USA > West Virginia > History of West Virginia > Part 42
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from becoming the victims of the murderous savage foe.
In 1800, came Joseph Parsons, Cornelius King and John Douglas. David Sayre and Alexander Warth came with the first year of the present century ; Reuben Smith came in 1802; Thomas and Job Hughes in 1 804 ; Joseph Hall, Isaac Hide, Isaac Statts and Thomas Flowers in 1806; John Bibbee in 1810; Jacob Baker in 1812. In 1807, John DeWitt built the first cabin in Muse's bottom. The same year cabins were erected near him by John Boso, Thomas DeWitt, John Powers, Thomas Coleman and Ellis Nesselroad. In 1808, John Nesselroad settled at the mouth of Sand creek. With him came Lawrence Lane (who reared his cabin where Ravenswood now stands), William Bailey, George Swope, Noah Robinson, Franklin Wise, Daniel Beaty and William Anderson. The same year Eli Grandy settled on Sand creek, three miles from the Ohio river, James Dougherty settled on the Ravenswood bottoms, and James Stanley a short distance below the mouth of Sand creek.
Ravenswood is situated on the left bank of the Ohio river, thirty-five miles below Parkersburg and fifty-one above Point Pleasant. The land upon which the town stands originally belonged to George Washington, having been surveyed by him and his assistant, Colonel William Crawford, in the summer of 1770, and patented the following year. There were 1450 acres of this tract. It was inherited by six of his grand-nieces, of whom Henrietta S., wife of Henry Fitzhugh, and Lucy Fitzhugh, afterward wife of Arthur M. Payne, were two, and they came into possession of the land upon which the town is located. . In ISI0, Lawrence Lane and
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William Bailey settled upon the land and cleared about forty acres of it. Rudolph Roberts, of Alexandria, Virginia, the agent for the Washington heirs, had the lands surveyed and divided among them in 1812. The improved lands from which the squatters had been ejected were then rented to various parties, one of whom was Bartholomew Fleming, until 1836, when Mrs. Henrietta S. Harning married Henry Fitzhugh, and Mrs. Lucy, having been united in marriage with Arthur Payne, they removed to these lands and laid out the town. The name which it now bears is the result of an error. Mrs. Payne named it Ravensworth, in honor of relatives of that name in England, but the engravers of the first map of Virginia upon which it appears spelled it Ravenswood, and the mistake has never been corrected. Joseph Holdren, George Warth, Bartholomew Fleming, Thomas Coleman, John Thorn, purchased the first lots and became the first settlers.
Ripley .- The original owner of the land upon which the town now stands was William Parsons, who was the first settler in the vicinity. He afterward sold his land to Jacob Starcher, who laid out the town, and named it in honor of Harry Ripley, who was drowned in Big Mill creek, one and a half miles above the present site of the town. He had his marriage license in his pos- session at the time of his death. Ripley became the county seat two years after the formation of the county, Jacob Starcher having in that year donated to the county the square upon which the public buildings now stand.
WILLIAM K. PARK, a Lieutenant of Engineers, Con- federate Army, was born in Ripley, this county, July 31, 1840. In early life he attended school at Ravens-
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wood, and in 1857, when in his seventeenth year, entered the Virginia Military Institute, from which he was graduated in May, 1861. He immediately re- ceived a second lieutenant's commission and was ordered to join the command of General John A. Mc- Causland, then stationed at Buffalo, on the Great Kanawha. Later, he constructed the fortifications at the Narrows of New river. In 1862, he was trans- ferred to the command of General A. G. Jenkins. A member of the 17th Virginia Cavalry, he shared the fortunes of his regiment until November, 1864, when he was made a Lieutenant of Engineers and ordered to the command of General Whiting, at Wilmington, North Carolina. Later, he proceeded to Weldon, where he remained until the evacuation of that place, when his command fell back to Raleigh, and thence to Greensboro. Here he died May 5, 1865. His re- mains repose in the cemetery at Salisbury, North Carolina.
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FAYETTE.
Fayette county was formed in 1831, from Kanawha, Greenbrier, Nicholas and Logan, and named in honor of General Lafayette. Within the county is laid many of the principal scenes in that remarkable work of fiction, "New Hope, or The Rescue," one of the masterpieces of frontier literature, and around which centres a peculiar interest because its author's identity is unknown.
