USA > West Virginia > Upshur County > The history of Upshur county, West Virginia, from its earliest exploration and settlement to the present time > Part 22
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75
Henry Jackson, the youngest child, also had two wives. His first wife was Miss Hyre, daughter of Jacob Hyre, who lived on Fink's Run just above its mouth. One of the children by his first wife was Hyre Jackson, who moved to Texas in young manhood, studied law, was admitted to the bar, beacme an eminent jurist, and served as judge of his Judicial District. Some one has fitly said that there is a streak of eminence and brilliancy running entirely through this Jackson family, and every once and awhile it comes forth in a brilliant son. This is one of the instances. Henry Jackson's second wife was Miss Betsy Shreve. The best known child of this marriage is the Honorable S. D. Jackson, of Warren District, this county.
The second member of this first band of emigrants to which we call attention is John Hacker. He was born near Winchester, Va., about 1743, served in Col, G. R. Clark's Illinois campaign of 1778. He died at his home on Hacker's Creek, April 20, 1821, in his 82nd year. After he left the waters of the Buckhannon river and moved on to the waters of Hacker's Creek, he began the trade of a
182
EARLY SETTLERS AND INDIAN TROUBLES.
blacksmith. His neighbors found out his ability to make the simple tools with which they felled the forests, grubbed the saplings, break the turf, till the soil, and kill the weeds. So great became the demand for his services, both in the Buckhannon river settlement and Hacker's creek settlement, that business judg- ment advised him to open up a shop at Lorentz, a small place four miles west of Buckhannon town on the summit of the divide between the waters of Hacker's creek and Buckhannon river. Who his wife was we do not know. It is certain that he was married, because Withers in his "Border Warfare" tells us of the killing of Mrs. Edmund West, junior, by the Indians in one of their raids into Western Virginia. Mrs. Edmund West, junior, and a younger sister, a girl of eleven years old, and a brother of her husband's, a young Mr. West, were the only occupants of the house when the Indians under Schoolcraft entered. One savage immediately broke the skull of Mrs. West. The boy was hauled from under the bed by the heels and the savage tomahawk was sunk twice into his forehead directly above each eye. Miss Hacker, the girl of eleven, while standing by the door saw her sister and young Mr. West killed. The fierce eye of a savage saw her and aimed a blow at her head. She tried to evade it, but it struck on the side of her neck. It did not kill her, although she simulated death. The little girl observed all that transpired and was congratulating herself that she had certainly escaped to tell of the savage wickedness in her sister's home, but her hopes were to be suddenly dissipated. When the savages had plundered the house, eaten the milk, the butter, and the bread of the pantry, and had otherwise satisfied their fiendish foraging disposition, they departed, drag- ging the little girl by the hair of the head thirty or forty and some say even fifty yards. They threw her over the fence, scalped her, and thinking that not suffi- cient to kill her, they thrust a knife into her side. It struck a rib and failed to accomplish the mission whereupon it was sent. The little girl recovered, grew up, was married, had a family of ten children, and died a happy Christian life.
William Hacker was a hunter by birth, by training, and by profession. He pursued small and large game alike with the same strenuousness, spirit of sport, and love of adventure. He bore an eternal hate toward an Indian and whenever and wherever opportunity offered, he maimed if he could not kill the savages. With Jacob Scott and Elijah Runner, he killed the notable Indian, Bald Eagle. He was a member of that party that clandestinely and shamefully killed the five free families of Indians who lived at Bull town on the Little Kanawha river. His wife was one of those three ladies 'who was pursued by the Indians near West Fort, when they were returning to the home after a visit to the work of their husbands in the field. Mrs. Freeman was the one of the three that was injured by having a long spear thrust through her body, entering below the shoulder blade in the back, piercing the lung and coming out at the breast, and killed her.
Thomas Hughes, the second of the quartette of the hunters, returned to the South Branch after a few months sojourn in the Buckhannon settlement. There he joined a party of emigrants destined for the Monongahela river valley, wherein they settled. This was in 1769 or 70 and the settlement was made near where Carmichaels town now stands. We next see him as a member of a hunting party searching the woods for the lost members of the household of Henry Fletcher, whose house stood where Weston now stands. Members of the family had been attacked in 1784 by the Indians and had scattered in every direction to avoid detection and escape death at the hands of the Indians. Mr. Hughes went forth to find those who were secreted in the forest and tell them that danger was
183
EARLY SETTLERS AND INDIAN TROUBLES.
past. Thomas Hughes was shot down in cold blood on his farm on Hacker's creek by the Indians whom he had so long and so bitterly hunted and killed. His death occurred about the year 1788, in the month of April, while building fence with Jonathan Lowther.
