USA > West Virginia > Webster County > Moccasin tracks and other imprints > Part 2
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company that had obtained a charter for the territory, sent out John Winthrop as "Governor of the Rivers of Connecticut." He built a fort at Saybrook to prevent the Dutch from ascending the river.
The next year the Rev. Thomas Hooker left Mas- sachusetts with one hundred men, women, and children bound for the Connecticut river. They traveled on foot through an unbroken forest, driving their cattle and hogs before them. The minister led the way carrying a hoe on his shoulder to show his people the necessity of agricultural pursuits. This band finally reached Hart- ford, where a small settlement of English had previous- ly been made. A war declared against the Pequot In- dians in the spring of 1637 resulted in the destruction of that Indian tribe.
In 1639 the inhabitants of Windsor, Wethersfield, and Hartford met in convention and drew up the first written constitution in America. No mention was made either of the King of England or the Company which held a royal grant of the land of Connecticut. It was expressed in this constitution that its object was to maintain the peace and union of the colony.
The New Haven colony was settled in 1638. Rev. John Davenport was one of the leading men and the laws drawn up for the colony were based upon the teachings of the Bible and they were called "Scripture Laws."
Connecticut never became a Royal colony but con- tinued to be governed by the charter granted by Charles I until 1818. Andros, the tyrannical royal gov- ernor of Massachusetts, tried to secure this charter in
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1682 but the friends of popular government hid it in a hollow oak where it lay until better days.
Rhode Island was settled at Providence under the leadership of Roger Williams in 1636. The province of Rhode Island was founded on the principles of soul liberty or liberty of conscience. This was a new idea and was thought to be dangerous doctrine, and it was freely predicted that it would soon cease to be popular, but it had a rapid and sure growth until it was written in our National Constitution as a part of the funda- mental law of the United States.
William Coddington, in company with Mrs. Anne Hutchinson, bought the island of Rhode Island and planted the colony of Portsmouth. Newport was settled by them in 1639. Roger Williams, in 1644, went to England and obtained a very liberal charter which united all three colonies into one province, and gave them full power to organize a government suitable for their needs and conditions. With slight modifications this charter was the fundamental law of Rhode Island until 1842.
Vermont, formerly a part of Massachusetts, bought her freedom from that state and was admitted into the Union in 1791, being the first state to be admitted by an act of Congress.
No section of the United States exerted a greater influence upon the destiny of the Nation than the six states of New England. The sturdy sons of these states have found homes in every portion of the coun- try, and with them they carried the New England idea of government and religion. .
AND OTHER IMPRINTS.
New York.
The Dutch built Fort Amsterdam and established a trading post on Manhattan Island in 1614. Nine years later a settlement was begun at that place, and also at Fort Orange, where Albany now stands, by the Dutch West India Company which sent over about thirty families. Peter Minuet, who became governor in 1626, purchased the island of Manhattan from the Indians. The Swedes in 1638 had established a colony west of the Delaware which they called Christina. This region was claimed by the Dutch, who made a conquest of New Sweden under Governor Peter Stuyvesant in 1655, and reduced it to submission. New Sweden was annexed to New Netherland. But the Dutch triumph was of short duration. Great Britain claimed the territory occupied by both the Dutch and the Swedes. The Eng- lish King, Charles II, granted the Dutch possession to his brother James, Duke of York. In 1664 an English fleet was sent against New Netherland which resulted in its capture. The Dutch province of New Nether- land became the English province of New York named . in honor of the Duke of York.
Maryland.
The English king granted to Lord Baltimore a tract of land comprising about 1200 square miles of territory north of Virginia called the "Northern Neck." The grantee was a Catholic nobleman of excellent character and ability who wished to establish a colony in the New . World for his oppressed brethren, and for all others who were persecuted for conscience's sake.
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Two vessels, the Ark and the Dove. brought the first settlers to the province of Maryland in 1734. The col- onists, numbering two hundred, sailed up the Chesapeake Bay and landed at a place which they called St. Mary's. From this small beginning the great State of Mary- land has grown. Baltimore city was begun in 1729 and had a very rapid growth.
