USA > West Virginia > Upshur County > The history of Upshur county, West Virginia, from its earliest exploration and settlement to the present time > Part 21
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ing the Federal garrison of 800, and taking several cannon, burning gov- ernment and railroad property, and carrying away hundreds of horses.
November 28. Confederates under Major McDonald were defeated at Piedmont by 27 men under Captain Fisher.
1865.
January 11. General Rosser captured Beverly. The Federals were in command of Colonel R. Youart. They lost 6 killed, 23 wounded and 580 prisoners.
January 11. A Federal scouting party, under Major E. S. Troxel, .. moved from Keyser, passing through Pendleton County.
January 15. Skirmish at Petersburg. Major Troxel defeated McNeill. January 19. Rebel guerrillas wrecked a train on the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad near Duffield.
February 4. Train thrown from track and robbed by Confederates near Harper's Ferry.
February 5. Major H. W. Gilmor was captured by Federals under Colonel Young, near Moorefield.
February 21. Generals Crook and Kelley were captured at Cumberland by 61 Confederates under Lieutenant Jesse McNeill, son of Captain J. H. McNeill. There were 3500 Union troops in Cumberland at the time.
February 26. General Winfield S. Hancock was assigned to the com- mand of the Federal forces in West Virginia.
March 15. Rebel guerrilas were defeated on the South Fork, above " Moorefield, by Captain McNulty.
March 22. Lieutenant Martin defeated Confederates of McNeill's com- mand on Patterson Creek, in Mineral County, killing 2, wounding 3.
March 30. A railroad train was derailed and robbed near Patterson Creek Bridge, in Mineral County, by McNeill's command.
April 2. General W. H. Emory was assigned to the command of Union forces in West Virginia.
April 6. Confederates under Mosby captured Loudoun County Rangers near Charlestown.
April 10. General Emory proposed to Governor Boreman that the West Virginia civil authorities resume their functions, re-open the courts and dispense justice, inasmuch as "no large bodies of armed Rebels are in the State."
April 12. Lieutenant S. H. Draper raided a Rebel rendezvous on Tim- ber Ridge, Hampshire County.
April 15. Captain Joseph Badger moved from Philippi with a scouting party, passing through Randolph and Pocahontas Counties, returning to Philippi April 23.
May 8. MeNeill's company surrendered at Romney.
June 1. Colonel Wesley Owens left Clarksburg with 400 men and made a twelve days expedition through Pocahontas and Pendleton Counties, hunting for Governor William Smith, of Virginia, who had not surrendered. He was also collecting Government property, mostly horses, scattered through those counties. No trace was found of the fugitive governor. The country was exhausted and desolated. Only two families were found in Huntersville, Pocahontas County. The paroled Confederate soldiers were coming home and were trying to plant corn with but little to work with. By the terms of surrender granted Lee by Grant, the Confederate soldiers
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CHRONOLOGY OF THE WAR.
who had horses or mules were permitted to keep them. Old cavalry horses and artillery mules were harnessed to plows, and peace again reigned in the mountains of West Virginia.
West Virginia furnished 36,530 soldiers for the Union, and about 7000 for the Confederate armies. In addition to these there were 32 companies of troops in the state service, some counties having one company, some two. Their duty was to scout, and to protect the people against guer- rillas. The majority of them were organized in 1863 and 1864. These com- panies with their captains were as follows: Captain M. T. Haller
A. Alltop
Marion County.
H. S. Sayre
Doddridge County.
J. C. Wilkinson
George C. Kennedy
Lewis County. Jackson County. 66 66 Wood County.
66 John Johnson.
60 William Logsdon
William Ellison
Calhoun County.
Alexander Donaldson
Roane County.
66 Hiram Chapman 66
H. S. Burns
Wirt County.
John Boggs
Pendleton County. 66 66
66
John Ball.
Putnam County. >
William R. Spaulding
Wayne County.
..
M. M. Pierce
Preston County.
William Gandee.
Roane County.
.. Nathaniel J. Lambert
Tucker County.
James A. Ramsey.
Nicholas County.
66
John S. Bond
Hardy County.
William Bartrum.
Wayne County. 66 66 Raleigh County.
66 William Turner
Sanders Mullins
Wyoming County. Kanawha County.
B. L. Stephenson
Clay County.
G. F. Taylor.
Braxton County.
W. T. Wiant
Gilmer County.
Isaac Brown.
