USA > West Virginia > Randolph County > The history of Randolph County, West Virginia. From its earliest settlement to the present, embracing records of all the leading families, reminiscences and traditions > Part 38
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Arnold Bonnifield. 10 00
Samuel Elliott.
20 00
Aug. J. Smith.
25 00
John Hornbeck. 40 00
Thomas Collett 50 00
Jacob Haigler 100 00
Moses Harper 25 00
George W. Chenoweth 10 00
Washington Stalnaker
5 00
John Ward. 25 00
Jesse H. Stalnaker
20 00
Wm. Daniels
50 00
The following list, dated November 15, 1840, was signed on condition that the road pass through both Beverly and Buckhannon, and that the money subscribed be expended in making the road between those towns.
William Beverlin 20 00
George Post 5 00
Western Mills
175 00
John Vanhorn 5 00
Jacob Hevener .
10 00
Simon Rohrbaugh 5 00
Joseph Liggett
10 00
John I. Walden 5 00
George Olman 20
5 00
Edward I. Colerider 20 00
Eli Kittle. 100 00
A. Earle 150 00
E. D. Collett 25 00
Absalom Crawford. 25 00
David Goff 60 00
B. L. Brown 25 00
David Holder 10 00
B. Kittle. 15 00
J. Arnold 50 00
Martin Hayner 200 00
A. B. Ward 25 00
Josepli Schoonover 25 00
Wm. T. Chenoweth 25 00
H. W. Campbell 10 00
Philip Clemm 10 00
Henry Harper 100 00
John J. Chenoweth. 25 00
George Buckey 50 00
Wm. Foggy. 1 00
John Marstiller 20 00
Moses Triplett 10 00
George Caplinger 25 00
John B. Earle 25 00
W. J. Long 100 00
Gawin Hamilton 50 00
Solomon C. Caplinger 5 00
Peter Buckey 50 00
Wm. McLean 5 00
Thomas J. Caplinger. 20 00
Job Wees 10 00
George McLean 20 00
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MISCELLANEOUS HISTORY.
Elias Heavener
$ 15 00
Thomas B. Kelte $ 4 00
Moses Phillips
3 00
D. S. Haselden .
100 00
Enoch Gibson
20 00
Henry Simpson 25 00
Andrew Poundstone:
30 00
James J. Mooney
15 00
George Nicholas
15 00
Jacob Lorentz.
25 00
Zadock Lanhan
15 00
John B. Brake 10 00
Elmore Brake
5 00
Abraham W. Brake 10 00
William Baird.
10 00
John N. Rohrbaugh
8 00
James Griffith
5 00
Alex. R. Ireland .
5 00
Marshall Lorentz
5 00
Levi Liggett .
5 00
Teeter Keesling
5 00
William Greyson
15 00
Wm. McNulty
5 00
James Louden 2 00
Clark W. McNulty
15 00
H. P. Kittle
5 00
ENTERTAINED LORENZO DOW.
An old log house in Beverly, near the eastern end of the bridge, has an historic interest from the fact that it sheltered Lorenzo Dow, the great Methodist missionary who in the early part of the present century traveled through the wilds of America as well as through Europe. At that time the house was occupied by Dr. Benjamin Dolbeare, who was long a resident of Randolph, represent- ing the county twenty years in the Legislature. Mrs. Dow was a sister of Dr. Dolbeare. The house is now used by Dr. A. S. Bosworth as a barn. Lorenzo Dow, when he first visited Beverly, Stopping place of Lorenzo Dow in Beverly. preached on a log near town. He filled two or three appointments here, announcing them a year ahead, and when the time came, he was always on hand. His book, now very scarce, was printed in Wheeling, 1848. He published his early works in England and New York. .
GRAVE OF SALATHIEL GOFF.