Jessie Hughes, a brother of Thomas, was a more noted border scout than his brother. He had a fierce, irascible, uncontrollable temper, and was so confirmed a hater of the Indians that none of them, however peaceful his record or amiable his disposition, was safe in his presence. Perhaps the first Indian he shot was one of the two Indians that had made an attack on West Fort. He was so anxious to kill them both that he joined his companions, hunting the one that was running and let go the one he had shot. He was a member of the West hunting party when Mrs. West and sister, and a young Mr. West were toma- hawked on Hacker's creek He was left by Lowther to watch the Indians on West Fork near the mouth of Isaacs creek, while he, Lowther, went to the settle- ments to give notice and to get reinforcements. He was the one of a party of four that escaped from the Indians near the Ohio river, the occurrence being that Mr. Nicholas Carpenter and son, George Ligget and Jessie Hughes were driving a drove of cattle to Marietta, where Mr. Carpenter, the owner, had found a market for them. Some miles from the Ohio river they encamped for the night. In the early morning, while the owner and drivers were preparing to continue their journey with their cattle, they heard the discharge of guns and saw one of their party fall. The others endeavored to save themselves. Carpenter, the owner of the cattle, being a cripple, could not run, and crawled into a pond of water where he fondly hoped he should escape destruction. The father and the son were both killed. George Liggett was never heard of. Jessie Hughes succeeded in getting away through advantageous circumstances, that is to say he had long leggings which was a great obstacle and hindrance to his sprinting. He saw it was necessary to rid himself of these incumbrances if life was to be saved. He took his chances, stopped by the path, broke the strings which tied the leggings to his belt, and was pulling them off when the savages approached and hurled the tomahawk at him. It creased his head and Jessie Hughes betook himself as fast as heels would carry him to surroundings more safe and com- fortable. He performed the feat of ransoming his daughter who had been kid- naped by the Indians and carried beyond the great Ohio. Two bodies of water are named after him. Jessies Run in Lewis county, which has his Christian name, and Hughes river, which is in Ritchie county after his surname. These two streams then commemorate his full name. Jessie Hughes died in Jackson county, West Virginia.
Both William Radcliffe and John Brown, whose names appear in the list of the first settlers, must have taken up their residence on the West Fork river, for the author has not been able to find a person or a record tending to show that they lived among the settlers of the Buckhannon river.
"Soon after this, other emigrants arrived under the guidance of Samuel Pringle. Among them were John and Benjamin Cutright, who settled on Buck- hannon river where John Cutright, the younger, now lives (1904 the Nathaniel Cutright farm, now owned by Cain Hinkle) ; and Henry Rule who improved just above the mouth of Fink's Run (1904 the farm of William Farnsworth). Before the arrival of Samuel Pringle, John Hacker had begun to improve the spot which Pringle had chosen for himself which (as formerly mentioned) is near the site of the present Heavner Cemetery. To prevent any unpleasantness, Hacker agreed
184
EARLY SETTLERS AND INDIAN TROUBLES.
that if Pringle would clear as much land on a creek, which had recently been discovered by the hunters, as he had on Buckhannon river, that they would then exchange places. Complying with this condition, Pringle took possession of the farm on Buckhannon river and Hacker, the land improved by Pringle on the creek which was by himself called Hacker's creek (the Indian name for this creek signifies muddy waters which was appropriate, as we know the creek today.)
John and William Radcliff then likewise settled on this stream-the former on the farm, where the Rev. John Mitchel now lives; the latter at the place now owned by William Powers, Esq. These comprise all the improvements which were made on the upper branches of the Monongahela in the year 1769."
Benjamin Cutright, the brother of John Cutright here mentioned, might have returned to the South Branch, might have died, and might have emigrated to the great unknown West. Sure it is that none of his family in Upshur county know anything about him, except that he came here once about the year 1770.
Alexander and Thomas Sleeth lived here later, and settled in Lewis county on Hacker's creek.
Among this small crowd of first settlers on the Buckhannon River was young John Cutright. Cutright is a corruption of the name Cartright. His ancestry is unknown, further than we can trace back the Cutright family to the South Branch of the Potomac.