Nicholas County.
Benjamin R. Haley
Wayne County.
Sampson, Snyder
Randolph County.
M. Mallow.
J. L. Kesling.
Upshur County.
60 Ira G. Copeley.
Robert Brooks.
Barbour County.
Part Second
County History
W. B. CUTRIGHT.
CHAPTER XVIII.
- - :0:
EARLY SETTLERS AND INDIAN TROUBLES.
ROYAL DESERTERS
The occasion of the first settlers coming into the present limits of Upshur County is uncertain as to time and reasons. The best evidence we can gather leads us to believe the following story: Anxiety to settle in the New World was possessing the English Plebeian at the middle of the 18th century. Old and young alike wanted to reach American shores and find a home of religious peace and politic freedom. It mattered little to them in what capacity they came, whether as indented land tenants, house servants, or as soldiers in the King's army. The goal of an Englishman's ambition was to get to America, where freedom of personal action was as boundless as the forests the country maintained ; thus the cause of the great immigration from England in the 18th century. In addition to the foregoing reasons the French and Indian War might be added. It was during this war that William Childers, John Lindsey, John Pringle, and Samuel Pringle first saw the shores of America, on which they were to serve and did serve in the royal army, and it was during their service in that army, garrisoned at Ft. Pitt, now Pittsburg, that they, tired of martial life, deserted the Fort in 1761 or '62 and ascended the Monongahela river to the mouth of Georges Creek, afterwards selected by Albert Gallatin as the site for the town of New Geneva, Pa. Not liking this location, they remained but a short time. They then traveled eastward and crossed over to the head waters of the Youghiogheny, and camping in the glades continued to live there about twelve months. In one of their hunting trips, Samuel Pringle wandered away from his companions and while alone, pursuing the swiftest deer, came on a much traveled path which he supposed joined Ft. Pitt to the nearest inhabited portion of Virginia. Returning to camp, he made known to his companions his discovery and supposition, and asked them to join him in tracing the path down. His comrades acceded to his request and at once set about making ready for their journey. They easily found the trail at the place Samuel Pringle discovered it, and following it eastwardly, reached Looney's Creek, then the most remote western settlement (on South Branch). Looney's Creek heads in Grant County against the east face of the Allegheny mountains about 15 miles from Bayard. It flows through May's Gap in a south- easterly direction and empties into South Branch one-half mile below Petersburg. This stream lies ten miles west of Moorefield and has a total length of about fifteen miles. While living among the settlements of Looney's Creek, the quar-
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EARLY SETTLERS AND INDIAN TROUBLES.
tette of deserters were apprehended. The Pringle brothers escaped and returned to their camp in the glades where they remained until some time in the year 1764. A few months after their return to their camp in the glades, the Pringles were employed by John Simpson, a trapper, to hunt, kill, and prepare the pelt of fur animals for market. While thus engaged they decided to prevent possible detection by going deeper into the forest, and sought to take with them their employer. They had little trouble in persuading Simpson to go with them, as the glades were becoming common hunting grounds for the South Branchers. Simpson's motive for moving was the prospect of enjoying woods, free from the intrusion of other hunters.
The three started out together and while journeying through the boundless forest, a violent dispute arose between Simpson and one of the Pringles. Failing to compromise their trouble and knowing peace would be necessary to their safety, they separated. This quarrel and separation took place on Cheat river at the Horse Shoe.
Simpson left his employees and crossed over the ferry near the mouth of Pleasant creek and on to the head of another stream which he named Simpson's creek. Thence he traveled westward until he came to another stream and gave it the name of Elk. Following this stream to its mouth, he built a camp here and lived there about a year. During the year he resided at the mouth of Elk he saw neither Pringles nor any other human being. After twelve months of this lonely life he set out for the South Branch to dispose of the furs which he had collected and prepared by his industry. He sold his furs and skins and returned to his encampment at the mouth of Elk where he continued to live until permanent settlements were made in the vicinity.
The Pringles after Simpson left them at the Horse Shoe took up the Valley river and followed that stream until they came to a large right-hand fork. They forsook the main stream here, and kept up the branch, now Buckhannon river, for several miles, when they came to a branch of the branch which was subse- quently called Turkey Run on account of the great abundance of wild turkeys found and killed by the pioneers.
