USA > West Virginia > Barbour County > The history of Barbour County, West Virginia, from its earliest exploration and settlement to the present time > Part 31
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I. H. Strickler
.1875
I. V. Johnson 1875
T. A. Bradford. 1876
J. J. Newlon 1876
John W. Bosworth 1876
George P. Sargent 1878
J. N. Hathaway
1878
William F. Byrer
1879
Isaiah Wilson
1879
James E. Hall
1881
Jacob W. Robinson. 1881
Jehu M. Talbott 1883
-A. G. Dayton 1883
-S. T. H. Holt.
1884
Lewis Wilson 1884
-J. Hop Woods
1885
G. W. Diddle 1888
-A. D. W. Strickler
1888
W. Chenoweth 1888
C. F. Teter
1889
D. J. Taft
1891
J. W. Conner
1891
G. W. Gall 1891
R. F. Rightmire 1892
J. H. Felton 1892
G. E. Taft 1893
J. M. Proudfoot 1894
Melville Peck 1896
W. S. Wilson.
1896
Fred O. Blue
1897
George L. Woodford
1899
J. N. Gans
1875
W. D. F. Jarvis 1876
William Price. 1877
Andrew Simon 1880
George C. Corder 1881
John B. Knapp 1882
John T. Prim 1882
William A. Mason 1884
John T. Kent. . 1885
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MISCELLANIES.
Banks in Barbour,
There have been three banks in Barbour County. The first was estab- lished about 1855, known as the Bank of Philippi. Lair D. Morrall was president, and Charles W. Parratt, cashier. Upon the latter's death, John W. Payne became cashier, and continued in that position till the bank came to a sudden end. When Colonel Porterfield retreated from Grafton to Phil- ippi in 1861, Mr. Payne saw the handwriting on the wall, and packed up the money, effects and movable property of the bank ready for flight. He was a Secessionists, and did not relish the chance of falling into Union hands. Early Sunday morning, June 2, he started-just twenty-four hours in advance of the Federal troops. It is not known just how much money he took with him; but probably not much, for as he was leaving Philippi he borrowed sixty dollars of J. N. B. Crim, and departed with the bank for- ever. An effort was made to re-open it at Wytheville, but not much busi- ness was done. It may be stated in passing that Mr. Payne, after the war, repaid the sixty dollars. When the Union troops captured Philippi, they raided the bank building, blew open the safe, but found no money. The old safe, with its broken door, still lies in a vacant lot. Notes of the old bank were subjects of speculation years after the war. J. N. B. Crim bought thousand of dollars of them in Baltimore; and sold $10,000, face value, of them to one man, Benjamin McCoy, Sheriff of Barbour.
In 1875 the Farmers' Bank was established in Philippi. A. B. Modis- sett was president and J. W. Talbott, cashier; but later J. E. Heatherly became president and G. W. Gall, jr., became cashier. On April 1, 1886, the building and fixtures were sold to the Tygart's Valley Bank, and the Farmers' Bank ceased to exist. Its affairs went into the hands of a receiver, and the courts were called upon to settle its business.
The next day, April 2, 1886, the Tygart's Valley Bank opened its doors for business. J. N. B. Crim was president and G. W. Gall, jr., was cashier. On March 15, 1893, J. F. Manown became cashier. The bank attained and held a leading and influential position in the financial and business affairs of the county. The Board of Directors, in 1899, was as follows: J. N. B. Crim, Charles M. Bishop, A. G. Dayton, James E. Hall, Lewis Wilson, L. C. Elliott and D. J. Gibson.
Trails and Roads.
The beginning of roads in Barbour County differed little from their' beginning in the other counties of the State. The first were trails leading in a few directions and followed at uncertain intervals by the settlers on business and pleasure, and by emigrants on their way to new fields. About one hundred years have elapsed since the first wagon road was built in what is Barbour. Before that time a path which could be followed by
LUTHER HAYMOND. The engineer who located the Beverly and Fairmont Pike,
STUART H. BOWMAN.
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pack-horses without scraping the packs off against trees, was considered a great convenience, if not a luxury. The first step toward transforming a trail into a road was to "bush it out," and make it "passable for pack- horses and men on horse-back," as the old records express it. As early as 1788 the trail leading from Clarksburg to Winchester, passing through Barbour, crossing into Tucker at the head of Clover Run and crossing Cheat River at St. George, was spoken of in the records as the "State Road." If one mile of it at that time had ever known a wheel, certainly it was not in Barbour or Tucker, and probably not in Harrison. Still it was called a road, and was sometimes distinguished as the "Pringle Packroad," because it was probably marked out (or, at least, followed, for it was an old Indian trail ) by the Pringles and other early settlers on the Buckhan- non River. It crossed the Valley River a mile below Philippi, passed up Ford Run on the east side and Hacker on the west side of the river. It was the highway from the east to the west, through Barbour and Tucker. Very little of it ever became a wagon road.
