USA > West Virginia > History of West Virginia > Part 45
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flict with the Indians, hastened to the spot. On seeing him Adam called out to him to kill the big Indian on shore. But Andrew's gun, like that of the Indian, was empty. The contest was now between the White and the Indian, who should load and fire first. Very for- tunately for Poe, the Indian in loading drew the ramrod from the thimbles of the stock of the gun with so much violence that it slipped from his hand and fell a little distance from him. He quickly caught it up and rammed down his bullet. This little delay gave Poe the advantage. He shot the Indian as he was raising his gun to take aim at him.
" As soon as Andrew had shot the Indian, he jumped into the river to assist his wounded brother to shore ; but Adam, thinking more of the honor of carrying the scalp of the big Indian home as a trophy of victory than of his own safety, urged Andrew to go back and prevent the struggling savage from rolling himself into the river and escaping. Andrew's solicitude for his brother's life prevented him from complying with this request. In the meantime the Indian, jealous of the honor of his scalp even in the agonies of death, suc- ceeded in reaching the river and getting into the cur- rent, so that his body was never obtained. An unfor- tunate occurrence took place during the conflict. Just as Andrew arrived at the top of the bank for the relief of his brother, one of the party, who had fol- lowed close behind him, seeing Adam in the river and mistaking him for a wounded Indian, shot at him and wounded him in the shoulder. He, however, recov- ered from his wounds. During the contest between Adam Poe and the Indians, the party had overtaken the remaining six of them. A desperate conflict en-
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sued, in which five of the Indians were killed. The loss of the whites was three men killed and Adam Poe severely wounded. Thus ended the Spartan conflict, with the loss of three valiant men on one part and that of the whole Indian party, except one warrior. Seldom has a conflict taken place which in the issue proved fatal to so great a proportion of those engaged in it.
"The fatal result of this little campaign on the part of the Indians, occasioned a universal mourning among the Wyandotte nation. The big Indian and his four brothers, all of whom were killed at the same place, were among the most distinguished chiefs and warriors of their nation. The big Indian was magnanimous as well as brave. He, more than any other individual, contributed by his example and influence to the good character of the Wyandottes for lenity toward their prisoners. He would not suffer them to be killed or mistreated. This mercy to captives was an honorable distinction in the character of the Wyandottes, and was well understood by our first settlers, who, in case of captivity, thought it a fortunate circumstance to fall into their hands."
Fairview .- About the year 1800, David Pugh lo- cated a large tract of land embracing the present site of Fairview. In 1810, he laid out a portion of his land into lots, one hundred and thirteen in number, and named the embryo town New Manchester, though the post-office established here received the name of Fair- view. The town was incorporated by legislative enact- ment, as Fairview, February 10, 1871. At the request of the citizens the act of incorporation was repealed December, 1873. It became the permanent county seat by election in 1852.
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New Cumberland .- The town was laid out in lots, forty-two in number, in 1839, by John Cuppy. The founder called the place "Vernon," but afterward changed the name to New Cumberland, in deference to the wishes of the first purchasers of lots. The east- ern addition to the town was laid out in 1848, by Joseph L. Ball, Thomas Elder and John Gamble. Other addi- tions were made in 1850.
RALEIGH.
Raleigh county was formed from Fayette by act of January 23, 1850, and named in commemoration of Sir Walter Raleigh. The act creating the county made the town of Beckleyville the county seat. It was incorporated in 1850. Here, in the village school house, in March, 1850, the first court convened. It was composed of the following named justices: James Goodall, Robert Scott, Samuel L. Richmond, Robert Warden, Cyrus Snuffer, Lucien B. Davis, John T. Sar- rett, Benjamin Linkous, and John Stover. The first county officers were : Sheriff, John T. Clay ; Prosecu- ting Attorney, Edward W. Bailey; County Clerk, Daniel Shumate; Circuit Clerk, Alfred Beckley ; Assessor, John H. Anderson.
Pioneers .- Among the early pioneers were Vincent Philips, Samuel Pack, Samuel Richmond, Henry Hill, Joseph Carper, Sparriel Bailey, Booker Bailey, Joshua Roles, Daniel Shumate, Sr., Cyrus Snuffer, Owen Snuffer, James Bryson, John T. Sarrett, Wilson Abbott, Lemuel Jarrell, Jacob Harper, John Stover and Fielding Fipps.