Here, on the north side of the New river-Kanawha -new because it is a novelty in nature-stands one of Nature's wonders. It is the lofty precipice long known as the "Hawk's Nest," but more properly called Marshall's Pillar, in honor of Chief Justice Marshall, who, as one of the Virginia commissioners, stood upon its summit in the year 1812. He was the first to ascertain its height.
JOHN ROWZEE PEYTON, known far and wide for his eccentric humor, was long a resident of this county. He was the son of Captain Garnett Peyton, of the United States Army, and was born at Madisonville, Montgomery county, Virginia, December 6, 1806. When yet a boy he was sent to the Virginia Staunton Academy, and afterward spent some years on the bor- ders of Virginia and Kentucky, but subsequently mar- ried in Montgomery county, and in 1845 removed to an estate in Fayette county. Here he engaged in the stock business, the principal occupation of this region at that period. He was thus engaged at the begin- ning of the Civil War. A Whig in politics, he opposed secession, but when the struggle came, he hastened to Harper's Ferry, and though weighing nearly four hun-
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dred pounds, he enlisted in a Virginia regiment be- longing to the Stonewall Brigade, which he accompan- ied to Bull Run. After participating in the desperate action at that place, he was detailed for recruiting ser- vice and sent to Southwest Virginia. In 1862, he was assassinated in Roanoke county by three deserters from the Confederate Army. He had stopped for dinner at an inn at the base of Bent Mountain, where were stopping the deserters, who were concealing their identity. Colonel Peyton began the ascent of the mountain, they having preceded him, and when near- ing the summit, they fired upon him from ambush, and he fell dead from his horse. They were apprehended, tried and one of them executed at Salem, in 1862.
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MARSHALL.
Marshall county has an area of 240 square miles. It began its existence March 12, 1835, when the General Assembly enacted "That all that part of the county of Ohio, lying south of a line beginning on the Ohio river at a stone to be fixed on the bank of the said river one- half mile above the mouth of Bogg's run, thence a direct line to the northern boundary of the town of West Union, and thence continuing the same course to the Pennsylvania line, shall form one distinct and new county, and be called and known by the name of Mar- shall county." The county was named in honor of John Marshall, Chief Justice of the United States.
Robert C. Woods, of Ohio county, and John W. Mc- Clean, Sr., of Marshall, were appointed commissioners to run and mark the lines of the new county. The act made Elizabethtown the county seat, and provided that the first court should meet in a brick school house in said town on the first Thursday after the third Monday of May, 1835.
The First Court for the county of Marshall met at the time and place for which the act creating the county provided. The following justices were present : Jacob Burley, Benjamin McMechen, Zadoc Masters, Samuel Howard and Jacob Parrot. Blair Morgan was the first sheriff. The court elected officers as follows: Com- monwealth's Attorney, Elbert H. Caldwell ; Clerk of Court, James D. Morris. Moses C. Good, William McConnell, Zachariah Jacob, John McFerren, Francis C. Campbell, Lewis Steenrod, Morgan Nelson, Isaac Hoge, James A. Clarke and J. Y. Armstrong were granted license to practice law in the courts of this
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county. Robert Shoemaker, Thomas Stewart, Jesse V. Hughes, Samuel Gatts and Joshua Burley were appointed constables. Richard Morton and William Woodburn were commissioned coroners. The court appointed the following supervisors : Edward Gregg, James Ramsey, Bennett Logsden, David Lutes, R. B. Howard, Thomas Howard, John Ward, William O. Rowell, Samuel Venice, Richard Ruling, John Barts, Joseph Mayers, Joshua Garner, Job Smith, Andrew Jenny, David Jenny, David Wells, Miner Burge, James Standiford, Jacob Reed, James Chambers, James Ewing, Ebenezer Gordy, David Rush, Henry Ewing, John Stricklin, Edward Dowler, John Gray, Silas Price, B. S. Gregg, John Minson, James Nixon, Thomas Pollock, William Vanscoyoe, John Rine, Michael Dowler, Sam- uel Dowler, Philip Jones.