Salathiel Goff was president of the first court of Randolph County. He died of cancer in 1791, and at the time of his death the Indians were threat- ening the settlement at St. George. Goff's request that he be buried under a hickory tree on his farm was complied with, but while the funeral was in progress there was constant and immediate danger of attack from Indians. The settlers hurried back to the fort as soon as the grave was filled. The grave and the rude stone slabs, with the square-cut letters, are still to be seen on the farm of W. E. Cupp, late Sheriff of Tucker County.
MEMORABLE PATCH OF GINSENG.
Perhaps the largest patch of ginseng ever discovered in the world, at least in the wild state, was probably found in Randolph County about 1840. The discovery was made by W. H. Wilson, grandfather of the present clerk of the circuit court, while he was surveying the line between Randolph and Pocahontas Counties. The discovery was lost sight of till the war, when Thomas Wood, a scout, re-discovered it while ranging through the moun- tains in that uninhabited region. He told of it to acquaintances in Webster County, and they collected a company and dug the ginseng. At the low price then prevailing, not one-fourth of present prices for the root, they sold $600 worth from that patch.
303
MISCELLANEOUS HISTORY.
PRE-HISTORIC MOUNDS.
In different parts of Randolph County, but more abundantly along Tygart's Valley, are mounds built by human hands, but no man knows when. There are, probably, as many as forty in the valley, and upon the adjacent hills; seventeen of them being in the vicinity of Huttonsville. They are found on the Middle Fork, on Shaver's Fork, on Dry Fork, and on the very summit of the Alleghany Mountain, southeast of Dry Fork. One on the bottom land above the mouth of Red Creek, has been plowed down nearly to a level, and the plow has torn out skulls, stone hatches and chipped flint implements. Few of the mounds have been excavated; but those which have been opened contained no metal; only stone implements, and human bones. Eli H. Crouch plowed up on his farm at Elkwater, a a quartzite wheel, four inches in diameter, one inch thick at the rim, with both sides concave. It resembled a double concave lens; or in shape it is like two shallow saucers placed bottom to bottom. Through the center is a hole one inch in diameter. Shallow scratches on the surface indicate that the implement was fashioned into its present shape by incessantly rubbing it on sandstone. The quartzite is very hard, and the labor was enormous. No use for it can be suggested, unless it was as an ornament. It was found within a mile of the large mound at Elkwater, and Mr. Crouch loaned it to the West Virginia University. In 1854, Dr. G. W. Yokum opened a mound on Big Island Creek near the Randolph and Barbour line. A large oak grew on the mound, showing great age. In the mound he found a man's thigh bone, and from its great length he concluded that it belonged to a man not less than seven feet tall. Being acquainted with bones and skeletons, Dr. Yokum would not be mistaken, and his testimony in this particular is valuable, because many people consider giants as myths. A thigh bone of equal or greater length was unearthed opposite Sycamore Island, in the Horse Shoe, Tucker County, about the beginning of the nineteeth century; but all who saw it are now dead. Alfred Hutton, who has two mounds on his farm, near Huttonsville, has a fragment of a thigh bone, and a stone hatchet taken from one of them. In a mound four miles above Beverly, fragments of bone and two stone pipes were taken. Few of the mounds have been opened and there is a field for research by antiquari- ans who are looking for relics of an extinct people.
The largest mound is about 42 feet across the base and about six feet high. From that they vary, down to ten feet across and a foot or two high. On the hill above the town of Crickard is what the people call an "Indian Ring." It resembles the ring where they ride horses in a circus, and is 45 feet in diameter. It was there when the country was first settled, and large trees were growing on it. The ground has since been cleared and cultivated, and the ring is nearly obliterated. The soil was piled about one foot high, forming the ring; and on the east and on the west side were. openings-paths-leading into it. The use to which it was put is not known. It is likely that a very large Indian wigwam stood there, and that soil was thrown up all around the wall to keep out the wind, and that the two open- ings spoken of were the wigwam doors. Indians in the western country · still build that way, although their wigwams are seldom so large. After their wigwams are rotted down, or are burnt down, or are removed, the ring of earth remains, with usually one opening at the door, but sometimes two. Within a quarter of a mile of the ring at Crickard are three mounds.
