USA > West Virginia > Barbour County > The history of Barbour County, West Virginia, from its earliest exploration and settlement to the present time > Part 34
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Cornelius Queen built a mill on Elk Creek about 1800.
Squire Crouso claims to have brought the first combined reaper and binder to Peel Tree.
About 1865 Bartholomew Severe, who lived near the old iron furnace on Brushy Fork, in Cove District, while leveling a mound in his garden dug out a large heap of Indian bones. No one who is now living counted the skulls; but Captain A. C. Bowman, who saw them "heaped in a pile like pumpkins,"' estimated the number at one hundred. So indignant were the neighbors because Mr. Severe had disturbed the resting place of the dead that they threatened him with arrest; but he justified his act by saying: "They are nothing but Injuns," and the skulls were left scattered about the premises until they finally disappeared.
In 1848 a commendable effort was made to develop the iron resources in Cove District. Iron ore is there found over an area of 10,000 acres, chiefly on Brushy Fork. Some of it is in veins and ledges from one foot to fourteen feet thick. Other lies on and just beneath the surface, forming a very coarse and rocky soil. But the ore which lies near the surface is probably the remains of old ledges which have been partly worn away and lie scattered on the surface. Without entering into a discussion of the deposits of iron, from the geologi- cal standpoint, it may be stated that iron ore, such as is found on Brushy Fork, is a water deposit, of the same age as the rocks with which it is associated. The rocks in that locality were formed about the beginning of the Carboniferous age,* and while the sands or shells of which they were made, were being deposited in the bottom of the water, the material forming the iron ore was also collecting. Iron is abundant in all parts of the earth's crust with which man is acquainted. Few rocks can be found, and few soils which do not contain more or less iron. It is iron which gives rocks and soils their red color. The grains of sand which, in
* For an account of rock formations see Chapter VIII, beginning page 71 of this book.
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the aggregate, form thick beds of solid rock, are often bound together by a cement or matrix of iron. Remove the iron and the rock would fall to sand. Water trickling over rocks, and percolating through soils, takes up more or less of the iron with which it comes in contact and carries it away. If this water flows into a lake, or a swamp, it will evaporate and leave behind it the iron and other solids which it held in solution. This gradual accu- mulation will finally form thick beds of iron ore. If there is decaying veg- etation in and about such lake or swamp it will hasten the deposit of iron, because of a chemical combination. This is what occurred in ages long past in the Brushy Fork region. That the district was at times swampy is proved by the coal seams in the vicinity of the iron ore, for coal is formed (of wood) in swamps and shallow water. Springs and brooks flowing from the higher grounds into the marshy tracts came laden with iron held in solution, and this iron was deposited and was afterwards mixed and cov- ered with sand and other impurities, and the whole mass hardened and be- came ledges of rock, were elevated by foldings of the strata, and were worn and cut into hills and valleys until today we find iron, coal, limestone, sand- stone, and mixtures of all. Iron ore is sometimes found in nodules of con- centric layers, like the layers of an onion. The belief, not uncommon, that this form is due to the supposed fact that the molten ore was thrown from a volcano and as- sumed a spherical shape while cooling high in the air, is without foundation. There were no vol- canoes in this part of West Virginia; and if molten -Iron Ore 7 AF cont year iron should be thrown high in the air, the result- Sandstone 2. 5 feet ing body would be quite different in appearance nuwith Iron Ore 10 rect from the iron globules found in Barbour County. Sandstone Molten matter thrown high from a crater returns 70 feet and shale to earth as dust or shreds. The iron nodules were more likely formed in swamps, with vegetable Coal substance and mud as a center, about which the ROCK FORMATION, BRUSHY FORK subsequent layers formed. They are sometimes hollow, or partly hollow, and the central mass is usually a little richer in iron than the concentric layers. In the Brushy Fork region the central part is half pure iron, the outside about forty-seven per cent pure.