Pioneers .- In 1769, John Wetzel and family built a cabin on Big Wheeling creek within the limits of what is now Sand Hill district, Marshall county. The Siverts and Earlywynes came about the same time, settling on the ridge near them. In the summer of 1770, Joseph Tomlinson visited the flats of Grave creek. So en- chanted was he with the beauty of the surrounding country that he determined to rear himself a home on the wide, fertile bottom. Building a cabin, he spent the remaining summer and succeeding autumn in his chosen abode. He returned east of the mountains. intending to remove his family when spring came. Indian hostilities increasing, he delayed the removal for two years. A man named O'Neil, in Tomlinson's employ, came also in 1770. In 1777, Nathan Master, James and Jonathan Riggs found homes within the limits of Marshall county. In 1785, a man named
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Cresap located land on the Ohio in what is now Frank- lin district. In 1790, John, James and David Bonar built their cabin homes at a location afterward known as Bonar's Ridge. In 1792, Peter Yoho settled on Fish creek. In 1793, Richard Campbell, a native of Ireland, and Thomas Buchanon settled within the limits of Sand Hill district, and the following year Lazarus Rine settled near them. In 1795, Henry Conkle, from Pennsylvania, bought land and became a settler in this neighborhood. In 1798, Jonathan Purdy, who built the first distillery in the country, settled on Grave creek.
Nathaniel Parr's Encounter with the Indians .- Nathaniel Parr, with his father and brother, settled in 1770, at a place which afterward took the name of Parr's Point. While hunting, one day, Nathaniel killed a deer, and the hour being late, hung it on a tree out of reach of the wolves and went home. Early next morning he returned for his venison. While in the act of taking it down he was fired upon by the Indians, who, discovering the game, had concealed themselves to watch for the hunter. The firing suddenly ceased and five Indians made toward him. He seized his rifle and fired twice, both shots taking effect. The remain- ing three were young and cowardly and unprepared for Parr's desperate defense. He was shot in the right thigh, but standing on one foot, supported himself by a tree and warded off his assailants. He fell and found himself unable to rise. Seizing the stones that were lying loose near him, he assailed the Indians with such fury that they finally drew off, bearing the bodies of their dead comrades with them. Mr. Parr, alarmed at his son's continued absence, started in pursuit, and after a diligent search found him, and conducted him
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home. From the effects of wounds received in this fight, Nathaniel Parr was a cripple to the end of life.
Foreman's Defeat .- About four miles above Mounds- ville may be seen a monument bearing this inscription : " This humble stone is erected to the memory of Cap- tain Foreman and twenty-one of his men who were slain by a band of ruthless savages-the allies of a civilized nation of Europe-on the 25th of September, 1777.
" So sleep the brave who sink to rest By all their country's wishes blessed."
On the 25th of September, 1777, a column of smoke in the direction of Grave creek led the garrison at Fort Henry to believe that Indians were in that vicin- ity and had fired the stockade. Captain Foreman-a gallant soldier, but unacquainted with the wiles of In- dian warfare-with forty-five men was dispatched to render assistance, should any be needed.
Finding all safe at Grave creek, early next morning they began the return march. Captain Foreman was advised by one Lynn, an experienced Indian spy, to avoid the narrows, but apprehending no danger, the commander, with those of his own company, retraced the road by which they had come. Lynn, with seven or eight frontiersmen, took to the hills. At the upper end of the narrows Captain Foreman's party stopped to examine some Indian trophies picked up by several of the party, when they suddenly found themselves as- sailed by savages. With the foe on three sides, but one way of escape was left them. Those who were uninjured by the first fire fled up the hill, but so diffi- cult of ascent was it that the Indians killed several before they could reach a place of shelter. Lynn and
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his companions heard the firing and were not slow to guess the source. Hastening to the brink of the hill, they arrived in time to assist one wounded man to a place of safety. They concealed him in a cliff of rocks, and leaving him their provisions, promised to send relief the next day. Colonel Zane, the following day, came to the scene of conflict, buried the dead and car- ried away the wounded man. Neither the number of savages engaged nor the loss of Captain Foreman's party can be ascertained with certainty. The latter was probably twenty-one killed, including the Captain.
CAPTAIN JOHN BAKER, an early settler in the country, who commanded a party for defense against the Indi- ans, was killed in 1778. He in company with three men named Wetzel, from a block house at the head of Cresap's bottom, were watching a party of Indians who were reconnoitering on the opposite side of the river, waiting, as was supposed, an opportunity to kill some of those who had sought refuge in the fort. Baker fired and killed an Indian. The others, as though in great fright, fled. The four men at once crossed the river to examine the dead foe. No sooner had they stepped on the Ohio shore than they were fired upon by the concealed savages, who had been using the body of their dead comrade as a decoy. Baker fell severely wounded. The others escaped to the canoe unharmed. Returning shortly afterward, they carried Baker to the block house, where he died in a few hours.