304
MISCELLANEOUS HISTORY.
No man knows when the mounds in Tygart's Valley were built. They were all used as graves, so far as investigated. The most recent of them . may be safely considered as 200 years old and some of them may be a thousand. Everything goes to show that Tygart's Valley was thickly set- tled. That is, it was well populated from an Indian standpoint, althoughit is likely that at its best it did not contain one Indian where there are twenty white people now. It was a famous hunting ground; and long after the Indians ceased to live here, they occasionally came back to hunt.
GENERAL ROSSER'S HUMOR.
General Rosser with a small force of cavalry made a night attack upon Beverly in January, 1865, and captured several hundred Union soldiers who had been under the command of Colonel Youart. The weather was cold and snowy, and after burning the bridge at Beverly, the Confederates fell back up the river, marching their barefoot prisoners through the snow, causing much suffering. They went into camp above Huttonsville, on the farm of Hamilton Stalnaker, an ardent sympathizer with the South. The soldiers were chilled, and there being plenty of rails at hand they soon had blazing fires, and Mr. Stalnaker's fence went up in smoke, serving as fuel. His brother, Warwick Stalnaker, lived on an adjoining farm, and was a sup- porter of the cause of the North. Rosser's troops did not happen to get across the line to Warwick's rails. Seeing this, Hamilton Stalnaker went to camp to make a complaint: "General Rosser," said he, "I am one of the strongest southern men in all this country and you have burnt all my rails; while brother Warwick is one of the strongest northern men in all this country, and you have not touched his rails." Rosser looked at him and answered: "Never mind, Mr. Stalnaker; we will get to Warwick's rails after awhile."
PANEGYRIC ON TYGART'S VALLEY.
In 1861 General McClellan took possession of Beverly, the day after the battle of Rich Mountain. Two days later he wrote to his wife, describ- ing Tygart's Valley. His praise of the scenery is more remarkable because he had seen all the fairest parts of the world. In his letter he said: "The · valley in which we are is one of the most beautiful I ever saw, and I am more inclined than ever to make my headquarters at Beverly. Beverly is a quiet, old-fashioned town, in a lovely valley, a beautiful stream running by it, a perfect pastoral scene, such as old painters dreamed of but never realized * * Our ride today was magnificent; some of the most * * splendid mountain views I ever beheld."
DEATH OF MARION HARDING.
In October, 1862, a skirmish took place at Elkwater, in which one Fed- eral and one Confederate (Marion Harding) lost their lives. It is somewhat remarkable that both men died from a wound in the leg. The fight took place in and about the entrenchment on a knoll below the main fortifica- tions at Elkwater, near where Alexander Stalnaker then lived. Ten Fed- crals had accompanied J. F. Phares, who was then Sheriff, in a trip up the valley. They stopped at Alexander Stalnaker's to spend the night. Four Confederate soldiers, with three citizens, were scouting in that vicinity, under command of Major J. F. Harding. They discovered the Federals and the Federals discovered them just before daybreak, and in the skirmish
* From " Mcclellan's Own Story."
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MISCELLANEOUS HISTORY.
which followed Marion Harding was shot in the leg above the knee and bled to death in a few minutes. A Federal, similarly wounded, was taken to Stalnaker's by his comrades, and was left there. Major Harding wrote a letter to the Federal commander at Beverly, informing him of the fight, and stating that a doctor and an ambulance might be sent for the wounded man, provided that no guard were sent along; and provided that the corpse of his brother Marion be taken to Beverly also. But, if a guard were sent, it would be fought. The doctor went alone, and the wounded and dead were taken to Beverly. The Federal died of his wound.
HISTORIC BATTLE FLAG.