Lest there be a misunderstanding, it is proper to state that it was not an impossibility to take a wagon long distances through the woods without a road. It was occasionally done by the pioneers. About 1783 (the exact date is not certain) a wagon was taken from Hampshire County to the Horse Shoe, in Tucker County, by Thomas Parsons, when there was no pretense of a wagon road for the fifty miles crossing the Alleghanies. The wagon was empty and drawn by four horses. A number of slaves accompanied it, and when the hills were so steep, the rocks so abundant or the trees so thick that the wagon could not pass, it was taken to pieces and carried by the negroes over the difficult places, when it was again set up and was drawn by horses. By cutting out a sapling or a log occasionally, the wagon could be taken, at times, several miles without unhitching the horses; and the progress was more rapid than might be supposed. It passed up the North Branch of the Potomac, crossed the Alleghany near Fairfax Stone, descended Lead Mine Run and Horse Shoe Run to Cheat River. So far as any known facts warrant the assertion, that was the first wagon to cross the Alleghanies in West Virginia, north of Greenbrier County, and if the date, 1783, is correct, it was absolutely the first wagon crosssing the Alleghanies within the limits of West Virginia. Jacob War- wick took a wagon to Pocahontas County very soon after 1783. There were plenty of good wagons in Hampshire County twenty years before that time; and it is probable that home-made wagons were in use in Randolph County and in Monongalia County as early as 1783, but none had yet been seen at Clarksburg. Even in the older and more prosperous settlements on the Monongahela in Pennsylvania, the statement has been made, and has long gone uncontradicted, that a wagon, loaded with merchandise, did not reach
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the Monongahela till 1789 .* Those old wagons were different in one important particular from modern wagons. The tire was made in four sec- tions, each one a quarter-circle, and these sections were fastened on the felloes by bolts, with large heads, which were so numerous that they gave the wheel the appearance of a cogwheel. Now the tire supports the fel- loes, then the felloes supported the tire.
Returning to a consideration of the old trails of Barbour County, it may be stated that, as settlements became scattered here and there, they were connected by trails marked by blazing the trees. These were called "blazes." An old order in Randolph County calls for "a road along Cur- rence's blazes square across the valley." It was customary, but not the universal custom, to blaze only one kind of a tree on a certain trail. For example, one path would follow blazes on chestnut trees; on another path, oaks would be blazed; on another, beech; and so forth. Thus the beech blazes would lead to the mill; the oak blazes to the deer lick; the chestnut blazes to a certain house or settlement. A stranger inquiring his way to the mill would be told to follow the beech blazes, and if he found himself on a path differently marked, or if the path forked and he would turn into the trail where the oaks were blazed, he would know that he was wrong.
As early as 1787 the trail from Clarksburg to Beverly passed through what is now Barbour County. It was the old State Road from Clarksburg to the point where it crossed the river a mile above the mouth of Hacker Creek. There the Beverly road branched off, crossed the hill to Anglin Run about half a mile above Philippi, passed to the head of that run, over to Sugar Creek and up that stream and over the hill to where Belington now is, and thence over Laurel Hill into Tygart's Valley. The fact that this trail was used as early as 1787 in traveling between Clarksburg and Tygart's Valley is fixed by a noted wedding which occurred that year, the wedding party traveling over thattrail. Colonel John Haymond, of Clarks- burg, was married, four miles below Beverly, to Mary, eldest daughter of Colonel Benjamin Wilson. Colonel Haymond was accompanied from Clarksburg by a large company of young people of both sexes; and the first night, on their way to Beverly, they camped at the large rock a mile above the site of Philippi. The rock was formerly a well-known land mark; but it has been nearly destroyed by blasting for macadam.
The first wagon road on the east side of the river, in Barbour County. was made by William F. Wilson in 1800. It was seven miles long and led from the site of Philippi to Bill's Creek, where Mr. Wilson then lived. He built it for seventy-five cents a rod, and it went up the points of hills and followed the tops of ridges, over the tops of knobs, rather than to grade round them, to save digging. This road was subsequently extended to
See Veach's "Monongahela of Old."
V
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Beverly. It had before that time been constructed on the west side of the river, then Harrison County, from Philippi to Clarksburg. Atany rate, as early as 1803 wagons could pass from Philippi to Clarksburg.