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GENERAL ALFRED BECKLEY .- The following sketch of General Beckley was written by himself in 1887, and placed in the possession of J. C. Alderson, of Wheeling, who published it in the Register of that city, soon after the death of the subject, which occurred May 28, 1888 :-
" Alfred Beckley, Sr., born in Washington City, on Capitol Hill, on the 26th day of May, 1802, during the first term of the immortal Thomas Jefferson's presi- dency. My father, John Beckley, was the Clerk of the House of Representatives during the presidency of Washington, the elder Adams and Jefferson ; was in 1783, Mayor of the city of Richmond, and a mem- ber of the Board of Aldermen, Clerk of the House of Delegates, and Secretary of the Convention of Vir- ginia on the Constitution of 1788. He was the warm personal and political friend of Jefferson, and was the first Librarian of Congress.
" My father died on the 8th day of April, 1807, and in that year my mother removed to the city of Phila- delphia with myself, a boy of five years, her only child. She lived in Philadelphia till some time in May, 1814, when she removed to Frankfort, Kentucky. While in Philadelphia, I was sent to several schools of repute, and in Kentucky was the pupil of Kean O'Hara, one of the finest classical teachers in that State, and became a good Latin scholar. In 1819, Mr. Monroe, then President, and a warm personal friend of my father, on the application of my mother, through Gen. William Henry Harrison, gave me the warrant of cadet of the United States Military Academy at West Point, N. Y., and this warrant, signed by the great War Secretary, John C. Calhoun, I keep as a relic of the past. Upon
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· Gen. Harrison's invitation, I became an inmate in his family at North Bend for six months, availing myself of the instruction of Gen. Harrison's private instructor to his children. In August, the General placing me in the care of a Mrs. Kinney, and paying my traveling expenses to West Point out of his own pocket, I started for West Point, but was taken sick on the jour- ney, and did not reach the Point till the 25th of Sep- tember, 1819, when my class of 1823, had been at their studies a whole month. I was examined alone by the academic staff, and admitted on the 25th of September. I graduated on the Ist of July, 1823, number nine in a class of thirty-five, and was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant of the Fourth Regiment of United States Artillery on the same day. I served thirteen years honorably in the United States Army; two years in Florida, 1824 to 1826; two years at Old Point Com- fort in West Virginia, in the schools of artillery prac- tice ; six years on ordnance duty at the Allegheny arsenal near Pittsburgh, and two years in garrison at Fort Hamilton Narrows, New York. In 1836, having married Miss Amelia Neville Craig, daughter of Neville B. Craig, Esq., editor of the Pittsburgh Gasette, I resigned my commission as First Lieutenant, and removed to Fayette county, Va., to improve a body of unsettled stony lands for my widowed mother and myself, lying in the southern part (now Raleigh county). I devoted myself to the building up of wild lands, was instru- mental in the building of the Giles, Fayette and Ka- nawha turnpike, and on the establishment of the new county, now embracing above 10,000 inhabitants, I was the first Clerk of the Circuit Court of Raleigh county, and in 1872, the County Superintendent of Schools ;
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was Treasurer of the School Funds ; was the delegate from the Thirteenth Electoral District of Va. to the National Whig Convention at Baltimore and voted for Henry Clay and Theodore Frelinghuysen as President and Vice President. In 1876, I was a delegate at large from West Virginia to the National Democratic Con- vention in St. Louis, Mo., and in 1877, represented Raleigh county in the House of Delegates at Wheeling, and was appointed by that Legislature to deliver, at the evening session of February 22, 1877, an address on the character of George Washington, and to read his farewell address. These duties I performed, and re- ceived the unanimous thanks of the House of Delegates. I was as warm an advocate for the acts of that Legis- lature, eventually placing the State Capitol at Charles- ton, as any other member, and rejoice that our efforts were successful.