In the course of a few years the Protestants, who were welcomed by Lord Baltimore, overthrew his gov- ernment and established the Church of England as the government church in Maryland. The fourth Lord Baltimore, who had become a Protestant, was made proprietor and governor in 1715. He and his descend- ants continued to govern the province until the be- ginning of the Revolution. Maryland was very early in her history the home of a liberty-loving yeomanry who did their full share in resisting the injustice that Great Britain perpetrated upon her American colonies.
The Carolinas.
Charles II granted a large body of land south of Vir- · ginia to a company composed of Lord Clarendon and seven associates. This grant was made in 1663. Settlers from Virginia, New England, and the West Indies had moved into that territory before the grant was made. In 1663 these people were organized into a settlement known as the Albermarle colony. The Clarendon colony was founded in 1670 on the Ashley river. A few years after, it was moved to the present site of Charleston.
A very elaborate form of government was framed which was known as the "Grand Model." This gave the
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common people no rights in the government because it recognized a kind of feudal system which was not suit- able for a backwoods settlement. This "Fundamental Constitution" was abandoned after twenty-one years of failure.
The colony was divided into North and South Caro- lina in 1712, and each was subject to a governor ap- pointed by the crown until the Declaration of Inde- pendence.
The Carolinas early engaged in the manufacture of tar, pitch and turpentine. In 1793 the cultivation of rice was begun. In later years (1741) indigo was in- troduced, and proved very profitable. The cultivation of rice and indigo gave rise to a large foreign commerce and made Charleston the leading commercial city of the South.
Pennsylvania.
William Penn, a devoted Friend or Quaker, received a tract of forty-eight thousand square miles of territory in America, from Charles II, in payment of a large sum of money which the king owed Penn's father. The king very generously named the province Pennsylvania, which means Penn's woods.
· The first colonists were sent over in 1681 under Ed- ward Markham. Nearly one-third of the number died from smallpox on the voyage. The good ship, Welcome, cast anchor where New Castle, Delaware, now stands. Penn himself came over in 1682 and laid out the city of Philadelphia. Penn's scheme of colonization was the best of any in America and was attended with marked
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success. By judicious management, he secured the good will of the Indians who ever after remained the staunch friends of William Penn and his people. The colonists were given the liberty to enact their own laws and they were protected in their worship of God and no one was compelled to subscribe to a creed in which he did not believe. Philadelphia had a very rapid growth and it was the largest and most important city in the colonies at the outbreak of the Revolution.
Delaware.
The history of Delaware is closely allied with that of Pennsylvania. By reference to the sketch of New York, it will be learned that Delaware was settled by the Swedes under the name of New Sweden. This land was purchased in 168? from the Duke of York by William Penn. It was called "The Territories" or the "Three Lower Counties on the Delaware." It was governed as a part of Pennsylvania until the Revolution when it became independent under the name of Delaware. This was the first state to ratify the National Constitution.
New Jersey.
The territory now embraced in the state of New Jer- sey was claimed by the Dutch, who began a settlement at Bergen in 1617. After the English had conquered the New Netherlands in 1664, the Duke of York gave the whole country between the Delaware and the Hud- son rivers to Lord Berkeley and Sir George Cartaret. An English colony was begun at Elizabethtown. Lib- eral terms were given the colonists and each one was
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AND OTHER IMPRINTS.
given a share in the government. The province was divided into West and East Jerseys. West Jersey was sold by Lord Berkeley in 1674 to some English Quak- ers, and some time after, Penn, and others, bought East Jersey from the heirs of Sir George Cartaret. The two Jerseys were united under the jurisdiction of New York in 1702. New Jersey became a separate province in 1738, and was ruled by a royal governor until the colony became independent of Great Britain.
Georgia.
Georgia is the youngest of the thirteen original col- onies and was settled under the leadership of Gen. James Oglethorpe. The object of that colony was two- fold. South Carolina was exposed to attack on the south by the Spaniards. It was thought necessary to have a body of men so placed that the commercial in- terests of Charleston could be protected. The second object was a very benevolent one, and was designed to alleviate the sufferings of the debtor class of England. At the beginning of the eighteenth century the jails were full of men who could not pay their debts. It was pro- posed to select the most deserving, pay their debts and bring them to America, where they could begin life anew under more favorable circumstances.
