with Great Britain. The first court held for the new county convened Monday, January 9, 1815, at the residence of Charles Wells, just below the present site of Sistersville, near where the residence of Ephraim Wells now stands. The justices composing it were Joseph Martin, Jeremiah Williams, Presley Martin, Joseph McCoy, William Wells, Abraham S. Birckhead, John Nicklin, Ephraim Martin, John Whitten and Bazil Riggs. The first offi- cers were as follows : Sheriff, Joseph Martin ; Deputy Sheriff, Abner C. Martin ; Clerk Superior Court, Moses W. Chapline; Clerk County Court, Abraham S. Birck- head; Prosecuting Attorney, Moses W. Chapline; Commissioner of the Revenue, Moses Williamson.
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LEWIS.
Lewis county was formed from Harrison by an Act of Assembly passed December 18, 1816, by which- the boundaries were defined to be : " Beginning at the head of the left hand fork of Jesse's run ; thence a straight line to the mouth of Kincheloe's creek; thence up said creek to the dividing ridge; thence a west course to the Wood county line; thence to include all the south part of Harrison down to the mouth of Buchannon river ; thence a straight line to the beginning." The act directed that the first court should be held at Westfield, and appointed the following named commissioners to locate the county seat : Edward Jackson, Elias Lowther, John McCoy, Lewis Maxwell and Daniel Stringer.
The county was named in memory of Colonel Charles Lewis, who was killed at the battle of Point Pleasant. He was the youngest son of John Lewis, the pioneer settler of Augusta county, and a brother of General Andrew Lewis, who commanded the Virginians at Point Pleasant.
Weston, the county seat, was established a town, under the name of "Preston," January, 1818, on lands of Daniel Stringer and Lewis Maxwell; Henry Mc- Whorter, William Peterson, James M. Camp and Rob- ert Collins were appointed trustees. By an act of February 20, 1819, the name of the town was changed to "Fleshersville." This, however, does not appear to have been satisfactory, for on the 19th of the following December it was enacted that " the town established in the county of Lewis, by the name of 'Preston,' afterward changed to 'Fleshersville,' shall hereafter be known by the name of ' Weston.'"
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The first settler on the site of the present town was Henry Flesher. The exact date of his settlement is not known, but he was residing here as early as 1784, for in that year, while engaged in hauling logs to build a stable, he was attacked by a party of Indians then ravaging the settlements on the West Fork. The gun discharged at him had been loaded with two balls, both of which took effect in Flesher's arm. Thus wounded, he fled to his cabin, closely pursued by two savages, one of whom was so close upon him as to strike him with the butt end of his gun as he entered the door. The blow seemed to throw him forward into the house. His wife closed the door and the Indians made no effort to force it open. Still, the family felt insecure, and as soon as the savages had withdrawn they left the house and concealed themselves in the forest. One member of the family-a young lady- succeeded in finding the way to Hacker's creek, where she gave the alarm. Early next morning, Thomas Hughes with others started out and succeeded in escorting the Fleshers to the settlement.
ALEXANDER WITHERS, the author of that rare and valuable work, " Chronicles of Border Warfare," is buried at Weston. He was a representative of one of the oldest families of Virginia, the emigrant ancestor being John Withers, who owned an estate in Stafford county. This he devised to several heirs by will bear- ing date August 29, 1698. One of his heirs, William Withers, who was born in Lancaster, England, in 1731. and who was the definite ancestor of the historian, did not arrive in Virginia until 1745. For a time he was the private secretary of Governor Dinwiddie, and after- ward located in Dinwiddie county, at a place called
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Kingston. In 1761, he wedded Priscilla Wright, of Nansemond county, by whom he had issue, one of whom, Enoch K. Withers, married Jannet Chinn (a daughter of Jannet Scott, a first cousin of Sir Walter Scott), and settled at Green Meadows, six miles distant from Warrenton, the county seat of Fauquier county. Here on the 12th day of October, 1792, Alexander Withers, the author of " Border Warfare," was born.
After graduating at William and Mary College, he studied law, and August 10, 1815, married Melinda Feslier. He came west of the mountains in 1827, and at Clarksburgh met Joseph Israel, with whom he con- tracted to publish a work on the early settlement of Western Virginia. Mr. Withers traversed the terri- tory taking his notes, and the " Chronicles of Border Warfare," published at Clarksburgh in 1831, is the result of his labors. He died at the residence of his daughter, Mrs. Jannet S. Tavenner, near Parkersburg, January 23, 1865. He was an accomplished scholar, and spent much of his time in the study of the Greek and Latin classics.
JONATHAN M. BENNETT, who won for himself the proud distinction of being the "best Auditor Virginia ever had," was a native of this county. He was born in what is known as " Collins' Settlement," October 4, 1816. His paternal grandfather was Joseph Bennett, who emigrated from Scotland and settled in Augusta county, Virginia, before the Revolution. His father was William Bennett, the eldest son of Joseph, who was born in Pendleton county, Virginia, and removed to what is now Lewis county, in the year ISoo. Jona- than M., the subject of this sketch, married Margaret E., a daughter of Captain George W. Jackson, a soldier
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in the War of 1812, and a brother of Judge John G. Jackson, the first judge of the District Court of the United States for West Virginia. She was also a cousin of " Stonewall " Jackson.
