History of West Virginia, Old and New - Chapter XI

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Submitted by Valerie Crook, <vfcrook @earthlink.net>

From The History of West Virginia,
Old and New, by James Morton Callahan, 1923, 
Vol. I, pg. 134

[Transcriber's Note: Footnotes appear at the end of each page in the original book. 
All footnotes are located at the end of this work. vfc]


CHAPTER XI
EXPANSION AND DISPERSION OF SETTLEMENTS

The hardy and rugged pioneer settlers, after conquering the In-
dians, turned to the conquest of primeval wilds which the Indians had
sought to retain unconquered. With no appreciation of the wealth of
the depths of the primeval forests they gradually extended the area of
cleared bottom lands by the steady and laborious work accomplished by
axe and fire. The finest timber was burned or used for fence rails.
Gradually, with the introduction of a few rude saw mills, a small
portion of it found a more appropriate use in the few plank houses
which began to replace the more primitive log cabins.

In the eastern panhandle, by 1800, many homes of thrift and in-
dustry bore evidence of their establishment in an older community.
Shepherdstown, which, during the Revolution, became a busy center
of traffic and travel and of domestic manufacture, and after the Revolu-
tion had large aspirations expressed in the steamboat experiments of
Rumsey (1) and a bid to secure the location of the national capital re-
tained its local importance in the county for many years.(2) Its later
decline was attributed to the construction of the Baltimore and Ohio
Railway. In 1860 it lost its best factory and the population was 400
less than in 1850. At Harpers Ferry, by an act of Congress of 1794,
a national arsenal and gun factory was erected in 1799.

Better communications for the South Branch region were not long
delayed. As early as 1790 there were eight ferries in Hampshire county.
In 1801 plans were begun for the construction of a road from Romney
through Berkeley county to Washington, D. C. In 1802 commissioners
were designated to meet at the mouth of New creek to begin the mark-
ing of a new road from the Maryland road near Gwynn 's Tavern through
Hampshire and Berkeley counties to Key's Ferry on the Shenandoah.

From Moorefield and lower points of the fertile valley of the South
Branch, flatboats floated down to tidewater on the Potomac with flour
and with iron from Hampshire, beginning at an early period and con-
tinuing until about 1830. The principal markets for the flour were
Washington and Alexandria.

Among the early iron industries in Hampshire was the Hampshire Furnace Com-
pany, whose plant was built and operated by Edward McCarty, on Middle ridge,
twelve miles south of Romney. The forge for the furnace was near Keyser. An
extensive business was carried on by this company, as shown by the many ponderous
account books of 1816-18 now in possession of the clerk of the courts at Eomney.
The Bloomery Furnaces, ruins of which are still to be seen, were built and operated
by a Mr. Priestly, and were being run in 1833. Large quantities of iron were made
and shipped over the Capon river on rafts and flatboats, S. A. Pancoast pur-
chased these furnaces in 1846, and after his death they continued in other hands
until 1875.

In 1800, Robert Sherrard built at Bloomery a large stone mill and also a woolen
mill. William Fox built a merchant mill in Fox's Hollow in 1818, and shipped
flour by boat to Georgetown. Hammock's Mills, flour and woolen, was another
very early plant. Also the Painter Mill was a pioneer establishment on North river
about a century ago. Colonel Fox established a tannery in 1816 in Fox's Hollow,
which was operated until the civil war. Another tanyard was on Dillon's run,
and Samuel Gard had another extensive tannery at Capon Bridge prior to 1820.
New methods came in and the leather trade in this state had to succumb to the
advance of this industry and improved machinery. Distilleries were located at
many points in the county.

Farther up the South Branch, Franklin (earlier Frankford), the
first county seat of Pendleton (formed 1788), incorporated in 1794,
grew slowly but steadily. By 1834 it had two stores, two tanyards,
three saddlers, two blacksmith shops, a furniture shop, three shoe-
makers, one tailor, two lawyers and one physician. It also had a
school and a temperance society.

The first stage line in Hampshire was established between Winchester
and Cumberland in 1830. The pike from Green Spring to Moorefield
was built by a stock company about 1850, the state taking two-fifths
of the stock. Stages from Romney to the Ohio reached Clarksburg in
one day and Parkersburg in two.

Martinsburg (the county seat of Morgan, which was formed from
Hampshire and Berkeley in 1820), received new life and fresh impetus
in 1835 from the large camp of the surveying corps which was locating
the route of the Baltimore and Ohio railway, and later (1841) from
the stores of railway contractors and the trade of the Irish and Ger-
mans who graded and bridged the road. In 1842 the track layers passed
through the town, followed by a pioneer steam engine whose first pierc-
ing whistle completely disorganized the local militia. In 1849 the
town became a first class railway station with engine house and ma-
chine shops under construction. In 1854 it became the terminus of a
turnpike from Winchester, In 1856 it was incorporated and had hope
of becoming the terminus of the Cumberland Valley railroad connect-
ing with Chambersburg. In 1859 it had a population of 3,000.

