USA > West Virginia > Upshur County > The history of Upshur county, West Virginia, from its earliest exploration and settlement to the present time > Part 31
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The first portorable steam saw-mill to manufacture lumber for market, was brought into this district on the head waters of Cutright's Run in the year 1867, by Abraham Hinkle. This mill sawed its first set on the farm now owned by Benjamin Miles and sawed its second set on the farm now owned by Anthoney Neely, one mile east of the village of Hinkleville. The postoffice at Hinkleville was named after the owner of this first portable steam saw mill in the county, Abraham Hinkle, who was its founder and used much of the lumber sawed at this second set in constructing dwelling house, a country inn or tavern, store house and stables.
In the year 1832, Eldridge Burr, Jr., and Martin Burr., erected a grist mill in the district outside of the county seat. It was built on the waters of French Creek, about a mile from its mouth, and served the people around many years with good corn meal. This mill was a water mill, having the old tub wheels fed by a deep race which furnished sufficient water not only to run corn burrs, but wheat burrs as well and saw-mill. The next water mill built in this district was in the year 1848 on Spruce Run by Jacob A. Hyre. This mill is still standing near the postoffice of Atlas and is doing trade grinding as it did in the year of its prime. The striking feature of this mill is its large wheel which is some thirty feet in diameter, the circumference of the wheel is filled with triangular wooden troughs into which pours water from an artificial lake sufficient to give momentum and rapidity to the over-shot wheel to do the neighbors' grinding. It is owned by Marcellus Reger. The Aaron Ligget grist and saw water mill on the waters of Glady Fork was built by Dr. David Pinnell in 1853.
Lorentz in this dstrict was the first postoffice in the county, established some time prior to the war of 1812 and named after its founder and principal citizen, Jacob Lorentz, who for many years kept the only store in the valley and did a large mercantile business. In fact his store business was so extensive and profitable .that for half a century he was regarded as the wealthiest man in all these parts.
The first house erected for the sole purposes of education was built in this district in 1790; it was on Glady Fork Run near where Daniel Cutright, Esq., now lives. It was a rude cabin of logs ; the roof of clabboards was held in place by weight polls ; the floor was mother earth; a huge fire-place occupied one end, while from the other was chopped a log and over the aperture was pasted greased paper as a substitute for glass. The seats were constructed by splitting small logs in halves, and inserting wooden pins or legs into divergent holes in either end of the oval side, thus leaving the flat side as a seat.
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FORMATION OF UPSHUR COUNTY.
The churches in this district number seven, and the denominations having churches number four.
METHODIST PROTESTANT .- The oldest church outside of the town Buck- hannon, is Mt. Pleasant or Philadelphia Chapel, which was first organized about the year 1817. It was then a Methodist class, but after the rupture of 1830 and formation of the Methodist Protestant denomination, this class built a log church at the forks of the road on the hill above the home of Jacob E. Cutright. This house served its usefulness and was supplanted by the present one on the present site in 1869. Some of the members belonging to this class in this last year were Isaac Cutright, Christopher Cutright, William Cutright, William Pringle, Jacob Cutright and Joel Pringle.
The Lorentz, M. P. Church was first built in the year 1837 and was a rude structure adapted to the convenience and comfort of those who worshipped therein.
The second M. P. Church at Lorentz was built in 1884, the old one having been burned by an incendiary on the same night that President James A. Garfield fell a victim of death from Giteau's bullet, July 2, 1881.
Pleasant Dale Chapel was built in 1865 and was the result of a continued anxiety upon the part of a few of the faithful who refused to join the new sex or denomination, the Methodist Protestant, in the year 1830 when most all of Mt. Pleasant membership affiliated themselves with this new division. For some time prior to the building of this church Abraham Strader and Catharine, his wife; Simon Rohrbough and Margaret, his wife; Frank Boyles, Samuel Boyles and some others , thinking the "Old Side" good enough for them, had held meetings in Abraham Strader's log laundry, and under the direction of a Rev. Powell, had organized the class which brought about the construction of the present church on the hill, a mile south from where the pike crosses Cut- right's run.
REGER CHAPEL .- Reger Chapel was organized and built about the year 1840. Philip Reger, Anthony Reger, John J. Reger, and others holding a life belief as to church government, set on foot a movement which resulted in the con- struction of the first church on the hill near by the home of the late John J. Reger, on Brushy Fork. In time the original house became weather beaten, dilapidated, rickety, rotten and dangerous, and 1890 a new edifice was built on the site of the old church.
