Greenbrier County, West Virginia - 160th Anniversary Booklet - Part 1

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Historical Booklet - Greenbrier County
160th Anniversary - 1778-1938
Published 1938
Transcribed by Lori Samples <dawg @mail.us-net.com>

"This booklet was printed in 1938.  It served as sort of a program for the 
ceremonies the surrounding counties had, as this placed many historical 
markers for the first time.  I believe the celebrations started on June 
18th, 1938, a Saturday, and went all weekend.  They had band concerts
and dedicated historical markers all over.  They celebrated "Statesmen 
of Greenbrier County" that Monday.  There was a queen, a parade, a ballet, 
a play, etc.  There was also a souvenier coin issued, which I also have.  
From the looks of it, there were at least 40-50 of the big wigs in the 
towns in on this celebration, and it was quite a blow out. There are 
pictures and even a three color cover.  This is rare for that time period."




Page One, On the Waters of Greenbrier River

Scotch-Irish and German settlers, who left Pennsylvania because they were
unable to find haven there to worship as the wished, migrated to the
Shenandoah Valley between 1732 and 1745.  They had left their native lands
for religious reasons, and they had run into much the same difficulties
among the Quakers in William Penn's settlements, where restrictive
governmental measures had been passed against them.

Not long after they had established homes in what now comprises the counties
of Augusta, Rockingham, Page and others, the younger spirits among them
ventured further westward.

As early as 1742 John Peter Salley, in company with Charles St. Clair, John
Howard and his son, Josiah Howard, made a trip from their home at the base
of the Blue Ridge Mountains in Augusta County to the Ohio River.  Their
route led them through Greenbrier Valley and it is quite probable that they
were the first white men to behold the creek which passes by White Sulphur
Springs, and gave it the name of Howard's Creek, in honor of the two men in
the party whose names were Howard.  This stream was known and named very
early in the history of the Greenbrier section, as one of the earliest land
grants makes reference to it.

EARLY SETTLEMENTS ON ANTHONY'S CREEK
There were settlements on Anthony's Creek in the northeastern part of
Greenbrier County at a very early date, at least as early as 1750.  In that
year Dr. Thomas Walker with five companions, made a journey as far west as
the Cumberland Gap on the present line of Tennessee.  They made their
return trip on the western side of the Alleghany Mountains and reached the
mouth of the Greenbrier River, near the present site of Hinton on June 28,
1750.  Dr. Walker kept a journal of the expedition and the entry for July
6th reads as follows:
"We left the river (Greenbrier).  The low grounds on it are of very little
value, but on the branches, they are very good and there is a great deal of
it, and the highlands is very good in many places.   We got to a large
creek, which affords a great deal of very good land and is chiefly bought.
We went up the creek four miles and camped.  This creek took its name from
an Indian named John Anthony, that frequently hunts back in these woods.
There are some inhabitants on the branches of Greenbrier but we missed their
plantation."

Thus we learned that some settlements had been made in Greenbrier prior to
1750.

By 1755, enough settlements had been made in Greenbrier to justify the
Colonial Government of Virginia to have Fort Savannah built in the "Big
Levels".  Archibald Clendenin, a surveyor of the King, a native of the
Calfpasture section of Augusta county, had made a settlement two miles west
of Fort Savannah (Lewisburg), and a few families had settled on Muddy Creek,
and in McDowell Bottoms, below Alderson, on the south side, near the mouth
of Wolf Creek.

About 1750, two men by the name of Jacob Marlin and Stephen Sewell took up
residence on Greenbrier River at the mouth of Knapp's Creek at what is now
Marlinton.  John Lewis, the founder of Augusta County, and his son, Andrew,
representing a company of grantees who had obtained from the Governor and
Council of Virginia 100,000 acres of land lying on the waters of Greenbrier
River, found them there in 1751.

Marlin and Sewell quarreled and separated.  Later, Marlin returned east.
Sewell, however, moved about 40 miles west, to the Meadows section of
Greenbrier County, where he built a cabin beside the creek on or near a
mountain.  These are now known respectively as Sewell Creek and Sewell
Mountain.  There he was found and killed by the Indians.

Previous to 1755, John Lewis had completed a survey of 50,000 acres.  The
war between England and France caused cessation of the work.  In 1758, His
Majesty George II, in accordance with the Treaty at Easton, issued a
proclamation forbidding any of his subjects to remain in the lands west of
the Alleghenies.  However, the hardy pioneers could not easily be persuaded
to abandon the fruits of their effort, and despite the edict most of them
remained.  In fact, by 1761 "at least 100 persons had crossed the
mountains."  They were determined to live in Greenbrier in spite of danger
from king's men or Indians.

Two of the boldest massacres committed by Indians were when Cornstalk, a
young Shawnee chief, led a band of about 60 of his tribesmen into Greenbrier
County in 1763.  The first settlement destroyed was at Muddy Creek, under
the guise of friendship.  Freaderick Sea, Joseph Carrol, Salty Yolkum and
others were killed.  This was on June 26.

The next day, Cornstalk led his warriors to the Clendenin Settlement.
Pretending to be friendly, they attended a feast given in honor of the white
settlers at Archibald Clendenins home near Lewisburg.  At a given signal,
the Indians killed all but one person, more than fifty falling victims to
the tomahawk and rifle.  Conrod Yolkum escaped to Jackson's River.  While
the main band camped at Muddy Creek, a small raiding part went as far as
Carr's Creek, Rockbridge County, Va.  This was the last Indian raid east of
the Alleghenies.


NEXT CHAPTER:  THE WESTERN CRADLE OF INDEPENDENCE (the Revolutionary War in
Greenbrier County)