" In 1849, the General Assembly of Virginia elected me as Brigadier General of Militia, creating for me a new brigadier district. In the civil war of 1861 to 1865, I was called out by General Henry A. Wise, and served with my brigade in guarding the fastnesses of Cotton Hill and the ferries of New river. The militia rendered poor service, and at my earnest solicitation General Floyd disbanded the militia early in 1862, at Jumping Branch. In 1862, Colonel Hays garrisoned Raleigh Court House with part of the 23d Regiment of the Ohio Volunteers, and I came home and surrendered myself to Colonel Hays. In April, 1862, General John C. Fremont sent a telegraphic order from Wheeling to Colonel Hays to arrest me and send me under guard to the headquarters of the Mountain Department at Wheeling. I was started with a guard of a lieutenant,
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sergeant and eight privates, but at Charleston General Core sent back the guard and told the lieutenant to conduct me honorably to Mountain Headquarters. After some detention Fremont sent me on to Camp Chase prison. I was in Pen No, 2, about a month when Governor Todd released me on my parole and gave the United States Quartermaster orders to give me transportation to Raleigh Court House. I went as a prisoner under guard and returned as a gentleman, thanks to good Governor Todd. Since I left the army, I have spent half a century in West Virginia, and have filled many civil offices and been instrumental in found- ing a new county and the improvement of West Vir- ginia, and have ever aimed, by the grace of God, to present a good, religious, moral, temperance record to my fellow men.
"I have omitted my record as a friend of temperance. I had always kept up a division of the Sons of Tem- perance at Raleigh C. H., and think I saved my two eldest sons by this means.
" In October, 1839, I attended the session of the Grand Division of Virginia of 1839, at Lynchburg, which was composed of delegates representing 15,000 Sons of Temperance of Virginia, and I was elected Grand Worthy Patriarch of the Sons of Temperance and served during 1860, as Grand Worthy Patriarch. This I regard as the greatest honor I ever received from my fellow men. I laid the corner stone or rather dedi- cated the monument in honor of Lucien Munroe, a most distinguished son of the Order, at Williamsburg, Va., and then attended the session of the National Temperance Grand Division at Portland, Me., and ascended Mount Washington, New Hampshire, and
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with my brethren of the National Division we held a temperance meeting, with a good many sisters of tem- perance, on top of the White Mountains."
WYOMING.
Wyoming county was formed from Logan, by Act of Assembly, January 26, 1850. The origin of the name is involved in obscurity. By some authorities it is said to be a corruption of the Indian Maughwanwama, signi- fying a plain, while others assert that it is a creation of the poet, Thomas Campbell, author of "Gertrude of Wyoming."
The Act providing for the formation of the county required the first court to be held at the residence of John Cook, and the seat of justice to be fixed on the lands of William Cook, Sr., on the Clear fork of Guy- andotte river.
Oceana, the county seat, was incorporated February 16, 1871.
Captivity of Mrs. Jenny Wiley .- The following thrilling narrative is here inserted for the reason, if the capture was not made within the present limits of Wyo- ming, part of her wanderings while a captive were over its mountains and valleys.
For generations the story of the captivity of Mrs. Jenny Wiley has been transmitted from parent to child, until, to-day, the traveller would scarcely stop at the house of a descendant of one of the early settlers of the Big Sandy valley in which he would not hear it related. Yet no chronicler of the West has given it a place in frontier history. For this work all that can now be
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learned respecting the adventures of this captive mother, has been obtained from her descendants. The facts were furnished by Judge Archibald Borders, judge of the court of Lawrence county, Kentucky, who at present resides near Peach Orchard, in that State, and who is a nephew of Jenny Wiley ; Dr. G. Murray, of Louisa, Kentucky, whose stepmother was a sister ; also by Mrs. William C. Crum, and Rev. John Jarrel, both of Wayne county, West Virginia, all unimpeachable authority in the matter.
The maiden name of the captive was Jenny Sellards. She married Thomas Wiley, a brother of the Wiley who lived on New river, in Giles county, Virginia, who had about the year 1780, settled and erected a cabin on Walker's creek in Washington-now Tazewell- county, Virginia. He removed his bride, and here they were living at the time of the capture. She had a sister living hard by who was married to John Bor- ders, the father of Judge Borders before mentioned. There were also several families named Harmon in the vicinity, a number of whom were noted Indian scouts and frontier warriors. Thomas Wiley, the husband, was absent from home at the time of the capture, being engaged in digging ginseng, then an important article of traffic on the frontier. The year was 1790. The destruction of the Wiley family was the result of a mis- take on the part of the savages. Some time previous, in an engagement with a party of Cherokees, one of the Harmons had shot and killed two or three of their number, and now a party of five returned to seek ven- geance in the murder of Harmon and his family, but being ignorant of the exact location of his cabin, they fell upon that of the Wiley's instead.