The furnace on Brushy Fork was built in 1848 and was used six years. The blast was operated first by water power and afterwards by an engine (believed to have been the first in Barbour County, about 1850). It was thirty-nine feet high when built, but is little more than half of that now, much of the stone of which it was built having been removed for various purposes. The fuel was charcoal, and about 9000 pounds of iron were pro- duced a day. This was hauled by mule teams to Fairmont, where it was loaded on steamers. The furnace stands on a seam of coal, which was not
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used for fuel. The old stack is now overgrown with weeds and brush. In 1890 a well was bored to a depth of 2100 feet on the opposite side of the river from Philippi. Traces of oil were found, but a strong flow of artesian water interfered with the development of the oil pros- pects. At a depth of 1022 feet the Pocomo sandstone was reached. This rock rises to the surface near the head of Teter's Creek, show- AN ARTISIAN WELL FORMATION. ing a dip of more than a thousand feet between that point and Philippi. The Pocono sandstone is
a great oil producer further north, where it is known as " Big Injun." The Philippi well flows water the year round, and it does not freeze near the mouth of the well, even in the coldest weather.
The bridge at Moatsville, a two-span arched structure, was built by J. B. Nicola in 1890,
ARTESLAN WELL AT PHILIPPI.
Twelve miles below Philippi, in the river, are the Wells Falls, sonamed because of holes, like wells, in the rock forming the bed of the river at that place. There are more than thirty of these holes, ranging in size from a few inches deep and as many in diameter, to ten or fifteen feet in diameter. The tradition of the country is that some of them defy all attempts at sounding, and that no bottom has been reached. This is not well founded, and the error of the tradition can be demonstrated by anyone at no great trouble. More notions that are false are held regarding caves and other dark caverns than in any other department of human experience or specu- lation. Caves classed as "miles in extent," are seldom many rods; and cliffs "hundreds of feet up," or holes "thousands of feet down," nearly always disappoint the expectations of the man who measures them. It is so much more convenient to stretch the imagination than to stretch a line, that most persons employ the former system of mensuration. The writer of this visited the Wells Falls on August 30, 1899, when the river was very low, and within two hours and at not much trouble or danger, the bottom of every well was found and the depths measured. The deepest is twenty- four feet. This one is in a rock above low water mark, and the only appli- ance needed to measure it is a long fish-pole. The next deepest is twenty- one feet. The measuring of it is more difficult, because it is in the bottom of the river, immediately under the falls, and some caution is necessary to
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reach a shelving rock from which to let down the sounding pole. The other large wells are ten or fifteen feet deep. They are all due to the same agency; rocks whirled round by the currents, cutting downward like drills. The theory that the wells are of human make deserves no consideration. The falls there, including the rapids above, have a height of some twenty-four feet, and are capable of developing, for three-fourths of the year, perhaps, four hundred horse power, enough to drive the machinery for a consider- able town. It could be carried by electricity thirty or forty miles without much loss.
The first carriage brought to Barbour belonged to Uriah Modisett.
The original forest on Teal Run contained walnut trees six feet in diam- eter, the stumps of which yet remain.
The attempts to find oil in Barbour have thus far not been crowned with success, although efforts have been made and some encouragement met with. Geologists have so far mastered the knowledge of oil-bearing rocks that they have largely reduced to a science what was formerly pure chance. They cannot tell to a certainty where oil is, but can often point out with accuracy where it is not. Experience has shown that oil is seldom found except near the tops of anticlines; that is, in the large folds of rocks, bend- ing like arches. Dr. I. C. White, of West Virginia, first pointed out the fact. Water, oil and gas accumulating under a fold of strata, arrange them- selves according to their several specific gravities. The water is heaviest and sinks deepest; oil lies on top of the water, and gas being still lighter, rises to the top of the arch and is there held. The boring which penetrates the rock is liable to encounter the three in succession. In a country where the rocks are worn by streams, and the anticlines are cut deeply, oil need not be expected, because if there ever was any, it long ago ran out and escaped. The accompanying cut shows an ideal section of an anticline, the gas in the highest part of the rock-arch, the oil just below, and water still lower. The most experienced geologists cannot always determine, from the surface of a region, GAS- whether or where an anticline exists be- neath, but their judgment is always of value. It may be remarked that such anti- E clines are often large, ten, twenty or more miles across, and very much longer. AN OIL-BEARING ANTICLINE.
About 1824 a gum made of a hollow log was set in a sulphur spring on the farm of George Phillips near Belington. Seventy-five years later the gum was taken up, and was found not only sound, but the wood was green.