A charter for a tract of land between the Savannah and the Altamaha rivers was obtained and a settlement was begun on the Savannah river which was called Savannah. This was in 1733.
Because of certain restrictions in regard to slavery, rum, religion. the law of descent. and the law-making
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power, the progress of Georgia was very slow and vac- illating. Upon the modification or removal of these regulations the progress was very rapid and a flourish- ing commerce with other English colonies and the West Indies came into existence.
John and Charles Wesley, the founders of Method- ism. came to Georgia. John came as a preacher and Charles as private secretary of Oglethorpe. Rev. George Whitefield, "the silver tongued orator," came over and established an orphan asylum near Savannah.
In 1752 Georgia was changed from a proprietary to a royal colony. These thirteen English colonies ex- tended from the Spanish possession of Florida to the Bay of Fundy on the north, and extended far into the western wilderness. In some instances the claim ex- tended to the far away Pacific Ocean. They were slowly but surely gaining strength, which was greatly needed in the impending conflict with the wilderness and the Indians west of the Appalachian mountains. The majority of the colonists who sought homes be- tween the Alleghany mountains and the Ohio river came from the province of Virginia. The distance from Jamestown, the first place of settlement, to the base of the Blue Ridge, is about two hundred miles. Nearly seventy-five years were required to push the outposts of civilization to that point, and that, too, across a country comparatively level, and, in the main, but lit- tle infested with hostile Indians. This advance was at a yearly rate of less than six miles. In later years the outposts moved westward at an average yearly rate of seventeen miles.
This westward movement was almost irresistible when
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AND OTHER IMPRINTS.
it began and it carried the tide of emigration across the mountains, hills, and valleys of West Virginia to the Ohio, and still the tide flowed on to the Mississippi and the Great Plains beyond. A royal proclamation could not stop the great army of pioneers as it emerged from the western base of the Alleghanies. It will be of interest to trace the extent of territory claimed by the English colonies to the westward. The boundaries of the colonies on the west were very indefinite. The charter granted to the London Company was thought to have extended the western limits of Virginia to the Pacific. Four states at the close of the Revolution claimed the territory bounded by the Ohio, the Missis- sippi and the Great Lakes. These were New York, Virginia, Massachusetts and Connecticut. The other nine states objected to this exclusive ownership, and asked for a part interest.
Thomas Paine, in a pamphlet entitled the "Public Good," in his masterly skill argued that the whole Union should control all ungranted lands, because this was the legitimate successor of the British government. The four states concerned being influenced by this ar- gument, and a protest from the state of Maryland, generously yielded their claims to the Congress of the United States. New York ceded all of her claims west of her present western boundary in 1781. Virginia gave up all claims to the Northwest Territory, except ownership in the Virginia Reserve Military Bounty Lands, in 1784. Massachusetts yielded all claims west of New York in 1783, and in 1786 she gave up to that state her claim to govern the western part, but retained ownership in the land. Connecticut ceded her claim to Congress in 1786, with the exception of a strip of land
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one hundred and twenty miles long south of Lake Erie just west of Pennsylvania. This exception was known as the Western Reserve and was given to the United States in 1800.
The territory south of the Ohio known as the South- we-t Territory was harder to adjust than the territory north of that stream. To Virginia was left the Dis- triet of Kentucky, which remained a part of that state until it was admitted as a state in 1792. North Caro- lina claimed Tennessee, including the Watauga settle- ment. but in 1290 this claim was relinquished in favor of the United States. South Carolina ceded her claim to a narrow strip lying between western North Carolina and Georgia in 1787. Georgia claimed all the land be- tween the present state and the Mississippi and did not consent to her present boundaries until 1802.
This vast extent of land lying west of the present boundaries of the thirteen colonies, including the states of Kentucky and West Virginia. was admitted into the Union as sovereign states and the inhabitants thereof enjoyed all the rights, privileges. and immunities as those of the original states.
The region now embraced in the states of Ohio, Indi- ana, Illinois, Wisconsin, and that part of Minnesota east of the Mississippi. was under the jurisdiction of Orange county. Virginia. in 1734, and in [?38 it be- came a part of Augusta county. After the conquest of this territory by George Rogers Clark. in 1728. it was organized into the county of Illinois by legislative enactment of Virginia.