UNITED BRETHEN .- Mt. Olivet Chapel, one-half mile south of the village of Hinkleville, was built in 1868. The leading members of this church were Samuel Lane and Elizabeth, his wife; Enoch Cutright and Catharine, his wife. An interesting incident connected with the dedication of Mt. Olivet was the presence of Rev. Weaver, who afterwards became one of the strongest and most spiritual bishops in the United Brethren Church.
Rocky Ford Chapel was built in the year 1872. The principal supporters of this local church then and now are the families of Daniel Cutright,, Amos Cutright, George L. Crites, A. W. C. Lemons and Isaac Lewis.
Jacob Lorentz was the first blacksmith as well as the first store-keeper in the district and county ; he lived at the present village of Lorentz.
James Raines, who lived on the now Widow Taylor farm, opposite Joseph E. Newlon dairy farm, was the second blacksmith in the district, doing for several years the cobbling for the people at Buckhannon and on Cutright's run.
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FORMATION OF UPSHUR COUNTY.
The village of Hampton, on the B. & O. R. R. at the mouth of French Creek, was laid off by Dr. G. A. Newlon in 1891, and named after his son-in-law, W. Hampton Fisher, attorney at the Buckhannon bar.
The first jeweler in the county was Samuel Meerbach, who came here direct from London in the 20's, and lived as a hermit a mile south of the postoffice of Ivanhoe, most generally called Hampton.
MEADE DISTRICT.
George Gordon Meade was born at Cadiz, Spain, December 30, 1815. He was raised in the society and atmosphere of the United States Navy, to which his father belonged. Young Meade did not like navy life, and entered West Point, from which he graduated in 1835, to follow the other great division of Uncle Sam's military, the army. One year's service after graduation, satisfied him with army life.
He resigned to begin practice as a civil engineer. His work as assistant engineer in the survey of the dozen mouths of the Mississippi River and the Texas boundary line recommended him so strongly to the government that he was employed to settle the boundary line in the northeast between United States and Canada.
In 1842 he re-entered the army and served with distinction on the staffs of Taylor and Scott in the Mexican war. He labored for years on the Light House corps of the United States and for four years prior to the civil war had charge of the geodetic survey of the Great Lakes. At the outbreak of the Rebellion he was placed in command of a brigade of volunteers and soon was promoted to the command of a division of the army of the Potomac. He was in the engagements, "Seven days battle" in the wilderness, Antietam and Freder- icksburg. At Chancellorsville he commanded the Fifth corps and succeeded Hooker as commander of the entire army, hastening North to check Lee's inva- sion. He was succeeded by Grant as general commander, who treated him with such signal equality that the pangs in his reduction were greatly alleviated and mutual good feeling always existed between them.
In 1864 Meade's abilities were most conspicuous and brilliant and his serv- ices were recognized by his promotion to the rank of Major General, in August, 1864.
At the close of the war he was placed in command of the Atlantic division of the United States Army, a post which he filled until his death in Philadelphia, November 6, 1872.
Festus Young, the surveyor, being an official member of the committee to divide the county into magisterial districts, was, also, the only member of the committee representing the New England contingent of Upshur county citizen- ship, and had the privilege and honor of naming this district in commemoration of the distinguished services and pure character of the above-portrayed hero and patriot.
Zedekiah Morgan and Patrick Peebles in the year 1801 moved out from Massachusetts and made a settlement at Sago. Both were actual settlers and both found what they were in search of-permanent homes.
Three years after making their settlement, or 1804, was born Alfred Mor- gan, the father of Mrs. George W. Burner.
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FORMATION OF UPSHUR COUNTY.
The first saw and grist mill built in this district was at or near Sago in the year 1810. It was erected by Zedekiah Morgan and Patrick Peebles. Soon after its completion a violent freshet swept it down and carried it away. The second saw mill in this district was built by Aaron Gould on the waters of French Creek, near where Meadville now stands. This was a short time after the war of 1812.
In 1825 there came from Massachusetts, James Bunten, who located on the Buckhannon River near where Morgan lived. With eagerness and solicitude he listened to the story of the destruction of his neighbors' saw and grist mill in 1810, and being somewhat of a millwright himself, determined to replace it with a new and better one. Bunten's mill stood on the left bank of the Buckhannon River opposite the residence of George Moore, near Sago. In time this mill was incapacitated by age and lack of repair to accommodate the increasing popu- lation thereabouts.