In 1876 a cottonwood switch was brough from Ohio to Philippi, and Lewis Wilson planted it in front of his mill-the only cottonwood in the
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county. Afterwards the railroad was built and dirt was piled eight feet deep round the sappling. Instead of dying, the tree put out new roots near the surface of the ground, flourished, and is now eighteen inches in diame- ter.
The Mount Olive Primitive Baptist Church was constituted at the Rice house, two miles west of Philippi, June 21, 1817, by Phineas Wells and Simeon Harris with about ten members. Elder Wells continued as the minister until too old for active service, and was succeeded by Simeon Har- ris, Hamilton Goss, John Curry, Cornelius Hoff, Benjamin Holden and James Tisdale, and the church increased to seventy members. The first association was held there in 1823, The separation or division of the church on point of doctrine, occurred in 1839, and the pastor after the division was Elder Thomas Collett; the second Elder John Dennison; the third Elder John Thompson; the fourth Elder Joshua S. Corder, who is the present pas- tor. Elder J. N. Bartlett is a member of this church. The membership is forty-five. During the war the edifice was burned by Union soldiers, and no payment for it was ever made. A new church was built.
Zebe's Creek was named from Zebe Cotterall who was an early bear hunter in that region.
The early name of the region about Belington was Barker Settlement, and that was the name of the first post office there.
Robert F. Dunham, living near Belington, was born in Taylor County in 1815, has been a member of the Baptist Church 64 years and a minister 40 years.
In Union District, on the land of Daniel O'Brien, is a deposit of alum and copperas, formed by water trickling from ledges of rock. It is often called green vitriol. Copperas contains no copper, but is a combination of water, sulphuric acid and iron; and where copperas abounds, alum is almost sure to be present also, as both minerals are composed largely of water and sul- phuric acid.
Near Elk City isa gas well which at certain periods, after a few days of quiet, jets forth, to the height of sixty feet, water and spray, after the man- ner of a geyser, except that in a geyser the expelling force is steam and in the gas well it seems to be gas which accumulates until it acquires sufficient force to lift the column of water, whereupon, it blows the water out.
John Gibson with his wife and several children was among the first, if not the very tirst, to settle on Sugar Creek. The first mention of them there is the record of their murder by Indians, believed to have been about 1782, although it may have been at the time of the Leading Creek massacre in April, 1781. They were at their sugar camp when Indians surprised them and took them prisoners, and before proceeding far, they murdered Mrs. Gibson in the presence of her children. One son afterwards came back. Nothing is known of the fate of the other members of the family.
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Mrs. Gibson was the first citizen of what is now Barbour County to be killed by Indians. It was then part of Monongalia County.
Only twice in the history of Barbour County did Indians murder its citizens. The first was the Gibson family, mentioned above. The last was the Bozarth family living on the Buckhannon River near where Teter's mill is now located. This event is remarkable also from the fact that it was the last murder committed by Indians east of the Ohio River. It is strange that at that time, when settlements had been made to the banks of the Ohio, Indians should penetrate as far as Barbour County before finding an opportunity to commit murder. This band of Indians was discovered while passing through Gilmer County, and the settlers on the Buckhannon as well as on the Valley River were warned, but they refused to heed the warning, as no Indians had visited those settlements for thirteen years. Withers has left an account of this murder in the Border Warfare, from which the following extract is taken.