In 1765 they encamped in the cavity of a large sycamore tree at the mouth of Turkey Run. This specific tree, the subject of so many fire-side chats and the cause of so much earnest veneration among the early settlers and their immediate offspring, has long ago died. Its descendant, however, still survives and stands on the land of Webster Dix, who respects it highly and will not destroy it. Yearly large numbers of close and hard students of West Virginia history visit the site of the parent sycamore where they are greeted and welcomed by the grandchild of the parent tree.
The situation of these men during a residence of three years, although made necessary by their previous treasonable conduct, could not have been very enviable. Runaways from the King's army, composure of mind was impossible. The constant fear of discovery must have haunted them; savages on all sides, the tomahawk, and scalping knife were ever present to their imaginations. The dull hoot of the owl, the fierce shriek of the panther, and the hideous howling of the wolf hourly disturbed their solitary serenity and made them often long for civilized man's companionship, sympathy and help.
Buffalo, elk, and deer were abundant in large numbers and gamboled sportively around their camp. These animals enabled them to supply their larder easily, but the absence of salt, bread, and every species of garden vegetable
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EARLY SETTLERS AND INDIAN TROUBLES.
most certainly abated their relish for the delicious loin of the one, and the haunch of the other.
2
SYCAMORE TREE
The home of John and Samuel Pringle, for the first two years of their life on Turkey Run.
The scarceness of ammunition, which was their only source of subsistence in their vicarious life, limited their hunting to the getting of what was absolutely needed and also forced upon them the shrinking thought of being driven to the set- tlements which might discover and apprehend them. They resisted the idea of returning to the South Branch until they were actually reduced to two loads of powder. Necessity then induced John Pringle to leave his brother and make for a trading post on the Shenandoah where discovery and identity would be at the minimum. The fall of 1767 saw his departure ; the spring of 1768 witnessed his return, several months after the period appointed to join his brother. Samuel Pringle suffered not a little mentally and physically by his brother's prolonged absence. His provisions were nearly exhausted. One load of powder was lost in a fruitless attempt to fell a buck, and his mind was uneasy because his
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EARLY SETTLERS AND INDIAN TROUBLES.
brother's delayed return might be taken as recognition, apprehension, court- martial and death. However, he determined to brave the perils of the forest as long as he could, hoping that relief might come. With his last load of powder he killed a large fine buffalo; soon thereafter, John returned with the news of peace both with the Indians and the French and a total cessation of hostility. Indians broke up their camp in a day or two.
The two brothers now agreed to leave their exile in the wilderness and seek the settlements where trials and vicissitudes of frontier life were shared in common. They no doubt left their forest habitation with some regret. They had become attached to every object around them. They could see "tongues in trees, books in the running brooks, sermons in stones, and good in everything."
The tree in whose cavity they had sheltered from storm and winter's cold, always offered safe protection, and was honored by them with so much adoration that they determined to come back to it as soon as they could prevail upon a few others to accompany them and share this bountiful forest and this asylum of their exile.
Among the classes of people who composed the frontier settlements of that day, the task of inducing some to remove was not difficult. To acquire land was a great motive which made the settlements of the South Branch, and many had failed entirely in locating and holding their claims; others had to occupy poor and broken situations off the river on what seemed barren mountains-all on account of prior locations and surveys taking up the fertile bottoms and the more desirable uplands. The second motive for removing, was the passion for hunting (which was a ruling one with many) and the domain of its satisfac- tion was the plentifulness of game. Both of these objects could be attained in the country whence the Pringle brothers proposed to form the settlement.
There can be no doubt that the Pringles were greatly assisted in their endeavors by the sympathy and encouragement of a woman, one Charity Cut- right, between whom and Samuel Pringle an abiding affection, which terminated in a marriage and a happy family, had sprung up at the time the four deserters were living among the settlers on Loony's Creek. Their marriage occurred after the return of the Pringle brothers to the South Branch settlements. This woman enlisted the aid of her brother, John Cutright, and he in turn interested his youthful friends and neighbors. The contagion spread from one to another until when the time of immigration arrived, so many had enlisted that the precaution of sending out a committee of several persons to examine the country, its fertility, game and bread producing capacity was made advisable.
REGARDING THE PRINGLES
Aaron Pringle, of Fair Plain, Jackson county, has seen fit to contribute a most valuable bit to Upshur county history. We print it in full.
I. One Simpson accompanied the Pringle brothers to Upshur county. He quarreled with them and left them to go to Harrison county. He trapped on what is now known as Simpson's creek for a year and no one seems to know what became of him after this.