Cornelius Clark built a grist mill about one mile south of Bunten's mill in the year 1847, which has been out of use for some ten years, and is now totally destroyed. At the same time he bored a salt well nearby and for years made salt as well as linseed and castor oil from the beans grown on the river bottom and hillside.
The Pringle flour and grist mill at Alton was built by Walker Pringle in 1876. It still stands and does grinding for the neighborhood.
The Aaron Gould saw mill at French Creek was improved and enlarged by the addition of grinding processes both for wheat and corn in the year 1820. This old water grist mill was some years ago abandoned and the only evidences of there ever being one there are the mill dam and the two-story frame building on the bank of French Creek.
Marshall Gould some years later built a grist and saw mill three miles north of French Creek, now near the present postoffice of Adrian, on the C. & C. R. R.
Perry Talbot after disposing of his interest in the French Creek Water, Saw and Grist Mill, of which mention has been made, set about the building of an up-to-date steam grist mill in the same village. He completed this mill in 1892.
The first school was taught by Miss Anna Young, who afterwards became the wife of Augustus W. Sexton, in 1822. This school was held in a barn owned by Aaron Gould, who lived near the present postoffice of French Creek. Miss Amy Burry was the second teacher. She married a Mr. Bradley. The first building erected for school purposes was a small log cabin which the settlers united in building in the year 1824.
The first sermon preached in the district was by Rev. James Strange, a Methodist minister, in the year 1812. ' The first religious society formed was that of the French Creek Presbyterian Church in 1819. The first place of wor- ship was the private residence of Samuel Gould; but in 1823 a log church was erected.
The second church organization was probably that of the Universalists, about the year 1825. It ceased to exist long since. There are at the present time thirteen church organizations in the district.
METHODIST EPISCOPAL .- Point Pleasant organized in 1847: French Creek organized in 1882; Ebenezer Chapel, Tenmile, and Center Chapel.
PRESBYTERIAN .- French Creek organized 1819; Lebanon Chapel.
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FORMATION OF UPSHUR COUNTY.
UNITED BRETHEN .- Indian Camp, Waterloo, Big Bend, Alton.
BAPTIST .- Sago organized in 1856 by Rev. Aaron Bennet, church built in 1873; second church built in 1896.
GERMAN BAPTIST or DUNKARD, at Bean's Mill, built in 1903.
Meadville, or more commonly known as French Creek, is the oldest village in the district. It was named by Festus Young.
UNION DISTRICT. -
"The Union, one and indissoluble!" The commemoration and fidelity of a loyal people at this most trying time must be indelibly fixed on the pages of local history. Therefore the naming of this magisterial district reflects the faith and hope of Upshur's people in 1863 in the ultimate triumph of the perpetuation of the nation. James Kesling, the commissioner from this section of the country, acted most wisely and far-sightedly when in reply to the interrogation, "What shall you name your district?" answered, "Union, the personification of truth and the vindication of right."
The first settlers were Jacob Post, near the mouth of Little Sand Run; John Strader, John and Abram Crites, Abraham Post, John Jackson, Anthony Rhor- bough and George Bush, lower down on the Buckhannon River and adjoining farms each to the other.
The first grist mill was erected in the year 1841 by Solomon Day at Dayville, near the Overhill postoffice. This mill is still standing although many im- provements have been made upon it since the time it was first erected. William F. Hollen built the first circular saw mill in 1877. Steam was the propelling power.
The Harris grist mill on Handy Camp Run of the Buckhannon River was built in 1881.
The Hinkle Grist Mill on Big Sand Run, a mile east of the Shreve School or Hinkle Postoffice, was built by Valentine Hinkle in 1878. It was a water mill and had machinery for sawing lumber attached to it.
The Pifer Grist Mill on the Buckhannon River was built in 1874. This mill is noted today for the good quality of corn meal it produces.
The Lewis or Forneash grist and saw mill on Big Sand Run, a mile above its mouth, was built in 1874.
Homer Kesling built a two-sory flour and grist mill on the waters of Big Sand Run near the postoffice of Bonn, in 1903. This mill is fitted up with the most modern machinery of any country mill in the county ; it is run by steam.
The first school was taught in 1828 at what is now known as the Shreve's School House. There were sixteen pupils in attendance, who came from several miles around. The house was a small, log building twenty by twenty-four feet. It was private property.
The first school house erected for schood purposes was in the year 1830; it was a small frame building and stood where the Leonard school has since been located. The first teacher is not known, but we are informed that John B. Shreves was among the primitive pedagogues in this district.