In 1801 an order was passed for a road, a part of which was probably within the present limits of Barbour. The order was to " view a way for a road from John Jackson's Mill to the top of the mountain at the head of the creek above John Bozar's [Bozarth?] on the old road that goes to Hecker's [Hacker's?] Creek, so as not to go through improvements, or alter the road that is laid off through William Vandevender's and Widow Reger's lands." That order betrays the secret of many a steep, crooked or swampy road in West Virginia, where it might have been comparatively straight, level and dry. The roads passed round fields, even if to do so they must climb hills or cross swamps. Travelers through West Virginia for a hundred years have been climbing hills because the short-sighted pioneer made the orig- inal path that way to get round his neighbor's corn patch. Five dollars in damages were probably saved in the start, but five hundred dollars have been wasted in keeping the bad road in repair and traveling it. When a road is first surveyed it should be put in the proper place, no matter whose cornpatch it cuts in two. Then all subsequent improvements upon it will be permanent. How often can the trace of a very old road be seen stand- ing on its end against the side of the mountain, and near it the abandoned bed of a later road, not quite so steep, and perhaps a third road, also aban- doned, while the modern highway winds gracefully round the base of the hill, the discovery having been made after a hundred years that it was not necessary for the road to go over the hill at all. Early road makers did not know that a pot bail is as long standing as lying, or that a road round a hill was often no longer than a road over it.
The pike building in Bourbour began about 1848, and the principal highways of that class within the county now are the Beverly and Fair- mont, the Beverly and Morgantown, the Gnatty Creek and West Union, the Philippi and Clarksburg, the Philippi and Buckhannon, and the Middle Fork Pike. About 1850 the survey for the Beverly and Fairmont Pike was completed. It was made by Luther Haymond, of Clarksburg. In crossing Laurel Hill, above Belington, he did not follow the route of the old road, but left it to the north. The route on the eastern side of Laurel Hill was the occasion of a bitter controversy by persons who wanted the road located for their special benefit. In entering the town of Philippi there was another controversy. The route as surveyed passed through David Byrer's tan- nery, and Mr. Byrer, being much opposed to it, proposed to the engineer, Mr. Haymond, that they should settle the matter by shooting at a target with rifles. In the contest Mr. Haymond won, but did not insist on the terms, and located the road below the tannery. The piers of the Philippi bridge were commenced in 1851.
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MISCELLANIES.
Newspaper History in Barbour.
Journalism in Barbour County dates from August, 1857, at which time The Barbour Jeffersonian was founded by Thompson Surghnor, a soldier who had served in the Mexican War. It was a weekly, the subscription price being $1.50 per annum, "if paid in advance; otherwise $2.00." Advertis- ing rates, except for long contracts, averaged two and a half cents a line, each insertion. The paper was all printed in Philippi, there being no " patent side." The motto at the head of the paper was: "The Union- according to the Constitution," indicating plainly where the paper would be found on the questions which were the vital issues leading up to the Civil War, and which were settled for all time by that war. The paper was pub- lished nearly four years, and until about June 1861. It was a Secession organ, strong in its support of Virginia's opposition and hostility to the United States. When the Federal troops, June 3, 1861, drove the Confed- erates out of Philippi, the editor went with them, joined the army and was subsequently killed at Beverly. His body was brought to Philippi by Christopher C. Hovatter, where it was buried. The Federal soldiers wrecked the newspaper office and threw the type into a well.
Few copies of the old Jeffersonian are now in existence, but such as are found are full of local history. A copy of October 16, 1857, now owned by D. W. Gall, of Washington, D. C., is the earliest to be had. From it the following items of local interest are taken. Lawyers, whose cards are found in it, were:
Samuel Woods, Philippi John Brannon, Weston
D. M. Auvil, Philippi Norval Lewis, Clarksburg
--- Spencer Dayton, Philippi Burton Despard, Clarksburg
Thomas A. Bradford, Philippi Edwin Maxwell, Clarksburg
A. G. Reger, Philippi Charles S. Duncan, Clarksburg
Claudius Goff, Beverly Charles Lewis, Clarksburg
Samuel Crane, Beverly
Wilson Sommers, Clarksburg
G. W. Berlin, Buckhannon
John S. Carlile, Clarksburg
John S. Fisher, Buckhannon
Johnson D. Hansbrough, Pruntytown J. M. Bennett, Weston
The doctors mentioned in the paper were, E. D. Talbott, James B. Reeves, Philippi; and Dr. Harter of Webster, W. Va.