2. The Pringle brothers encamped in a sycamore tree at the mouth of Turkey Run below Buckhannon town about three miles.
3. John Pringle, the younger, migrated to Kentucky, married a Kentucky
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EARLY SETTLERS AND INDIAN TROUBLES.
lady and left children who are worthy in the various walks of life. Dr. Pringle of Kentucky, is a grandson of John Pringle.
4. Samuel Pringle married Charity Cutright, sister to John Cutright, who was the father of Jacob, Isaac, William, Christopher and John, jr. There were born to Samuel Pringle and wife, three sons and two daughters, viz: William, John, Samuel, the three sons, Elizabeth and another whose name I cannot recall, but who married a man by the name of Wolf who went to Ohio, settling about Letart Falls. Mr. Wolf and wife left one daughter who married Isaac Westfall who lived afterwards in the State of Indiana.
William Pringle and wife, Nellie, had fifteen children whose names are as follows: Hettie, who married William Weatherholt, Sinai, who married Chris- topher Cutright, Wealthy, who married Abraham Crites, Alminy, who married Isaac W. Simon, Mahala, who married Jacob Crites, Susanna, who married George Cutright, Rachel, who married Hiram Rollins, John, who married Rhoda Casto, sister to David Casto, James, who married Mary Ann Weatherholt, Isaac married Easter Rodgers, David and Elias died about the age of 20 with con- sumption, Gilbert died in infancy, Chaney, who married Melvina Crites and Joel who had three wives.
John Pringle, the second son of Samuel, married Mary Cutright, sister to Andrew Cutright. Eight children were born to them. Barbary, who married John Hunt, Kate, who married John House, Elizabeth, who married Daniel Phipps, Christian, Hepsy and Fanny were never married, Andrew who was never married and Miles who married a Miss Rowan.
Samuel Pringle, son of Samuel of sycamore fame, was never married.
Elizabeth, elder daughter to Samuel Pringle married Andrew Cutright.
Yours truly,
AARON PRINGLE.
FIRST SETTLERS
As has been previously mentioned, the land grants, surveys, and claims on the South Branch had terminated prejudicial to the interest of the pioneer settlers. They were looking and wishing for other cheap lands which they hoped to find but a little distance away westward, but not across the mountains. This hope could not be fulfilled to their satisfaction, therefore they were restless.
The great drawback to inducing settlers to emigrate from the valleys of the Shenandoah and Potomac, was the Alleghany mountains, which to the pioneers seemed almost impassable. In this day of practical annihilation of distance and physical obstacles, when engineers have found good grades for railroads and turnpikes through the highest mountains, and when electricity bids defiance to steepness, the mountain barrier objection seems very trifling. But it was other- wise with the first settlers of Upshur. To them the forests were universal, the wilderness unknown, and the mountains an inhospitable cemetery.
To these physical difficulties add the certainty of prowling savages, whose hostility was always murderous, and you have a condition which only the bravest mind would surmount, therefore only few gave up the fertile fields of William Penn or the tidal lowlands of the Potomac for the declivitous trails and doubtful goals of the Trans-Appalachian wilderness.
The Pringle brothers combatted these ideas with vehemence, saying to some with La Salle, the woods were "so beautiful and so fertile; so full of brooks and
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EARLY SETTLERS AND INDIAN TROUBLES.