There are nine churches in this district divided among the denominations as follows :
METHODIST EPISCOPAL .- Kesling Chapel, organized and built in the year 1858; Mt. Nebo, Low Gap Chapel, and Mt. Rupert.
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FORMATION OF UPSHUR COUNTY.
METHODIST PROTESTANT .- Rock Spring and Mt. Zion.
UNITED BRETHERN .- Mt. Hermon or Ours Chapel and Sand Run Chapel. BAPTIST .- Sand Run, and a Catholic.
WASHINGTON DISTRICT.
How fitting the nomenclature of this magisterial district! It was the last portion of the county to be permanently settled, yet, was the first in which set- tlements were attempted. George Washington, the father only of his country, the creator of an imperishable republic, the arch-builder of an indissoluble union, has fame, name and work, perpetuated in this district.
Born February 22 1732, in Tidewater, Virginia, his fiery ambitious youth gave singular manifestations of a leader of men and a maker of history. In the friendly "bouts" on school play-ground, in the laborious engagements of land surveying, and in the fiercer struggles of bloody warfare, he convincingly proved his supremacy over his contemporaries.
His promotion began early in life; and he gradually went higher and higher until an appreciative populace sang in concert, "The first, the last, the best "The Cincinnatus of the West.'" He died at Mount Vernon, December 14, 1799.
At the time the Pringles and Cutrights settled at the mouth of Cutright's Run, an effort was made to establish a home or two across the river, on the ground that the river was a barrier to the Indians going eastward and a cabin on the hills overlooking that stream might become a place of personal security, a fort of family safety. True it is the Cutrights' early made settlement in Wash- ington district. In 1816 the Burr-Sexton-Leonard settlement on Leonard Creek of the Middlefork River was made. James Tenney, Sr., the foreparent of the large Tenney family in the county, settled permanently above Queens, in 1817.
A man by the name of Hewins built the first cabin and was the first actual settler in the district.
The Strader settlement, named after Isaac Strader, was made in 1820, and the Tenmile settlement was made in 1830.
The first settlers in this district were Isaac Strader, John Strader, Michael Strader, Jacob Strader, Samuel C. Turney, William Wooden and John Weather- holt, all of whom lived in the lower part of the district and constituted a large settlement.
The first grist mill was built on Middlefork, in 1818, by James Tenney, Sr. It was a rudely constructed building with but one very small run of stone. It could grind fifteen bushels per day and the patience of the farmer was sorely tried in waiting his "turn" at Tenney's mill.
The first saw mill was built in 1854 by F. W. Chipps and Isaac Wamsley. It was located near the mouth of Grassy Run and cut 600 feet per day during the time of plentiful water.
The Tenney grist mill on the Buckhannon River near Tenmile was built in 1867.
The Queens or Hollen grist mill was built by Armstead Queen in 1845.
The second postoffice established in the township was that of Queens, and named after the founder of the village and the builder of the first grist mill. The first postoffice was named Middlefork and was kept at the Groves farm in 1844.
258
FORMATION OF UPSHUR COUNTY.
The Nixon or Ours grist and saw mill on the Buckhannon River, one of the best country mills in the county, was built by Nicholas Ours in 1883. The Kedron grist mill was built by George Steele, Sr., in 1886.
The first election was held at Chesney's precinct, 1858, at which election twenty-four persons exercised the right of suffrage, the following being the voters : Isaac Strader, David and Samuel Reese, George Warner, Peter and Jonathan Tinney, George Moore, Hazeldon and Nicholas Ours, Sr. and Jr., Elijah Rollins, Solomon Reese, Wm. Dunbar, Nathaniel Cutright, James M. Black, Benjamin Tallman, Granville D. Marple, N. B. Warmsley, Nathan Ligget, Peter Barb, Soloman Day, Peter Tenney, Sr., Elijah and W. B. Goodwin, Meer- bach Ours, J. H. Sharps, Wm. Tallman, A. C. Queen, Geo. I. Herndon, Robert Wingfield, Howard Roan and Simon Strader.
This township supports fourteen churches divided among the various denomi- nations as follows :
METHODIST EPISCOPAL .- Mt. Carmal, Mt. Harmony at Queens, Mt. Union at Kedron, Mt. Olive at Hemlock, Mt Hope Chapel, Simmons Chapel.
METHODIST PROTESTANT .- (Mt Carmel)-Queens Chapel, Hemlock Chapel, class meets in Carpenter's school house ; Fairview Chapel.
BAPTIST .- Carter Chapel at Tallmansville.