In March, 1836, Jonathan M. Bennett was made deputy sheriff of Lewis county, which office he held until 1838, when he was appointed deputy clerk of both county and circuit courts, holding the same for several years. In 1843, he was admitted to the bar and entered into a partnership with Judge Gideon D. Cam- den, which continued until 1852, when Judge Camden went upon the bench. When Gilmer county was formed he became its first Commonwealth's attorney. He was elected the first mayor of Weston in 1846. In 1851, he was appointed one of the commissioners to receive subscriptions to the Weston and West Union Turnpike. In 1851, he was elected to the General As- sembly of Virginia, and became an active and promi- nent member of that body, in the session of 1852-3, materially aiding in the passing of laws to put in force the great reforms contemplated by the Constitution of Virginia which had just been ratified by the people. Among the benefits obtained by him at that time for his county were the appropriation of large sums of money to macadamize the Weston and Fairmont, and Weston and Gauley Bridge Turnpikes, and the establishment of a branch of the Exchange Bank of Virginia, at Weston, with a capital of $300,000. In IS53, he was elected president of the bank, which inca- pacitated him for reelection to the General Assembly. This position he held until 1857, when Governor Henry A. Wise appointed him first auditor of Virginia, which office he continued to hold until 1865, when he was
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rendered ineligible by the test oath-he having followed the fortunes of his native State during the late war.
To his intimate friendship and personal influence with Governor Wise can the people of Lewis county justly attribute the location of the Hospital for the Insane in their midst, for he virtually permitted Mr. Bennett to name the commissioners who located it. In 1858, he was a prominent candidate for Congress, leading for many ballots at the Democratic convention . which finally nominated General Albert G. Jenkins. After the Civil War he returned to Weston, where he continued in a successful and lucrative practice of the law until his death.
In 1872, he was elected to the Senate of West Vir- ginia, and served four years as a leading member. In 1871, he, A. W. Campbell and General John J. Jackson were appointed commissioners by the State of West Virginia to adjust with Virginia their respective pro- portions of the public debt of the old State, and made an able and accurate report concerning the same. Afterward, as chairman of the finance committee of the West Virginia Senate, he prepared and submitted a more comprehensive report on that subject, which placed West Virginia in a still more favorable light. These reports have ever since been relied on by our State as her defence on this important question. In 1876, he was appointed Awarding Judge for West Virginia to the Centennial at Philadelphia. He died at Weston, October 28, 1887.
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NICHOLAS.
Nicholas county was formed from Greenbrier, by Act of Assembly passed January 30, 1818. By it the boundaries were defined, but so unsatisfactorily, that, by an Act of January 29, 1820, they were entirely changed. The former Act declared that the first court for the new county should be held at the house of John Hamilton. The commissioners to locate the county seat were John Hansford and John Wilson, of Kanawha ; Samuel Brown and John Welch, of Greenbrier, and William Marteney, of Randolph.
WILSON CARY NICHOLAS .- The county derives its name from Wilson Cary Nicholas, who was born in the city of Williamsburg, Virginia, January 31, 1761. He was a student in William and Mary College, but in 1779, left the institution to enter the Continental army, in which he served as commander of Washing- ton's Life Guard until the close of the war. In 1784, he represented Albemarle county in the General As- sembly, in which body he almost continuously occupied a seat until 1799, when he was elected to the United States Senate. In 1806, he declined the mission to France, and in ISo7, was elected a member of Congress and re- elected in 1809. In 1814, he became Governor of Vir- ginia and served two terms. He died October 10, ISIO.
Summersville, the county scat, was legally established a town, January 19, 1820, on thirty acres of land, the property of the heirs of John Hamilton. Robert Hamil- ton, Robert Kelly, William Hamilton, John Groves, Samuel Hutchison, John G. Stephenson, James Robin- son, John Campbell and Edward Rion, were appointed trustees. The town was incorporated March 20, 1860.
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PRESTON.
Preston county was formed from Monongalia by an act of Assembly passed January 19, 1818. The act providing for the formation of the county required the county Court of Quarter Sessions therefor to be held on the first Monday of March, 1818, which, how- ever, did not meet until some time in April, that year. The justices, so far as can be ascertained (the records were partially destroyed by the burning of the court- house in 1869), were John Fairfax, Frederick Harst, Hugh Evans, Nathan Matheny, Joseph Mathews, Na- than Ashby, William Sigler, Benjamin Shaw and Felix Shaw. The first court convened at the house of William Price in Kingwood, which was for many years known as the " Herndon Hotel." The first officers of the county were, Joseph D. Suit, Sheriff; Charles Byrne, County Clerk ; Eugene M. Wilson, Circuit Clerk; James McGee, Prosecuting Attorney. The first term of the Circuit Court-then called the Su- perior Court-was held on "the first Monday after the fourth Monday" in April, 1818, Judge Daniel Smith, of Rockingham county, presiding.
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