Pursuing their usual avocations in despite of the warning which had been given them, on the day after an express had sounded an alarm among them, as John Bozarth, sr., and his sons John and George were busied drawing grain from the field to the barn, the agon- izing shrieks of those at the house rent the air around them, and they hastened to asser- tain, and if possible avert the cause. The elasticity of youth enabled George to approach the house some few paces in advance of his father; but the practiced eye of the old gen- tlemau first discovered an Indian only a small distance from his son, and with his gun raised to fire upon him. With parental solicitude he exclaimed: "See, George, an Indian is going to shoot you!" George was then too near the savage to think of escaping by flight. He looked at him steadily, and when he supposed the fatal aim was taken, and the finger just pressing on the trigger, he fell and the ball whistled by him. Not doubt- ing that the youth had fallen in death, the savage passed by him and pressed in pursuit of the father. Mr. Bozarth was enabled to keep ahead of his pursuer. Despairing of overtaking him, by reason of his great speed, the savage hurled a tomahawk at his head. It passed harmlessly by, and the old gentleman got safely off. When George Bozarth fell as the Indian fired, he lay still as if dead, and supposing the scalping knife would be next applied to his head, determined on seizing the savage by the legs as he stooped over him, and endeavor to bring him to the ground, when he hoped to be able to gain the mastery over lim. Secing him pass on in pursuit of his father, he arose and took to flighit also. On his way he overtook a younger brother who had become alarmed and was hobbing away on a sore foot. George gave him every aid in his power to facili- tate his flight until he discovered that another of the savages was pressing close upon them. 'Knowing that if he remained with his brother, both must inevitably perish, he was reluctantly forced to leave him to his fate. Proceeding on, he came up with his father, who not doubting but he was killed when the savage fired at him, broke forth with the exclamation, "Why, George, I thought you were dead," and manifested, even in that sorrowful moment, a joyful feeling at his mistake. The Indians who were at the house wrought their work of blood upon such as would have been impediments to their retreat; and killing two or three smaller children, took Mrs. Bozarth and two boys prisoners. With these they made their way to their towns and arrived in time to surrender their captives to General Wayne,
The graves of the two (not three) murdered children are still to be seen on a hill near where the house stood. The place is a short distance east of Burnersville.
ASA WESLEY WOODFORD.
BREEJEG MAGAŽE
FARM OF ASA WESLEY WOODFORD. Hereford Cattle warming by a natural gas fire.
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No person in Barbour County has been found who can tell when or why Teter's Creek was named. No member of the Teter family can give infor- mation. The first Teter to come to Barbour, according to the genealogy of the present members of the family, was Jacob, who moved from Pendleton County to the vicinity of Belington about the year 1800. Yet the land books at Richmond show that Teter's Creek was named at least seventeen years before that time and within three years after the first cabin was built in what is now Barbour County. The land books state that John Hardin, jr., located 1000 acres of land on Teter's Creek in 1783. It was then in Monon- galia County. The same land books at Richmond record another item which does not prove, but may suggest, whence the creek obtained its name. An entry shows that in 1786 George Teter located 224 acres of land on Tygart's Valley River, in what was then Harrison County. The present territory of Barbour was all included in Harrison at that time. It has not been learned who this George Teter was, nor whether he was related to Jacob Teter. He located the land fourteen years before Jacab came here. It is not improbable that the creek was named from him.
In 1787 Samuel Talbott located 545 acres on Tygart's Valley River. It cannot be learned to what branch of the Talbott family he belonged, as the records of the family in this county contain no mention of him. He was here within seven years after the first settlement in the county.
Morrall Schoonover of Glade District produced a new variety of wheat in 1898 by crossing fulse and longberry.
On the farm of E. B. Bennett on Stemple Run, a branch of Laurel Creek, is a ledge of purple-blue flint one and a half inches thick. Indian arrow points made of that flint are found in the vicinity. Within a few feet of the flint is a black substance, in a vein six inches thick, resembling asphaltum. It is said that a metal can be obtained from it by smelting.
Jonathan Adams, a Revolutionary soldier from New Jersey, is accred- ited with building the first brick house in Barbour County. It was in Elk District.
The first man buried in the Chrislip graveyard, west of Philippi, was an unknown stranger. Sawed lumber for his coffin could not be obtained; and a large poplar tree was cut, and a coffin was hewn from its trunk.
The first mill at Hall was built by David Hall who was born in Pendle- ton County in 1812, and was a son of David and Elizabeth (Skidmore) Hall. In 1836 he married Nancy, daughter of Abraham Reger.
Abraham Reger and John Harrow, while hunting near Middle Fork Bridge, killed a bear with their knives, while it was in the act of killing their dogs. The last bear in Union District was killed by Abraham Reger about fifty years ago, on the farm now owned by Charles F. Shirk, one mile from Hall.
The town of Belington was named from John Bealin, who moved from
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Philippi to that place and built a store before the war. Bealin subsequent- ly moved to Kansas, and his building was burned during the war. The only house in the original town which is now standing is the "Aunt Polly Lemon House." The town now has 700 people, three churches, three hotels, fourteen business houses, and is the terminus of the B. & O., the W. Va. Central, and the Roaring Creek Railroads.