A Confederate battle flag, which was carried through more than fifty battles and unnumbered skirmishes, is in possession of S. N. Bosworth, of Beverly, who fought with the flag from the commencement to the close of the war, except the time he was in a Federal prison. The flag shows the scars of battle. It was carried with the Thirty-first Virginia Infantry, which was largely made up of Randolph County men. The regiment saw its first service at Philippi, June 3, 1861, when Porterfield was defeated by Kelley. It was at. Laurel Hill with Garnett, and retreated with him, and was at the battle of Corrick's Ford. It took part in the following battles, in all of which, after May 5, 1862, the flag was borne: Greenbrier River, Elk Mountain, Alleghany Mountain, Jack Mountain, McDowell, Front ; Royal, Winchester (against Banks), Strasburg (against Fremont), Cross Keys, Port Republic (where half its men were killed or wounded), the Seven Days Battles below Richmond, Slaughter Mountain, Warrenton Springs, Bristow Station (where Pope's headquarters were captured), Second Battle of Bull Run, Fairfax Court-House, Harper's Ferry (Antietam campaign), Antietam, Fredericksburg, Beverly (Imboden's Raid), Winchester (against Milroy), Gettysburg, Bristow Station, Raccoon Ford, Mourton's Ford, The Wilderness, Spotsylvania Court-House, and the fighting from there around to Richmond and Petersburg, Early's Maryland Campaign, Kernstown, The Opequon Campaign (against Sheridan), Fisher's Hill, Waynesboro', Cedar Creek, Fort Steadman, This regiment captured Fort Steadman, with 400 prisoners, but subsequently lost nearly all of its own men. Eighteen men surrendered. The flag was presented to the regiment by Stonewall Jack- son, May 5, 1862. A ragged hole was torn in one side of the flag by a shell. It is said that the report caused by the impact of the shell against the flag, as heard by those a few feet away, was little less than the sharp crack of a rifle. The stars and cross in the flag were stitched by hand. They seem to have been white originally, on a red field. The white is soiled and the red faded.
THE MILL CREEK CHURCH FIGHT.
On October 1, 1863, a skirmish took place at Mill Creek Church, ten miles south of Beverly, between 48 Confederates, commanded by Captain Hill, and 63 Federals of the Eighth Ohio Regiment, under Captain Beckell. The Confederates had come on a scout from the Greenbrier River, and took the Federals by surprise. The old church at Mill Creek shows the marks of bullets. Captain Beckell surrendered and his men were paroled, but their horses and equipments were taken. On their return across Cheat Mountain the Confederates met a squad of twelve Federals under Lieuten- ant Wilmon W. Swain, and took all of them prisoner, except the lieuten-
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ant, who escaped. In all, the Confederates captured 95 horses on the ex- pedition.
SAW THE MOON CHANGE.
So far as known, the only man on earth who ever saw the moon change lived in Randolph County. While Peter Conrad was testifying in court early in the nineteenth century, he stated that he had seen that phenom- enon, adding that " the moon just flopped over like a pancake." His home was in the upper end of the valley. It is related that a peddler once stopped with him over night and when he asked for his bill in the morning Mr. Conrad replied: "I have been keeping tavern here nigh on to forty years, and I never charged a man yet, and I guess I will not begin with you, stranger."
" HORATIUS AT THE BRIDGE."
The ancient Roman story of how Horatius held the bridge against an army, had a counterpart in Randolph during the Civil War, although the bridge had been burnt and only the ford was held. But ours did not ap- proach the sublimity of the Roman exploit because there was not so much at stake, but the result, although on a small scale, was not dissimilar. At any rate the story is worth preserving. In February or March, 1865, thir- teen Confederates, under command of Major F. J. Harding, were sent from Hightown, Virginia, into Randolph to recruit horses. They went as far down as Leading Creek, and having obtained a number of horses, returned up the valley to Huttonsville and above, where they visited their old ac- quaintances, and thus scattered themselves about the neighborhood. Among the men were Eugene Isner, Squire B. Kittle, Jacob G. Ward, John Kil- lingsworth, Samuel B. Wamsley, Claiborne Ashford, James Shannon, Lee M. Ward and A. B. Crouch.