We, also, have from authentic sources a date in early Virginia history which gives us a clue to the first person by that name. Hotten in his Lists of Emigrants to America, gives us these facts: First, William Cartright emigrated and set- tled in the James City Colony in the year 1616. Second, Phillipp Cartright, whose age was twenty, embarked on the ship Hopewell, February 17, 1634. The intended destination of this good ship under Captain Tom Hood, was the Barba- does Islands. Third, the emigrant ship Falcon, under the management of Theo- dore Irish, embarked December 19, 1635, for the Barbadoes Islands, and had as a passenger one William Cartright, twenty-three years of age. According to custom he was examined before embarkation by the minister of the town Gravesend. All of these seemed never to have reached their destination, or if reaching it, were lost in subsequent listings of the population. The real source of the Cutright or Cartright family is one named John Cartright, whom Hotten in his "Living and Dead," says lived at James City and within the corporation thereof, February 16, 1623.
Lyon G. Tyler, president of William and Mary College, editor of the "Wil- liam and Mary Quarterly and Historic Magazine," has devoted ten years in researches and publications of genealogical and patriotic data in this maga- zine. He is regarded as a specialist in genealogy. He writes us that there can be no question of the fact that John Cartright mentioned in Hotten's "Living and Dead," is the ancestor of all the American Cartrights, Cutrights and Courtrights. The next fact which convinces our belief in his theory is that a John Cartright was one of the loyal soldiers under Nathaniel Bacon in 1675, when a righteous rebellion of a large number of citizens of Virginia, against heavy taxation and insecure protection from Indian invasion, occurred.
A strong assumption from these historical facts is taken. That is, a subse- quent oppression and unjust punishment by Governor Berkeley, of Virginia, drove many of Bacon's rebels northward into Maryland and South Pennsylvania. This would account for the Cartright family getting on to the waters of the Poto- mac. How the name was corrupted from Cartright to Cutright was this way-
185
EARLY SETTLERS AND INDIAN TROUBLES.
There came to Virginia, settling on the water of the Rappahanoc, a man by the name of Roger Cutts, who raised a large family of girls, one of these mar- ried a Cartright. This might explain the corruption.
Whatever may be our beliefs, opinions and theories concerning the origin and name of the Cutright family on the Buckhannon River, one fact is undisputed, that John Cutright, Sr., came to the settlement with the Pringle brothers, about the year 1770, that he married Rebecca Truby and was peculiarly identified with the opening up and growth of the settlement along the Buckhannon River. Uncle Henry Westfall in his notes says that John Cutright was a little boy, small of stature and martial in action. He was an Indian hater, always ready and anxious to do scouting and to shoot to death the savage. For years he was associated with the great scouts, William White, Jessie Hughes and Paul Shaver.
William C. Carper tells us that when a boy he often saw and talked with John Cutright, his youthful mind craving stories of courage and heroism, and always implored Mr. Cutright to tell him about his scouting in the year 1770 and again in the year 1777, and his participation in the Bull Town massacre in the year 1772. Mr. Carper informs us that Cutright was a profane man and always swore when relating the incident of his being wounded by an Indian. The shot entered one side and came out on the other, going around the ribs. Where the bullet entered there seems to have been a sinking in of the flesh caused by deficient healing and when relating the circumstances of the fight with the Indian Cutright would have the hearer feel the hole where the bullet entered, uttering, "There is where the damned 'Injun' shot me."
John Cutright was in the employ of the Continental Congress during the Revolutionary War, as a scout, and for his services during the years from 1775 to 1781 he afterwards received a pension.
The census of pensioners of 1841, shows that John Cutright was eighty- seven years old; Philip Hunt, eighty-seven; James Tenney, seventy-five years old ; Jacob Hyre, eighty-three, and John Rains, eight-four years, were all Revo- lutionary pensioners.
John Cutright lived most of life near the mouth of Cutright's run four miles south of Buckhannon town. His children, Jacob, Ann, John, Jr., William, Isaac , and Christopher T. lived near him. He died in the year 1852 at the ripe old age of 105. At the time of his death he was at the home of his son William and had to be taken across the Buckhannon River in a canoe for burial. His remains were entered in the family graveyard by those of his wife and on what is now known as the Theodore Cutright farm on the west side of the Buckhannon River, a short distance from the run which bears his name.