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The day before the attack, Mr. Borders, mistrusting, from various indications, that Indians were prowling about the neighborhood, called on Mrs. Wiley and re- quested her to take her children and go to his house and there remain until her husband returned. She was engaged in weaving, and told him that as soon as she got the web out she would do so. In approaching the house, Mr. Borders found it very difficult to get his horse to pass a patch of hemp, and it was afterwards supposed that at the time the Indians were concealed within it.
The delay on the part of Mrs. Wiley was a fatal one. Dark came and with it the attack upon the defenceless family. The Indians rushed into the house, and after tomahawking and scalping a younger brother and three of the children, took Mrs. Wiley, her infant of less than two years, and Wiley's hunting dog, and started toward the Ohio river. At that time the Indian trail led down what is now known as Jenny's creek, and along it they proceeded until they reached the mouth of that stream, then down Tug and Big Sandy rivers to the Ohio.
No sooner had the news of the horrid murder spread among the inhabitants of the Walker's creek settle- ment than a party, among whom were Lazarus Damron and Mathias Harmon, started in pursuit. They fol- lowed on for several days, but failing to come up with the perpetrators of the terrible outrage, the pursuit was abandoned and all returned to their homes. The Indians expected to be followed, and the infant prov- ing an impediment to their flight, they dashed its brains out against a beech trec, about two miles from Jenny's creek. This tree was standing and well known to the inhabitants during the first quarter of this century.
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When the savages, with their captive, reached the Ohio, it was very much swollen; with a shout of O-high-o, they turned down that stream and continued their journey to the mouth of the Little Sandy. Up that stream they went to the mouth of Dry fork, and up the same to its head, where they crossed the dividing ridge and proceeded down what is now called Chero- kee fork of Big Blain creek, to a point within two miles of its mouth, where they halted, taking shelter beneath a ledge of rocks. Here they remained several months, and during the time Mrs. Wiley gave birth to a son. At this time the Indians were very kind to her, but when the child was three weeks old they tested it to see whether it would make a brave warrior. Having tied the babe to a flat piece of wood they slipped it into the water, to see if he would cry. He screamed furiously, and they took him by the heels and dashed out his brains against a tree.
When they left this encampment, they proceeded down to the mouth of Cherokee creek, then up Big Blain to the mouth of Hood's fork, thence up that stream to its source ; from here they crossed over the dividing ridge to the waters of Mud Lick, and down the same to its mouth where they once more formed an encampment.
About this time several settlements were made on the head waters of the Big Sandy, and the Indians decided to kill their captive and prepared for the execu- tion, but when the awful hour came, an old Cherokee chief, who in the meantime had joined the party, pro- posed to buy her from the others on condition that she would teach his squaws to make cloth like the gown she wore. Thus was her life saved, but she was re-
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PIONEERS CLEARING LAND IN THE BIG SANDY VALLEY.
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duced to the most abject slavery, and was made to carry water and wood and build fires. For some time they bound her when they went out hunting, but as time wore away they relaxed their vigilance, and at last permitted her to remain unbound.
On one occasion, when they were all out from camp, they were belated and at nightfall did not return. Mrs. Wiley now resolved to carry into effect a long-cherished hope of making her escape and returning to her friends. The rain was falling fast and the night was intensely dark, but she glided away from the camp fire and set out on her lonely, perilous journey. Her dog, the same that had followed the party through all their wander- ings, would have followed her, but she drove him back, lest by his barking he might betray her into the hands of her pursuers. She followed the course of Mud Lick creek to its mouth and then crossing Main Point creek, journeyed up the stream which has ever since borne her name, a distance of seven or eight miles to its source, thence over a ridge and down a stream, now called Little Paint creek, which empties into Louisa fork of Big Sandy river. When she reached its mouth it was day dawn, and on the opposite side of the river, a short distance below the mouth of John's creek, she could hear and see men at work erecting a block house. To them she called and informed them that she was a captive escaping from the Indians, urging them to hasten to her rescue, as she believed her pur- suers to be close upon her. The men had no boat, but hastily rolling some logs into the water and lashing them together with grape vines, they pushed over the stream, and carried her back with them. As they were ascend- ing the bank, the old chief who had claimed Jenny as
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his property, preceded by the dog, appeared upon the opposite bank, and striking his hands upon his breast, exclaimed in broken English : " Honor, Jenny, honor," and then disappeared in the forest.