While visiting old neighbors, and scattered up and down the country, 24 Federals (3 of the them citizens) under Lieutenant Wilmon W. Swain, put in an appearance, and searched houses and rode here and there hunt- ing for them, and succeeded in capturing D. D. Dix, nephew of Stonewall Jackson, at Washington Ward's. Major Harding, who was at Mrs. Kitty Crouch's, had a narrow escape, he being up stairs while the Federals stopped in the yard, fed their horses, and some of them went in the house and asked for him. But they did not search the house, nor did they find Major Hard- ing's horse, which was in the barn. When they took their departure, he mounted his horse and followed them, frequently in sight. Meeting Eugene Isner, he dispatched him through the neighborhood to gather up the Con- federates.
Just after the Federals had crossed the ford where the Huttonsville bridge had been burnt, Major Harding reached the bank and shot at them. They came back, shooting; and Major Harding sheltered himself in a low place beyond the south bank where the bullets could not reach him. He had only three loads for his gun; but the Federals were shy about charg- ing across the river, although they threatened several times to do so. But when they advanced, he would show himself and they would fall back and begin shooting. He would immediately get out of range. They talked with him, called on him to surrender, swore at him, quarreled with him, wasted hundreds of rounds of ammunition, all to no purpose. Finally Lieutenant Swain accused him of fooling with them and trying to hold them there until Confederates could come down the north side of the river
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and cut them off. The lieutenant's surmise was not far wrong, and calling off his men he moved down the road to John Shreve's. In the meantime Confederates had come up until their squad numbered thirteen; and when they overtook the Federals there was a fight. While the Confederates were scattered, the Federals charged them in solid column. They were met by a charge from a portion of the Confederates, and gave ground be- fore they met. Major Harding fired his last load and wounded a soldier (whose wound was dressed by Dr. Yokum); and grasping his gun by the muzzle prepared to club it; but the Federals got out of the way, crossed the mountain to Middle Fork and escaped. Lieutenant Swain in speaking of the affair afterwards said, half in jest: "They were pretty good fellows, and will fight all right, and when I saw one of them grab his gun by the muzzle and start at me, I knew I would have to get out of his way or kill him, and I did not want to kill him."
AN HISTORIC SPOT
There is in the town of Beverly a spot of more than local interest. It is the site of the Files cabin, where occurred the first Indian massacre on the soil of West Virginia. Before Killbuck and Crane tomahawked the settlers on South Branch; before the peaceable Decker brothers fell victims to savage ferocity in Monongalia County; before the settlements on Patterson Creek were broken up by Shawnees and Mingoes; before the frontiers- men of Greenbrier had given their lives for the cause of civilization, the yell of the Indian had sounded through the forest of elms, oaks and syca- mores where Beverly now stands, and seven per- Site of Files' Cabin. sons fell before the rifle and tomahawk. There is no history and no tradition of the time when Files and his family came, nor whence they came. The supposition is that they emigrated from the South Branch to Tygart's Valley in the spring of 1753. Tygart's family, which settled on the river two miles above, probably came at the same time. Tra- dition says that the Files cabin stood about fifty yards, a little north of west, from Stark L. Baker's mill, on a high point of land which at that time was washed on one side by Files Creek, but the course of the stream has since changed, and the old channel is filled with soil and is used for pasture. Its ancient course can be plainly seen. Men are yet living who, as boys, snared trout where cattle now graze. It is believed that the bodies of Files and his family were buried beneath the present railroad, a few steps west of where the cabin stood. Files had cleared some ground, no doubt immediately round his house. When the valley was again settled, about twenty years after the massacre, an orchard was planted where the Files cabin had stood. One of those appletrees was cut down when the railroad was built. The log lies there yet. The number of rings of annual growth counted on the log, added to the number of years since the tree was cut, indicates that the tree was planted about 1775. The statement was long accepted as history that the bones of the Files family were buried in 1772, but the discovery of documents at Richmond within the past few years, .seems to throw doubt on the correctness of the statement, although the more lately discovered documents are not positive and conclusive, and should not be given too much weight as against the statement of Withers,
4
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MISCELLANEOUS HISTORY.