The Northwest Territory was the home of the In- dian tribes that made such disastrous incursions into northwestern Virginia for a period of fifty years.
II. THE INDIANS OF WEST VIRGINIA.
In order to fully understand the pioneer history of West Virginia it is necessary to know something of the roving tribes of Indians who hunted and fished in the territory between the Alleghanies and the Ohio. Be- sides these occupations they waged a relentless war against each other and were ever ready to dispute the right of the white settlers to the country. It will not be necessary to enter into an extended account of the Mound Builders. It is evident from the great earth works, called "Mounds," that a race in many ways superior to the Indians at one time dwelt in the Ohio valley. But a correct answer to the question, Who were they ? will probably never be given to the satisfaction of ethnologists.
That the Indians were here when the continent of North America was discovered is a fact of history, but from whence they came is still an unsolved mystery. That they exerted a powerful influence on the history of every county of West Virginia is unquestioned. From a geographical standpoint the study of the Indians is most fascinating. The grandest mountains and the noblest rivers of the state are known by names of In- dian derivation. Appalachia, as applied to the great chain of mountains, means "the endless mountains." Alleghany, as applied to the greatest range of these mountains, signifies "the place of the foot print," be- cause of the early and late snows in that region. Ohio means "the river of blood." because of the great amount of Indian blood that flowed in the wars for the reten- tien of this beautiful and most important river. The
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Great Kanawha in the Shawnee language was Kenin- sheka, meaning "the river of evil spirits". The Shawnees called the Elk Tiskelwah, "river of fat elk". The Delawares called it Pequoni, "the walnut river". The Gauley was called by the Delawares, Tokobelloke, "the falling creek". The present name of that stream is of French derivation. The Shenandoah was "the river of stars", and the Potomeck has been changed to Potomac. While the Indians spoke a guttural lan- guage, yet the names of our mountains and rivers de- rived from their language are very pleasing to the ear. The West Virginia counties of Kanawha, Logan, Mingo, Monongalia, Ohio, Pocahontas and Wyoming have names of Indian derivation. It is to be regretted that more of these names are not to be found on the 'map of the state. No tribe of Indians really possessed the soil of West Virginia when the first white man visited the region. A few scattering wigwams in the best. fishing and hunting grounds belonged to temporary sojourners, who expected to remain for a short time only. There was a time when West Virginia was the permanent home of the savages, but they were either driven out or exterminated. The conquerors were the Mohawks, a warlike tribe of Indians, whose home was in New York. They carried their conquest into many regions by means of firearms furnished by the Dutch, of New York, between the years 1656 and 1672. A tribe of Indians, believed to be the Hurons, occupied the country from the forks of the Ohio southward along the Monongahela and its tributaries to the Great Kan- awha and the Kentucky line. According to the ac- counts of the missionaries who were among them, not
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AND OTHER IMPRINTS.
a Huron was left in the state. If a remnant escaped, none returned to occupy the land of their fathers. The conquerors did not choose to permanently occupy the subjugated territory. From this time until the final subjugation of the Indians by the whites, in 1795, many different tribes resorted to West Virginia during the spring, summer and autumn, but they returned to their homes, with few exceptions, beyond the Ohio, or to the northward into Pennsylvania or New York, upon the ap- proach of winter. and did not again return until the following spring. Each tribe had certain indefinite boundaries, confining them to particular territory. Bloody battles were often fought when one tribe was found on the territory of another. This occurred when game was scarce in one part of the state and more plenti- ful in another section. Feuds of long standing and fancied wrongs of other years were settled on the hunt- ing grounds of West Virginia. The Cherokees, whose home was in the southeastern part of the United States, claimed that part of the state lving south of the Great Kanawha. The valleys of the Guyandotte and Big Coal rivers were hunting grounds that rivaled in excel- lence those of Kentucky.
The Shawnees occupied the basin of the Great Kan- awha. This was a fierce, warlike tribe and was re- sponsible for many of the massacres perpetrated upon the frontier settlers. This tribe was the most perma- nently located of all the tribes in the state. They had towns in both Greenbrier and Mason counties.