Throughout the region along the Potomac the Chesapeake and Ohio
canal exerted a great influence. In 1838 the rioting laborers on the
canal quit work and marched from Hancock toward Old Town ter-
rorizing the inhabitants of West Virginia who took measures for de-
fense by a request upon the governor for arms which were promptly
furnished. By June 13, 1850, the canal was completed, the head of
navigation at Cumberland. Although navigation on the canal was sus-
pended during the winter, causing much produce to accumulate at
Williamsport, business was brisk at other seasons. Within the week
before April 22, 1854, sixty-three boats (6,660 tons) left Cumberland
for Alexandria.

Piedmont was laid out by the New Creek company and incorporated
in 1856. Its earliest basis and stimulus was the Baltimore and Ohio
railway which reached the site of the future town in 1851. Its earlier
growth was largely due to Henry G. Davis who, on assuming the duties
of station agent of the railway at that point in 1854 and by his keen
foresight in grasping its industrial and commercial advantages, estab-
lished his brothers in the coal and lumber business and four years later
(1858), on resigning his position with the railroad, became the head of
the firm and organized the Piedmont Savings Bank of which he became
president.

The site of Keyser at New creek was merely developed as a farm
before the war in which it became a strategic position. The town, es-
tablished after the war, largely through the energy of Henry G. Davis,
received its larger stimulus to growth through its selection as the county
seat of Mineral county which was formed from Hampshire county in
1866.

MIDDLE NEW RIVER AND GEEENBRIER

In the Middle New river region, beginning with the formation of
Monroe county in 1799 and the establishment of a post office at Union
in 1800, there was a slow but steady development of industry and the
evidence of civilization. Beginning about 1832 an impetus to trade
and travel was given by the incorporation and construction of turn-
pikes such as (1) the Price Mountain and Cumberland Gap, (2) the
Wayne, Raleigh and Grayson, and (3) the Giles, Fayette and Kanawha.

In 1837, Mercer county was formed in response to a petition of the
people living along the Flat Top mountain, the Bluestone, and the
upper -waters of Brush creek, -who complained of the inconvenience of
the long journey to their old county seat. The first court house, was
built in 1839. In 1843 there were in the county only two voting places-
Princeton and Pipestem.

Along the lower Greenbrier development was more rapid. This de-
velopment was influenced by location as well as by the character of
the people and the character of the soil. Agricultural advance gave
early prosperity. Lewisburg, at which the oldest church organization
(Presbyterian) on western waters was formed in 1783 and the first
church was erected in 1795, became prominent as an early center of
culture and refinement.

Preparation of greater development farther west was made about
1790 by widening the old trail westward from Fort Union and later
by construction of the "old state road" which left the old trail several
miles west of Lewisburg, crossed through Little Meadows, passed over
Sewell mountain, crossed the New river at Bowyer's ferry and thence,
after passing through "Vandalia" (now Fayetteville) to Montgomery's
ferry (Kanawha Falls), continued to follow the south side of the river.

On the upper Greenbrier, settlement developed more slowly. Hunters-
ville, the first county seat of Pocahontas (formed 1821) was laid out
in 1821 at the terminus of an early road leading from Warm Springs
and on the site of John Bradshaw's pioneer cabin which once served
as headquarters for the pioneer hunters.

A location near George Baxter's present residence, in the vicinity of what is
now Edray, had been selected by a committee and favorably reported as the place
for the permanent location of the County Seat. Inducements by John Bradshaw
were so enticing and favorable, and the people at the head of Greenbrier so anxious
on the subject, that Huntersville prevailed, and the report of the committee on
location was overruled.

For a number of years previous to the organization of the county, in 1821,
Huntersville had been a public place for trade. The merchants and tradesmen from
the east arranged to meet the hunters here and to barter goods for the proceeds of
the chase. Smithville was suggested to be an appropriate'name for the county seat,
but the present name Huntersville, however, was strenuously insisted upon by John
Bradshaw and his friends, as a special compliment to the hunters that swarmed
there during the trading season.

It was no uncommon thing for Huntersville merchants to realize three or tour
hundred per cent on dry goods, and not much less on groceries, during the period
from 1822 to 1845. After the Hnntersville and Warm Springs turnpike was made,
and the Parkersburg road penetrated upper Pocahontas, stores of importance were
opened at Greenbank and Millpoint and in rapid succession at other points. Most of
the business part of Huntersville was destroyed by fire in 1852.