Up to this time no woman was living in Buckhannon settlement. These back-woodsmen who dared to cross the forest-clad Alleghenies and plant frontier. settlements on the Buckhannon, had left the female and better half of their families in places of greater security and of more certainty of living. The men had come simply to raise a sufficiency of corn and other provisions to make certain that their depending ones would not suffer from hunger. Knowing that they were going to push past the settled regions and were plunging into a wilder- ness as leaders of the white advance, this action on their part was very wise, prudent and praiseworthy. So after the crops had been cultivated and laid by, many of these bold and hardy pioneers returned to their families on the South Branch on a visit; when they returned their crops were destroyed. The shaggy
186
EARLY SETTLERS AND INDIAN TROUBLES.
mained buffalo no longer awed by the presence of the white man had entered into the fields, ate up and destroyed what promised to be a very large harvest.
The removal of their families on account of forage of the herd of buffaloes must need to be postponed until 1770. But the stout hearted settler is not a victim of despair of such unfortunate circumstances as the loss of a crop. The winter was spent in clearing more acres by their axes and in holding them with their rifles, as well as providing meat and game for their sustenance. When plant- ing time came the acreage of forest was less, the land of cultivation was more. This summer's work brought forth abundant harvests which were garnered in and stored away in rude, wooden, temporary graineries. All were anxious and eager to return to the settlements on the South Branch, some to visit their former friends and others to bring back to their wilderness home the wife and children left behind a year ago, due to the exigencies of fate. Some were compelled to remain to guard and protect the gathered crops, while most hied away across the mountains to see their loved ones. After a short visit among the Trans-Appala- chian lowlands of the Potomac, the families of those bold men who had come after them bid a fond good-bye to their neighbors and started on their weary journey to their forest home. The road was rough, in places rocky and steep; the streams were deep and swift, and great fortitude was exhibited by women and children in reaching the small one-story, one-roomed cabin which was to be hereafter called, and known as their home. This cabin was made of round and unhewn logs. There was no floor at all in many ; puncheons or great slabs of wood, carefully hewed out, made the floor in those cabins whose owners were better off and more fortunate in worldly possessions, and the roof was constructed of clab- boards rived with an instrument called a frow. The home had been previously furnished with a table which was puncheon or a wide, long clabboard set on four wooden legs, some three legged stools and a couch or two whose coverings were mainly deer hides and bear skins. The clearings had been made in the most fertile portion of their land and were frequently far away from the house. There- fore, up to the very door sill the solemn and illimitable forest came; there were ever present continuous, and endless woodlands. Large and towering trees whose lofty heads were lost in the intermingling foliage above impended their homes. Such was the gloomy welcome and aspects which confronted the ever- lasting view of the good house-wife, who was the mother of the sons and daughters whose great-great-grandchildren would see this very country teaming with toiling thousands, working in rich meadow land and on grassy hillsides or burrowing into the bowels of the earth to bring forth for man's comfort minerals, whose value transcends in richness and wealth the dazzling splendors of the Montezeumas.
Very few additions to the population to the settlement was made in the year 1771, but 1772 witnessed considerable accessations to the Buckhannon and Hacker's Creek settlement.
Samuel Oliver, planted his clearing on Cutright's run, on the John Burr, now D. D. T. Farnsworth heirs' land. Mr. Oliver had the first negro slave in Buckhannon valley. Thomas Carney, Zachariah Westfall and George Casto built their homes on Stony run about two miles south of Buckhannon. Joel Westfall on the river north of them and opposite the mouth of Ratcliffe's run; Abraham Carper still lower down on the land now known as the Boom or South Buck- hannon; Jacob Brake built his cabin north of the mouth of Fink's run, now in the limits of North Buckhannon.
187
EARLY SETTLERS AND INDIAN TROUBLES.