rivers ; so abundant in fish and venison, that one can find there in plenty and with little trouble, all that is needful for the support of flourishing colonies." To others they argued that fields could be had for the clearing and tilling, and they would not be put in prison for debt and religion, and there they and their children would have greater advantages and freedom in life. They also preached the influence of pure air, the refreshments of the clear sparkling waters full of spotted trout, the sweet odor of the wild mountain laurel and its mighty friends, the hemlock and poplar, the grandeur of the rocks, hills and mountains, all of which would conspire to make a beautiful world in the wilderness; therefore the propo- sition of the Pringle brothers to form a settlement on the Buckhannon river, was agreeable to many under such flattering representations. The committee, which has heretofore been mentioned, was sent out in the year 1768 with Samuel Pringle as their guide. Who composed this committee other than Samuel Pringle is mere conjecture. Perhaps John Jackson, John Hacker, and Jessie Hughes were in the party. No records tell us that these leaders went out with Samuel Pringle to examine the country in 1768. We arrived at this conjecture by means of the course these men afterwards took in the formation of the settlement. Being pleased with the country, these persons in the following spring, with a few others, repaired to Buckhannon river with a view to raising as much corn as would serve their families the first year after their arrival. They examined the country for the purpose of choosing the most fertile and most desirable situation ; some went to work at once to improve the spots of their choice. "Wither's Chronicles of Border Warfare" tells us who composed this first train of emigrants. "John Jackson and his sons, George and Edward Jackson, settled at the mouth of Turkey Run where his daughter, Mrs. Joseph Davis now lives" (1904 property of Mrs. Anna Carper and daughter, Mrs. W. B. Cutright). John Hacker settled higher up on the Buckhannon river where Bush's Fort was afterwards established and Nicholas Heavner now lives (1904 a part of the Heavner Cemetery). Alexander and Thomas Sleeth located near to John Jackson's on what is now known as the Forenash plantation (1904 the farm of Isaac Post). The others of the party (William Hacker, Thomas and Jessie Hughes, John and William Radcliffe, and John Brown) therefore employed their time exclusively in hunting ; neither of them making any improvement of lands for his own benefit, yet were they of very considerable service to the new settlements. Those who commenced clearing land were supplied by them with an abundance of meat; while in their hunting excursions through the country, a better knowledge of it was obtained than could have been acquired had they been engaged in making improvement. These persons also made important discoveries. In one of their expeditions they discovered and named Stone Coal Creek, coursing its head waters from the head waters of Brushy Fork. This stream flows westwardly and induced a supposition that it discharged itself directly into the Ohio. They descended this creek and came to its confluence with a river which they called, and has since been known as the West Fork. They did not return by the same route which they took, but struck across the country to the settlement on the Buckhannon river." They were well pleased with the fertility of the land on Stone Coal and the West Fork, and decided to move there as soon as possible. Their judgment on the richness of the soil was good, as can be attested by every farmer and live stock man in Upshur and Lewis counties of today.
At this juncture we desire to interpose a short traditional history of each member of this first immigrant train to the Buckhannon river settlement. The
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EARLY SETTLERS AND INDIAN TROUBLES.
reader will understand that we do not claim perfection for these notes, they are simply based upon the word and memory of others. If they do no other good, it is hoped for them that they will stimulate a spirit of research from those who are by blood, nature or education interested in genealogy.
John Jackson, senior, had a most remarkable posterity. His wife was a Miss Cummins of London, England. Their children were, Joseph Jackson, John Jackson, Samuel Jackson, Col. Edward Jackson, the surveyor, Samuel Jackson, Mrs. Abraham Brake, Mrs. Philip Reger, Mrs. George Davis, and Henry Jackson.
Joseph Jackson, the eldest son of Mr. and Mrs. John Jackson, senior, married a Miss Brake of Harrison County, and soon moved to Clarksburg. He left Clarksburg and went to Zanesville, Ohio, where he died. He was a brilliant man, a lawyer and a statesman, having served his district in Congress. He was the father of Judge John G. Jackson of Clarksburg, well known to the older citizens of this country.
John Jackson, junior, was married twice. His first wife was a Miss Hadden. Their children were, Edward H. Jackson, Dr. David Jackson, and Mrs. Sallie Ireland. This is the John Jackson that made Buckhannon Island by digging across the narrowest place between the two bends and making a mill race, which is used to this day. He dug this race about one hundred years ago, when the first mill was constructed on the present sight of the Farnsworth Star Mill. His second wife was Betsy Cozard. The children of this marriage were, Jacob J. Jackson, George R. Jackson, Samuel Jackson, Major William W. Jackson, Mrs. Betsy Gibson, and Mrs. Joseph Cushman.
Col. Edward Jackson was perhaps the first surveyor in Upshur county. He also married a Miss Hadden and moved to the West Fork river where he built a grist mill which is still known as Jackson's Mill, near the mouth of Hacker's creek. Their children were, Mrs. Polly Brake, Mrs. Rachel Brake, Mrs. Laura Arnold, the mother of Stark W. Arnold, and the grandmother of Gohen Arnold; and Jonathan Jackson who was the father of Stonewall Jackson, the pride of the army of the southern Confederacy. His second wife was a Miss Brake. The most important issue of this marriage was Cummins Jackson, the notorious widely known counterfeiter. They had other children.
Samuel Jackson married a Miss Reger on the waters of the Tygarts Valley. He went West soon after his marriage and has no posterity here.
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