In the advertising columns are found business announcements as fol- lows:
A new marble yard in Philippi which is to be "permanent," by J. H. Viquesney.
A land agency at Beverly, operated by John N. Hughes and James H. Logan.
A saddle and harness manufactory at Philippi, by John C. Byrer.
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Tin and sheet iron ware, and Arthur's self-sealing fruit cans, opposite the bank, by S. M. Holt.
Daniel Capito announces that "the Barbour House" is open to the accommodation of the public, and he solicits a continuation of past patron- age.
The announcement of Thomas A. Hoffman that he has fitted up "the Red House, " at Simpson, formerly Claysville, as a tavern.
J. T. Simms advertised a marble yard at Webster.
The Philippi School, opened for a five months term; tuition for reading, writing and elementary arithmetic, five dollars for the term; for arithmetic, English grammer, history and natural philosophy, six dollars; for contingent expenses, fifty cents per scholar; no deduction for loss of time. The teacher was Jacob Z. Chadwick.
Leather for sale and hides wanted; "no new book accounts opened; no credit asked," by David F. Byrer.
Brady, Haines & Grace announced that theirs was the cheapest line of goods ever opened in the county, adding: "Persons accustomed to going to the Rail Road to trade will find it to their advantage to give us a call, as we will sell as low and give as much for Trade as can be had at the Rail Road."
"The Farmer's Exchange," a store owned by McClaskey & Crim, adver- tised goods at low prices, including ready made clothing.
One marriage notice is found in the paper, David Kittle, of Philippi, to Melinda Bartlett; Rev. James Gawthrop, officiating.
From market quotations, the price of commodities in Philippi at that time are learned, as follows:
Butter. $ .12} Flax Seed. $1.00
Oats. $ .25
Bacon .11 Flour, per bbl 5.00
Potatoes
no sale
Hams .124 Ginseng .30
Wheat .80
Corn .50 Honey .12}
Snakeroot. .30
Cheese. .10 Jeans, (country made) .75
Timothy seed 2.75
Dried Apples .75
Linen,
.25 Tallow .12}
Lard .10 Rye. .45 Feathers. 1.00
Dr. Elam D. Talbott is announced as a candidate for the Legislatue.
As for news, the Jeffersonian, to judge from the issue of October 16, 1857, was very poor. That issue contained only one item which could prop- erly be classed as local news, and that was:
"The Circuit Court is now in session, Judge Camden presiding-the proceedings will be given next week."
There is one other paragraph which in some measure savors of local news. It is as follows:
"We do most humbly beg of our worthy mail contractor the kind favor to have mail brought more regularly from Webster. This is the second or third time that he has left the mail at that place. His neglect gives us a
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great deal of annoyance and trouble, as when the mail fails, we have to select our matter from Jayne's almanac and a cook book."
It probably did not occur to the editor that if he would publish a little more home news, and "select" less matter his paper would have been more valuable, if not to his subscribers, at least to the future historian in search of information regarding Barbour County. Mr. Surghnor's paper, of the date mentioned, contained thirteen and one half columns of reading, with only one and one-half inches of local news. Some of the leading articles were as follows: "Bank Convention" in Charlottsville, Virginia, one column and a half; "The Canal Across the Isthmus of Darien," one column; "Senator Hunter and the Enquirer," half column; "Baltimore as It Is," half column; "The Old Banks against Independent Banks," half column; "Slavery in Oregon," "Fight with a Bear," and "Tomb of Napoleon," one column; "Notes of the Independent Banks," one-third column; "Man Overboard," three columns; "The Quaker's Corncrib," nearly a column.
A short time after the Jeffersonian suspended publication, another paper, The Old Flag, was started and was continued for sometime. But no copy of it can be found, nor are many facts concerning it be ascertained. It did not last long, and was probably published by Federal soldiers; or at least, it was published under their auspices and protection.
On November 29, 1873, the Plaindealer came into existence, edited by David W. Gall who retained connection with it twenty-five years. It had the field to itself for some years, and was a good newspaper. There were differences in politics in Barbour at that time, even within the ranks of the same party, and some persons believing that certain measures should be represented in a different manner, were instrumental in launching another paper, the Jeffersonian, which was started by George P. Sargeant in 1876, and in 1883 it was bought by J. Hop Woods and D. W. Shaw. After a time it was merged with the other paper, and the name became the Jeffersonian- Paindealer, and was so continued till 1898 when Mr. Gall sold his paper to John T. Reger who dropped the first name, and soon changed it from a weekly to a twice-a-week paper.