Henry Jackson about a mile further north on the river; Edward Jackson near where the first M. E. Church now stands; Jacob Hyre and Henry Fink, on Fink's run ; Mr. William Allman, Jacob Lorentz, and John Bozarth higher up on Fink's run, near the village of Lorentz; John Hyre, Phillip Reger, John Tingle, Jacob Schoolcraft, Leonard Simon and Solomon Collins on Brushy Fork of Fink's run ; Jacob Post on the east side of Buckhannon river near the mouth of Little Sand run; John Strader, John and Abraham Crites, Abraham Post, John Jack- son, Anthony Rhorbough and George Bush lived on either side of the Buckhannon river two or more miles north of Buckhannon with farms adjoining each other ; Joseph Davis lived a short distance up Turkey run; David Casto and the Sleeths planted themselves on the hilltop overlooking Turkey run. This increased population in Buckhannon settlement, early portended suffering on account of the small crops of the preceeding season. One informant tells us, that the bread stuff could be consumed before one-third of the winter had passed. Everybody expected the worst and laid himself to any labour whatsoever that promised relief or an extension of the time when their cornmeal would be exhausted. Meats of wild animals made up the major portion of the pioneers' bill-of-fare, and salt being scarce this diet became nauseous and demoralizing to good digestion. Such indeed was the state of suffering among the inhabitants consequent upon the scarcity of bread, salts, and vegetables, that the year 1773 is known in local traditionary legend as the starving year. Indeed had it not been for that bold, reckless and undaunted spirit, William Lowther and his neighbors, who desired to supply the starving settlers on the Buckhannon or at least to mitigate their suf- fering, many would have perished from hunger, fatigue and cold. His brave little band went from fort to fort on the West Fork, Elk and Tygarts valley rivers beg- ging for food or seizing it if it was not voluntarily given and carried it to the unsat- isfied, unhappy and needy settlers on the Buckhannon. So great was the success of the efforts of Mr. Lowther that his name has been transmitted to the descend- ants and posterity of those suffering families, hallowed by the blessings of those whose wants he contributed so largely to relieve. He was indeed a benefactor and perhaps a savior to Buckhannon settlement in its incipiency.
Now William Lowther was the son of Robert and came with his father to the Hacker creek settlement in 1772. He soon became one of the most con- spicuous men in that section of country, while his private virtues and public actions endeared him to every individual of the community. During the war of 1774 and subsequently, he was the most active and efficient defender of that vicinity, against the insidious attacks of the savage foe; and there were very few, if any, scouting parties proceeding from thence, by which the Indians were killed or otherwise much annoyed, but those which were commanded by him.
WILLIAM WHITE, SR.
The first mention of the name of William White, a famous border scout, is in Samuel Kercheval's History of the "Valley of Virginia." The year 1734, witnessed his removal from Monoccacy, a fort town in Maryland about fifty miles east of Cumberland, on the Potomac River. His companions were Benja- min Allen and Riley Moore. They settled on the North Branch of the Shenan- doah, now in the county of Shenandoah, about twelve miles south of Woodstock. His physique, his courage and bravery induced him to enter into martial service, viz .: Protection to border settlers and even joining the invading armies against
188
EARLY SETTLERS AND INDIAN TROUBLES.
the French. In the year 1768, we find him a captain and known as a brave and active Indian fighter. In that year he made a visit to his old friend and superior, Colonel William Crawford, who had moved and settled at the Meadows on the Allegheny Mountains. They had been neighbors. White living on Cedar Creek and Crawford on Bull Skin, and had been out together on Indian expeditions ; of course were well acquainted, good friends.
One day White signified his desire to go on a hunt, and Crawford sent with him his Irish servant, a stout and active man. They had not been out long before they discovered two Indians in the glade. The Indians of course as soon as they saw them, flew behind trees and prepared for battle. White and the Irishman readily out-generaled and killed both. For this crime they were apprehended and committed to the Winchester jail, on the grave charge of mur- der in the first degree, but White had rendered his neighbors too many important services and was too popular to be allowed to languish loaded with irons in a dungeon, for killing an Indian.
Although there seemed to be a cessation of Indian hostilities too many peo- ple were smarting under the recollection of outrages committed and experienced by and at the hands of the merciless savage. Captain Abraham Frye readily enlisted a party of fifty or sixty followers, well armed and mounted, to effect the rescue of these prisoners. This little band of volunteers rode up to Isaac Hollingsworth's home, a short distance out of Winchester, a couple hours before daylight, and they left their horses under guard there and proceeded to Win- chester, reaching the jail about daybreak. They presented themselves to the jailor and demanded the keys. The jailor hesitated and began to remonstrate, but the rescuers were in no condition to hear remonstrances. Frye, the leader, presented his rifle, cocked and peremptorily demanded the keys, telling the custodian of the prisoners that one minute of time would be given him to deliver them. The jailer seeing the fierce determination and countenance and hearing the stern menances of Frye, complied. The doors were knocked off their hinges, the prisoners set free.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.