That was the last she ever saw of the old chief or her dog. She rested a day or two from her fatigue, and then with a guide made her way back to her home, having been in captivity more than eleven months. Here she joined her husband, who had long supposed her dead, and together, nine years after-in the year 1800 -- they abandoned their home in the Old Dominion, and found another near the mouth of Tom's creek on the banks of the Louisa fork of Big Sandy. Here her husband died in the year 1810. She survived him' twenty-one years.
The Indians had killed her brother and five of her children, but after her return from captivity five others were born, namely : Hezekiah, Jane, Sally, Adam and William. Hezekiah married Miss Christine Nelson, of George's creek, Kentucky, and settled on Twelve-pole river, where he lived for many years; he died in 1832, i
while visiting friends in Kentucky. Jane married Richard Williamson, and also settled on Twelve-pole. Sallie first married Christian Yost, of Kentucky, and after his death was united in marriage to Samuel Murray ; she died March 10, 1871 ; William reared a family in the valley of Tom's creek, Kentucky, and Adam also remained in that State.
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PLEASANTS.
Pleasants county was formed from Wood, Tyler and Ritchie, by Act of Assembly, March 29, 1851, and named in memory of James Pleasants.
JAMES PLEASANTS was born in Goochland county, Virginia, in 1769, and after receiving a common school education, studied law in the office of the distinguished William Flemming. In 1796, he was chosen to repre- sent Goochland county in the General Assembly, and was chosen Clerk of that body from 1803 to 1810, when he was elected a member of Congress, in which body he occupied a seat from 1811 to 1819. Decem- ber 1, 1822, he was elected Governor of Virginia, and by successive reelections served until 1825. He twice declined judicial honors and died in his native county, November 9, 1836.
St. Mary's, the county seat, was incorporated March 31, 1851, and William Dils and John Logan were appointed commissioners to hold the first municipal election. The town was then in Wood county.
UPSHUR.
Upshur county was formed from Randolph, Barbour and Lewis, by Act of March 26, 1851, and named in honor of the lamented Abel P. Upshur. He was born in Northampton county, Virginia, June 17, 1790, and was educated at Yale and Princeton. He studied law in the office of the distinguished William Wirt, at Richmond, and after representing his native county in the General Assembly was, in 1826, appointed one of
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the judges of the General Court, and served as a member of the Constitutional Convention of 1829-30. September, 1841, he became Secretary of the Navy, but in 1843 was transferred to the office of Secretary of State, in which capacity he was serving when killed on board the steamer Princeton, at Mount Vernon, sharing the sad fate of Thomas Walker Gilmer, Secre- tary of the Navy.
Buckhannon-then in Harrison-was legally consti- tuted a town, January 15, 1816, on lands of Robert Patton, Jr., with Joseph Davis, Jacob Lawrence, Philip Reger, John Jackson, John Reger, Benjamin Reeder and John McWhorter, trustees.
CALHOUN.
Calhoun county, the area of which is 260 square miles, was created by Act of Assembly passed March 5, 1856. It provided that so much of the lower part of Gilmer as lies within the following boundaries : " Beginning at the west fork of the Little Kanawha where the Gilmer and Wirt county line crosses the same ; thence up the West fork to the mouth of Henry's fork; thence up said Henry's fork to the mouth of Beech fork; thence with the dividing ridge between said Beech fork and Henry's fork to the Gilmer county line ; thence to include all the waters of said West fork within the county of Gilmer to the Gilmer, Ripley and Ohio turnpike to the head of Cromley's creek ; thence with said turnpike to the mouth of Bear fork of Steer creek; thence a straight line to the head of Muscle Shoals of the Little Kanawha river; thence by the
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shortest line to the top of the dividing ridge between the waters of Tanner's fork and Laurel creek to the Ritchie county line and the Wirt and Gilmer county line to the place of beginning, shall be and the same is hereby established a new county, to be called Calhoun." The county was named in honor of John C. Calhoun, so distinguished in American politics.
The First County Court convened at the house of Joseph W. Burson, April 14, 1856. The following justices composed it: Hiram Ferrell, Daniel Duskey, H. R. Ferrell, Joshua L. Knight, Absalom Knotts, George Lynch and William A. Brannon. James N. Norman qualified as the first high sheriff of the county. He named Alpheus Norman and Philip Norman as his deputies, which appointments the court approved. By a viva voce vote, George W. Silcott was elected to the office of clerk. After the transaction of other miscella- neous business, the court adjourned to meet, in Sep- tember next, at the house of Peregriene Hays, where Arnoldsburg now stands.
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