The leading members and supporters of this church were T. A. Carter and Page Carter.
Tenney Chapel above Tenmile, organized and built in 1885.
UNITED BRETHERN .- Mt. Washington was first organized and built in the year 1847. The original house of worship was log, small in size and inade- quate for its growing membership. Cutright Chapel, near Bean's mill.
GERMAN BAPTIST or DUNKARD .- Sand Run Chapel was first organized in the early years of the Rebellion. The present house of worship was erected in 1888.
An old resident informs us that the first school in this township was taught by Simon Strader in a log cabin on Grassy Run in the year 1842. The enroll- ment must have been twenty-five or thirty, for our informant tells us that the daily attendance was eighteen.
WARREN.
Governor Kemble Warren was distinctly a soldier. His birth occurred at Cold Springs, New York, January 8, 1830. He completed his course at West Point at the age of twenty years and went West as a member of the U. S. topo- graphical engineering corps. He worked in the Western States and Territories from 1850 to 1859; in this last year he was called to West Point to be assistana professor of mathematics. He taught in his alma mater two years and then went to the front as colonel of the Fifth New York Volunteers. He distinguished himself at the battles of Malvern Hill, Manassas and Fredericksburg.
In 1863 he was chief of topographical engineers under Hooker and later held the same position in the army of the Potomac. He fought most bravely at Gettysburg and immediately was brevetted colonel of the U. S. Army. He was in the battles of the Wilderness, in the siege of Petersburg and the contest of Five Forks in 1865, when for assuming to be omnipotent, General Sheridan relieved him of command. He was afterwards placed in command at Peters-
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FORMATION OF UPSHUR COUNTY.
burg and later of the Department of the Mississippi. He resigned his volunteer commission in May, 1865, and was brevetted major-general in the United States Army. As major of engineers he remained in the regular army in charge of surveys, harbor improvements, the construction of fortifications, etc. He was a member of the National Academy of Sciences and other scientific associations, He died at Newport, Rhode Island, August 8, 1882.
O. B. Loudin being a member of the committee to divide the county into townships and a resident of this most northern district, named this township.
The first cabin erected in this district was in the year 1780, by a man whose name was Hammon, but the first actual settlers were Jacob Reger, Isaac Pringle and John Reger, unless the reader prefers to call the Pringle brothers, who set- tled at the mouth of Turkey Run, actual settlers.
In the year 1798 a man named Daniel Peck built a cabin on that branch of the Buckhannon River now known as Peck's Run, and from him the stream takes its name. This man Peck subsequently moved to the southern end of the county and built a mill on the waters of the Little Kanawha River.
The first frame house in the district and in the county was built in this township. The site was on land now owned by S. D. Jackson. It is said that it was constructed in the year 1800. Among the early settlers in this district were the Straders, Rohrboughs, Post, Hyres, Rollins, Wolfs, Marples, Westfalls and Radabaughs.
The first election ever held in the district was at the store of John Marple, in the year 1863, upon the question of the reorganization of the government of Virginia and the construction of the new State of West Virginia. John M. Loudin and J. L. D. Brake were the first and last supervisors. The first grist mill was built by Jacob Hyre, about the year 1812. It was a log structure with an over-shot wheel forced into action by water led through a mill race. It stood on Peck's Run. There was but one run of buhrs and the bolting was done by hand.
There are nine church buildings in the district at the present time.
METHODIST .- Macedonia, organized and built in 1852; Mt. Lebanon, 1850; Heaston Chapel, Pleasant Valley, in 1838; Oakington Chapel.
METHODIST PROTESTANT .- Mick Hill Chapel, Pleasant View Chapel and Westfall Chapel, 1844.
UNITED BRETHERN .- Mt. Zion Chapel was organized and built in 1843.
The Strader grist mill on Hacker's Creek, near Rural Dale, was built in 1844.
The Post mill on the Buckhannon River was erected by Abraham Post about 1825.
BANKS.
Nathaniel Prentiss Banks was a native of Massachusetts, born in the well- known time factory town, Waltham, January 30, 1816. His paternal ancestor being a superintendent of a local cotton mill, made his son an apprentice under the chief machinist. He soon learned this trade and quitted it soon to follow some other activity more congenial to his nature and habits. He was a finished orator and went upon the platform for a time to instruct and to entertain.
The opportunity of becoming an editor was opened up to him and he could not resist the occupation of pushing a pen. He studied law, was admitted to the bar while conducting this local paper and in 1849 was chosen to represent
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