who visited the scene and talked with the old settlers nearly three-quarters of a century ago. Withers was told that the Westfalls discovered the bones and buried them in 1772. The Richmond documents indicate that the bodies were discovered February 4, 1754, a few months after the massacre, and the presumption is that those who discovered the bodies buried them. Such may not have been the case, however, and it is possible that both Withers and the Richmond authority are correct. There is not necessarily a con- flict between them.
The tradition is that when the Indians attacked the family one of the sons was on the opposite side of the creek. Hearing the shrieks at the house, he approached near enough to see that Indians were murdering the inmates, and being unable to render any assistance, he fled to Tygart's, and that family immediately set out for the South Branch, following an Indian trail which led from Valley Bend across the mountain by the way of Fish- ing Hawk. It is not known whether the Indians proceeded up the valley to Tygart's cabin. That massacre occurred in a time of peace, when the In- dians were supposed to be friendly. They were in the habit of visiting the settlements along the South Branch and in the Valley of Virginia, from Winchester to Staunton, and stopping at houses to procure food, but harm- ing no one. For this reason the people were not afraid of them, and no doubt Files and Tygart felt no more danger west of the mountains than was, felt by settlers east of the range. That accounts for these families ventur- ing so far from settlements to make their home. No war existed; and hav- ing been accustomed to seeing Indians in the older neighborhoods, they had no reason to look for any different state of affairs in their new abode. But the Indians were treacherous, and occasionally committed outrages while professing friendship. The party that murdered the Files family had car- ried away a boy from the South Branch, and the boy was probably a wit- ness to the massacre. There is evidence that Tygart's Valley was a favor- ite hunting ground for Indians from both Pennsylvania and Ohio. The numerous paths made by them, not only across the mountains, both east and Pay west from the valley, but Philips Frai St. George also up and down, is proof . Horseshoe Maryland that they were frequent visitors. There were sev- Clover Run eral licks in the valley Parsons./ Black Fork Laurel Hill Pleasantfun frequented by deer. Jacob Middle Fork Tugart' Valles Pirer Wees, a very old and Creek Can in highly respected gentle- fountain man still residing in Bev- mg Creek OELkins erly, says that Indian leghany trails led by all the licks, everly showing that the savages hunted frequently in the Indian trails in Tygart's Valley. See also page 177. valley. This probably gives a hint of why they murdered the Files family. It was because they had dared to settle on the Indian hunting grounds. The natives had acquiesced in the occupation of the country east of the moun- tains by the white men, and had ceased to hunt there. This at least was partly true. But they were not willing to give up the country west of the range, and when they found a family occupying the beautiful Tygart's Val-
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MISCELLANEOUS HISTORY ..
ley, one of their best hunting grounds, they fell on them and murdered them, although in time of peace. This probably is the correct explanation. It is believed that the deed was committed by Indians who lived on Alle- gheny River, in Pennsylvania.
Within a quarter of a mile of Beverly stood the old Westfall fort, built in 1774. Its site may still be seen in Daniel R. Baker's meadow, south of Files' Creek and west of the railroad. The building was torn down and rebuilt on the bluff about a century ago, and it still stands. The foundation of the old chimney in the meadow, near an apple tree, forming a mound, still marks the original spot Site of Westfall's Fort. where the fort stood. A spring about seventy-five yards distant, furnished water for the inmates.
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