The first issue of the Philippi Republican was dated October. 9, 1880, and H. C. Shearer was editor and proprietor. The paper's politics was indicated by its name. On November 24, 1881 Marion F. Hall became the proprietor and editor of the paper and retained his connection with it till September 10, 1896, when he sold it to Myron C. Lough and Charles I. Zirkle. On September 2, 1897, Mr. Lough sold his interest in the paper to John H. Zirkle, and the brothers still publish it.
On May 9, 1889, Melville Peck and J. H. Knapp published the first num- ber of The Tygart's Valley Star, at Philippi. In a short time Mr. Knapp retired from the business and his place was taken by Mrs. Peck who super- intended the office and much of the writing until the paper was sold in 1891.
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MISCELLANIES.
On July 6, 1893, the Barbour Democrat was founded by Aldine S. Poling who still owns the paper and has constantly been its editor. In politics it supports the party whose name it bears.
In 1897 The Belington Independent was founded at Belington by H. K. Mccutcheon, and in 1899 I. D. Martin became associated with him in the pub- lication.
The Geology of Barbour County.
Barbour County is less rugged than the counties south and east of it. The mountains are not so high, nor the valleys so deep as those of Tucker and Randolph. While there are cliffs of some boldness along the water courses, there are few of the pinnacles and peaks so common east of Laurel Hill and along the spurs of the Alleghanies. The mountains of the region further east sink into hills with rounded tops in Barbour. Still, Barbour has no wide valley, like the magnificent one lying in Randolph between Rich Mountain and Cheat Mountain; nor has it a valley to compare with some of the bottom lands along Cheat River in Tucker; but in Barbour the level or nearly level lands lie, for the most part, on the ridges and uplands. Taken all in all, the geography differs widely from that of the region be- tween Laurel Hill and the Alleghanies, and this difference is due to certain facts in geology which it is necessary to understand in order to make plain the reason why Barbour's mountains are not high nor its valleys deep and wide .*
The period of disturbance succeeding the Carboniferous epoch, which compressed the rock formations of the Alleghany region into vast folds, expended its strength in uplifting the rocks which have since been exca- vated into mountains, range beyond range, in parallel ridges, beginning with the Shenandoah Mountain, North Fork Mountain, Alleghany Moun- tain, Backbone Mountain, Cheat and Rich Mountains. In looking at a map it will be seen that the last large mountain of the Alleghany system on the west is Rich Mountain in Randolph, and its continuation through Barbour and Tucker, known as Laurel Hill. East of that ridge the mountains roll, fold beyond fold, until they reach the Valley of Virginia. But west of Laurel Hill and Rich Mountain the rocks are not much folded, and no high mountains are found. East of Laurel Hill the strata are crumpled, broken, set on edge, turned this way and that at all angles; but west of the great ridge the rocks lie more nearly horizontal, layer upon layer, extending toward the Ohio River, in almost unbroken regularity. To this fact is due Barbour County's lack of deep valleys and high and rugged hills. No vast rocks have been tilted on edge to form pinnacles. No steep inclines have assisted erosion to cut deep valleys.
* The chapter beginning on page 71 of this book should be read as an introduction to the present chapter; for the facts stated there will not be repeated here.
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A few words concerning Laurel Hill and the geological lesson it teaches are in order. That ridge forms the boundary between Barbour and Fig. 1 Tucker, and between Barbour and part of Randolph. Geographically it is a a a b well-defined mountain, shedding the rain- fall down the southeastern slope into Cheat River and Leading Creek, and down its northwestern slope into Valley River. Between Belington and Elkins the Valley River cuts through this ridge, and from there to its source, flows on the eastern side. South of the gap cut by the river the ridge is called Rich Mountain, but it is a continuation of Laurel Hill, both in a geographical and geological sense, and it is proper to consider both as one and the same mountain. Laurel Hill is peculiar in its forma- tion. It is only the stump of a mountain, in compar- Fig2 ison with what formerly was there. What remains is only the western edge of a vast ridge, now worn away, for the most part. If it could be fully restored there would be a range overtopping the Alleghanies. Its LAUREL HILL-2nd Stage eastern base would run nearly north and south through Tucker County, near St. George, and its summit (a broad, stu- pendous arch) would lie some four or five miles Fig 3 east of the present top of Laurel Hill, and per- haps three thousand feet higher. All the cen- a tral part, and nearly all the eastern escarpment 9 LAUREL HILL-PRESENT STAGE. C of that ancient mountain are now worn away; LAUREL HILL-First Stage in Life-History but the western base, fragmentary as it is, re- mains-Laurel Hill.
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