Sugar Creek was named from the sugar trees along its course.
Wolf Run was so named because a wounded wolf, pursued by Philip Coontz, died in the creek.
Hunter's Fork was so named because of the choice hunting grounds in that vicinity.
John Hill, a Revolutionary soldier, who went to the army as a substi- tute for his brother, was an early settler on Sugar Creek, but the Gibson family and the Hunter family were there before him, and the ruins of their cabins are still pointed out. Mr. Hill built a stone house with two stories and a basement, the corners of split stone and the walls of cobbles, largely taken from Indian graves nearby, in which large bones were found. This house was occupied by Garrett Cade as late as 1863, and parts of it stood ten years longer. John Hill ultimately became blind from injury to his eyes while building this house. At the time of his death he was over eighty years old and owned 400 acres on the waters of Sugar Creek. All the Hills in that part of the county are his decendants. The stone house was long a favorite stopping place for travelers.
Webster Hillyard who lives on General Garnett's camp ground at Laurel Hill, has in his possession two bombshells (one still loaded) picked up by him in the vicinity. He also has a Confederate officer's table, made of cherry, which was left when the Confederates retreated.
Miss Martha Mustoe, who lives in Barker District, possesses a curious quilt, supposed to have been brought from Virginia in 1863 by one of Aver- ill's soldiers returning from the Salem Raid. Miss Mustoe's mother bought it from the soldier for four dollars. It is an autograph quilt, with a name in each of the thirty-six squares written with indelible ink. The dedica- tion states that it was presented to Mrs. C. Skeen by a friend whose name is illegible. The quilt was muddy when bought by Mrs. Mustoe. Some of the names and mottoes written on it are as follows:
May all the names inscribed here in the Lamb's Book of Life appear.
E. T. Gilbert, Greenbrier City, Va.
"Be perfect, be of good comfort, be of one mind, live in peace, and the God of love and peace be with you."
Mary Skeen, Covington, Va., F. L. Hunter, Greenbrier Bridge, R. A. Dickson, Lo- cust Hill, Martha Hamilton, Greenbrier City, Elizabeth Peery, Jeffersonville, Martha Fudge, Covington, 1851. To Kate Skeen, from her mother, 1853.
In 1877 G. S. Hymes, Elmore B. Phillips and W. S. Lang, excavated for coal on a high knob on the farm of Mr. Pillips. The coal proved too
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thin to pay for mining. The slate thrown out dissolved by the weather and left sea shells of several species in perfect form. They belong to the upper series of the Carboniferous age,
In 1894 while sawmill men were digging a well on the farm of Charles R. Stipes, on Beaver Creek, they discovered a nineteen inch vein of cannel coal, overlaid and underlaid with bituminous coal and slate. No effort has been made to develop the coal. It gives a brilliant light when burning. While digging a well at his house, seventeen feet below the surface, Mr. Stipes found perfect specimens of fossil ferns embedded in the rock. They were of the Carboniferous age.
The largest sandstone cave in Barbour County is on a spur of Laurel Hill, on land belonging to Charles Stipes, 3 miles southeast of Belington. It is 155 feet long, 44 feet wide at the mouth, 30 at the extreme end, and 15 feet high; the floor is level fifty feet back, then covered with bowlders. A crevice from the top lets in rainwater, which in winter freezes, forming ice in all fantastic shapes which sometimes nearly blocks up the cavern. In former times when deer were plentiful they frequented the cave in hot weather to escape the flies, and were frequently killed there by hunters who shot them as they came out. Sheep now lie in the cave in hot weather.
The remains of General Garnett's camp, near Belington are yet visible on the lands of Columbus and James Mustoe at the foot of Laurel Hill. at the bend in the pike. The sugartree under which the general had his head- quarters still stands; there remains also a clump of apple trees under which the confederates buried their dead; and in the bottom is a well still used that was dug by the Confederates. The positions of their batteries which commanded the roads and the country towards Belington are still marked, one near the graves of James Mustoe and wife; southwest of this on top of the hill a few hundred yards distant was another battery. A line of entrench- ments runs diagonally up the hill from the low ground southwest of James Mustoe's house, to a large sugartree on top of the first hill. North of the pike stood another battery, and a line of entrenchments ran from the foot of Laural Hill above the turn in the pike.
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