Murder of the Misses Crow .- The following account of this sad event, which occurred in 1785, is given by Dr. De Hass : "The parents of these girls lived about one mile above the mouth of Dunkard, or lower fork of the creek (Wheeling). According to the statement
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of a third sister, who was an eye witness of the horrid deed and herself almost a victim, the three left their home for an evening walk along the deeply-shaded banks of that beautiful stream. Their walk extended over a mile, and they were just returning, when sud- denly several Indians sprang from behind a ledge of rocks and seized all three of the sisters. With scarcely a moment's interruption the savages led the captives a short distance up a small bank, where a halt was called and a parley took place. Some of the In- dians were in favor of immediate slaughter, while others were disposed to carry them into captivity. Unfortunately, the arm of mercy was powerless. Without a moment's warning a fierce-looking savage stepped from the group with elevated tomahawk and commenced the work of death. This Indian, in the language of the surviving sister, 'Began to tomahawk one of my sisters, Susan by name. Another Indian began the work of death on my sister Mary. I gave a sudden jerk and got loose from the one that seized me, ran with all speed and took up a steep bank and gained the top safe, but just as I caught hold of a bush to help myself up, the Indian fired and the ball passed through the clump of hair on my head, slightly break- ing the skin. The Indian went around in order to meet me as I would strike the homeward path. But I ran right from home and hid myself in the bushes, near the top of the hill. Presently I saw an Indian pass along the hill below me. I lay still until he was out of sight ; then I made for home.'"
The Tush Family .- George Tush, one of the ear- liest settlers in Marshall county, lived on Bruce's run. September 6, 1794, when Indian depredations were
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beginning to be considered a thing of the past, Mr. Tush left his cabin for the purpose of feeding his hogs. Three savages, who were lying in wait, fired upon him. A ball took effect in his breast, inflicting a serious and painful wound. Frantic with pain, he rushed past his cabin, leaving his wife and children to the mercy of the foe. The Indians entered the house, and the mother was compelled to witness their horrid work. The four elder children were tomahawked and scalped ; the infant, according to Indian custom, was caught by the heels and dashed against the side of the house. Taking such articles as they could carry, they retreated with the captive mother, whom they cruelly murdered about eight miles from her home. Tush, in his flight, jumped from a ledge of rocks, which so injured him that when he reached the house of his neighbor, Jacob Wetzel, it was late in the night. The infant was found alive the next day, and one of the children scalped by the Indians recovered.
COLONEL BEELER, some time previous to the year 1780, attempted to form a settlement along the ridge that separates the waters of Big and Middle Grave creeks. Indian depredations became so frequent and so terrible that Colonel Becler, in company with Joseph Tomlinson, of the fort at Grave creek, and Ryerson, of Ryerson's Station, Pennsylvania, walked through the snows of winter to Philadelphia to ask aid. The following spring, in answer to their entreaties, Captain Jeremiah Long, with fifty-three men, was sent to Bee- ler's Station.
Moundsville .- January 13, 1798, a ferry was estab- lished from lands of Joseph Tomlinson, at the mouth of Little Grave creek, across the Ohio. The same
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year a town was laid out by the owner of these lands, and named Elizabethtown, in honor of his wife. The same was established by legislative enactment, Janu- ary 18, 1803, with Joseph Biggs, Lazarus Harris, Jona- than Purdy, Jeremiah Woods and Jacob Wetzel, trus- tees. Elizabethtown was incorporated February 17, 1830. In 1831, the town of Moundsville was laid out by Simeon Purdy. The same was established by legis- lative enactment, January 28, 1832, with John Riggs, Lewis D. Purdy, John B. Roberts, Blair Morgan, Sam- uel Dorsey, Samuel Tomlinson, David Lockwood, Christopher Parrott and James Ramsey, trustees. By act of the Legislature, passed February 23, 1866, the towns of Moundsville and Elizabethtown were consoli- dated into one corporation under the name of the Town of Moundsville. The first officers were as fol- lows : Mayor, Robert McConnell; Clerk, H. W. Hunter ; Sergeant, David Branter ; Councilmen, Wil- liam L. Roberts, William Allum, W. K. Wade, Morris Rulong, Richard Shadduck and J. B. Shimp.