The Mingoes, located in the state of Ohio, claimed the territory between the Little Kanawha and the present site of Wheeling. These Indians were responsi-
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ble for much of the border warfare. Logan, noted for his friendship for the whites, was a Mingo chief.
The Delawares occupied the valley of the Mononga- hela, while the eastern panhandle was considered the home of the Tuscaroras. The last named tribe was driven out of North Carolina in 1712 by a neighboring tribe, and migrating to the north, they became the sixth member of the Five Nations, with whom they claimed kinship. Thus constituted, the Six Nations, comprising the Mohawks, Tuscaroras, Oneidas. Onondagas. Cayugas and Senecas, became the most powerful Indian confed- eracy in America. As formerly stated, the Mohawks of this confederation conquered all the territory now em- braced in West Virginia. All the tribes roaming over West Virginia acknowledged the supremacy of the Six Nations in the territory between the Alleghany moun- tains and the Ohio.
West Virginia was a favorite hunting ground for the Indians. The rivers were full of all kinds of fish : vast herds of buffalo, elk, and deer were found; the black bear, wild turkey, and ruffled grouse were in abundance. It is not at all strange that the Indians resented the encroachments of the white settlers upon this hunters' paradise, and that they waged a war of extermination against them.
Webster county seems to have been a favorite resort for the Indians. The saline properties of the water of the "fork lick" attracted large numbers of ruminating animals to its vicinity. The savage hunter laid in wait for his prey along the paths leading to the "lick", or else concealed himself in the bushes and killed the ani- mals when they came to drink.
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AND OTHER IMPRINTS.
Arrow heads, stone hatchets, fire stones, pipes, broken pottery, and many other implements of aboriginal manu- facture have been found in all parts of the country. Under a large, overhanging rock across the Elk river from the mouth of Mill run a great many arrow heads have been picked up. Seventy-five years ago these arrow heads were found by the score hidden in the crevices of the rocks. A spring of cold, sparkling water flows from under this rock, and the Indians used this as a camping ground and as an arsenal for storing their surplus supply of implements of the chase and of war. The materials from which these arrow heads, or "darts" as they were locally called, were brought from the regions of the Kanawha and the Great Lakes, and the manufacturing was done in the home while not engaged in hunting or fishing. In many places small chips or spawls of flint strew the ground. Defective or broken arrow heads are also found in the same vicinity. Masses of flint weighing as much as eight or ten pounds have been found on the Elk, the Gauley and the Birch rivers. Each shows unmistak- able signs of being chipped by some human agency.
At the mouth of Cooperwood run is a large bottom that was once the site of an Indian camp or village. This bottom has been cleared for probably fifty years, and when recently plowed many implements of Indian manufacture were found, including broken pieces of clay pottery. Some of these pieces had ears on the sides, indicating that these receptacles were manufac- tured with some degree of skill. Other relics were found, including arrow heads. broken pieces of pipes and stone axes. The darts were parti-colored. Some
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were white and red, while others were dark brown or black. In a low gap on Point mountain on a divide between the two Baltimore runs, more arrow heads are to be found than in other localities in the county. These are especially plentiful in Steps Low gap, about three miles from the Charles McDodrill farm. Large quantities of chips and arrow heads can be picked up at this place. These conditions can be ac- counted for from the fact that this was the greatest hunting ground in the country when first visited by white men. The low gap was a crossing place for the game that wished to pass from one locality to another, and the Indians lay in wait by the side of the path until his intended victim came along. and he shot it at short range with an arrow tipped with flint. There are but few Indian graves and no mounds in the country. The Indians did not bury those who died in battle. The absence of graves conclusively proves that the savages did not permanently occupy the territory embraced in Webster county.
,
There were two Indian trails leading through the county. The tribes living beyond the Ohio visited relatives in Greenbrier. Pocahontas and Randolph counties. A small band of Mingoes lived at Mingo Flats. in Randolph county. about the time the whites began to occupy the Greenbrier, the Monongahela and the Kanawha valleys. This band was frequently vis- ited by friends from what is now the state of Ohio. They traveled by way of the Little Kanawha and reached the Elk by way of the Flatwoods country. The trail crossed the Elk at the mouth of Laurel creek and led up that stream and crossed the divide midway
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