The Mammoth Mound, from which Moundsville re- ceives its name, is the largest of a number of mounds in this vicinity, and stands near the centre of the town. It is 69 feet in height and the base 900 feet in circum- ference. On cutting transversely the trunk of an oak that once crowned the summit, the concentric circles showed an age of 500 years. This mound was discov- ered by Joseph Tomlinson a short time after his loca- tion at the place. Yielding to the importunities of his friends, Tomlinson opened the mound in 1838. The work was begun from the northern side at the level of the surrounding ground. At a distance of III feet from the circumference a vault was reached which had
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been excavated before the building of the mound. This vault was seven feet in depth, eight feet wide and twelve feet long. Upright timbers stood at the side and ends, which had once supported transverse beams closing the top of the vault. Over these had been placed unhewn stones, which by the timbers giving way had fallen into the vault. Particles of charcoal where the timbers were first placed, led to the belief that fire had been used in severing them, instead of edged tools. Within the vault were two skeletons. One was surrounded with ivory beads and wore an ivory ornament six inches long, nearly two inches wide at the centre and tapering to half an inch at each end. The other skeleton was without ornament. The exca- vation revealed blue spots in the earth composing the mound, which upon examination were found to contain ashes and bits of bones, and are believed to be the remains of bodies burned before they were interred. An excavation from the top of the mound disclosed a vault similar in construction to the one beneath. This one contained a skeleton ornamented with beads, sea- shells and copper bracelets. Pieces of mica were strewn over the skeleton, and near it was found a small flat stone inscribed in antique characters, which thus far have baffled all attempts at deciphering. The stone may now be seen at the Smithsonian Institute. The Mammoth mound is one of a series of mounds and other evidences that at some ancient time the place was occupied by a race superior to the savage tribes, which the whites found in possession of it.
The State Penitentiary is located at Moundsville. After the organization of the new Commonwealth, the State convicts were confined in the county jail at
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Wheeling, appropriations being made from time to time to provide for them. January 30, 1866, a bill to provide a penitentiary for the State was reported to the House of Delegates by R. P. Camden, a member of the committee on Humane and Criminal Institutions. February 7 the bill came to its second reading, at which time the location was fixed at Moundsville. The House passed the bill February 8, and the Senate gave its concurrence on the 16th ensuing. The erection of the building was begun in July following. The institu- tion cost the State $363,061 .. 15.
The farm once owned by James McMechen in the lower end of the county,-twenty eight miles below Wheeling, is a spot of historic interest for the reason that it was here that the Virginia Regiment, com- manded by General William Darke, spent the winter of 1790-I when on its way to Fort Washington to join the ill-fated expedition of General St. Clair.
BRAXTON.
Braxton county was created by Act of Assembly, January 15, 1836, and named in honor of Carter Brax- ton, one of Virginia's signers of the Declaration of Independence. Its present area is 620 square miles. The first court was held at the house of John D. Sut- ton. The commissioners named in the act to locate the county seat were : John M. Hamilton, of Nicholas; George H. Bell, of Lewis; William Carnifex, of Fay- ette ; James Radcliffe, of Harrison, and John Gilliland, of Pocahontas.
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The most extensive view to be had in the State is that from the summit of High Knob, on the farm of John G. Morrison, in this county. The observer be- holds objects in twelve different counties-to the north, in Gilmer and Lewis; east, in Upshur, Randolph and Webster ; south, Clay, Nicholas, Fayette, Greenbrier and Pocahontas, and to the west, in Calhoun and Roane.
Sutton, the county seat, was established a town by the name of Suttonville-then in Nicholas county-by act of Assembly, January 27, 1826. By act of March I, 1837, it then being in the new county of Braxton, the ^ name was changed to Sutton, and Benjamin Boggs, William Newland, Andrew Sterrett and Alonzo D. Camden were appointed trustees. The town was in- corporated February 20, 1860, when John G. Heffner, James M. Corley, C. W. Kelly, and A. C. Kincaid were appointed to conduct the first municipal election.
Bulltown .- The murder of the friendly Indians, at whose head was Captain Bull, has been narrated in Part I., in the chapter on Dunmore's War. Salt water issuing from the earth, near the margin of the river, had been discovered by the earliest pioneers, and salt in small quantities was made here as early as 1795. But no wells were bored until about the year 1805, when Benjamin Wilson, Jr., and John and Thomas Haymond (the two latter the sons of William Haymond who re- moved from Maryland and settled in Harrison county in 1773), began drilling wells and erected salt works, which long supplied the surrounding country and the West Fork Valley with that necessary article. Bull- town salt was long quoted in the Clarksburgh market at · $2.50 per bushel.
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