About 1836 there was an awakening in favor of better roads to and from
Pendleton county. The "Warm Springs and Huntersville Turnpike was projected,
and completed about 1838, with Henry Harper and Win. Gibson, a Huntersville
merchant, contractors. It was a grand highway for that period, and awakened the
pride of the community. Every stream was bridged from Hnntersville to the Warm
Springs.

The Staunton and Parkersburg Pike was made two or three years later. It was
located by the celebrated Crozet, one of the great Napoleon's loyal engineers. About
1854 the Huttonsville and Marlinton Turnpike was located by Engineer Haymond.
In the same year he engineered the Lewisburg and Marlinton Turnpike, and the
Greenbrier Bridge at Marlinton. Colonel "William Hamilton, of Randolph County,
contracted for the road work from Huttonsville to Marlin's Bottom.   Lemuel
Cheneweth from Beverly, built the bridge in 1854-56. Captain William Cochran
superintended the Lewisburg Road, and all of these enterprises were completed
by 1856.

From the Greenbrier the development of settlements advanced west-
ward both down the Kanawha and into the region which was formed
into the new county of Nicholas in 1818 (from Kanawha, Greenbrier
and Randolph). On upper Elk at a few isolated interior clearings, new
centers established a basis for the organization of Braxton county which
was formed from Lewis, Kanawha and Nicholas in 1836. At Bulltown,
the residence of a small tribe of Indians about 1780, salt was made as
early as 1795. The earliest village by act of 1836 was established as
the town of Suttonsville which in 1837 was changed to Sutton. Before
1836 it had scarcely a dozen inhabitants but was known by its post office
name, Newville.

THE MONONGAHELA VALLEY

In the earlier development of the large region of Virginia terri-
tory embraced in the drainage system of the Monongahela, the chief
centers were Morgantown and Clarksburg. In 1776 this extent of ter-
ritory was practically all included in Monongalia county which was
divided in 1784 by the creation of Harrison and later by the formation
of Preston (1818) and of Marion (1842) and which later furnished
part of the territory for the creation of Taylor (1844). From the orig-
inal territory of the Harrison of 1784 has been created Randolph (1787),
Lewis (1816), Barbour (1843 from Harrison, Lewis and Randolph),
Taylor (1844 from Harrison, Barbour and Marion), Upshur (1851 from
Randolph, Barbour and Lewis) and Tucker (1856 from Randolph)-
and small portions of its territory contributed to the creation of several
other counties which do not belong to the topographical region drained
by the Monongahela.

The industrial development (3) of Morgantown may be presented as a
fitting introduction to that of the surrounding region.

Starting with perhaps no more than four log houses, a frame court
house and jail, and a store and a grist mill on Decker's creek beyond
the borough boundary, it grew little before 1791. In 1793 it became the
terminus of a post route from Pittsburgh established under the Pitts-
burgh Gazette management, which distributed its papers by private post
riders both before and after the United States mails reached Pittsburgh
in 1788. A post office was established in 1794 and a post route was
designated from Hagerstown via Hancock and Cumberland to Morgan-
town, thence to Uniontown and Brownsville. Later the route was opened
from Morgantown via Mt. Morris and Waynesburg to Wheeling. Ordi-
naries were licensed in 1796. Henry Dering, who came from Lancaster,
Pennsylvania via Hagerstown, opened a hotel before 1800; and John
Shisler, who came from Winchester, Virginia, in 1796, began to manu-
facture wagons by 1802. The first newspaper was established in 1803.
Buggy, carriage and furniture manufacturing works were established in
the decade after 1840. Tanbark was used in the local tanneries.

The town improved more rapidly from 1815 to 1830, largely in-
fluenced by growing trade with the region now included in Preston,
Marion, Barbour and Taylor counties from which the people came to
buy salt, iron and groceries. The first steam boat arrived from Pitts-
burgh in 1826. In the decade after 1840 the town felt a decline of trade
resulting especially from the construction of the Northwestern Turn-
pike in 1838, and the formation of Marion county in 1842-and, after
the opening of the Baltimore and Ohio mail line in 1853, it lost the great
interior wagon trade and could thereafter depend only on the local
county trade until it could secure slack water navigation or railway
connection. Although the streets seemed deserted in comparison with
their busy aspect of the thirties, closer touch was felt with the larger
world by the establishment of a daily mail by 1854. Trade with the
western ,end of the county was encouraged by the construction of a
suspension bridge in 1854 by a company which had been organized four
years earlier. Before 1853 Pittsburgh was the main point for exchange
of state bank paper, and in the absence of safe mails, payments were
conveyed to eastern cities by private messengers. After 1853 money
was sent by express from Fairmont until 1875 when a nearer express
office was established at Fairchance. The population in 1865 was only
648. No one in the county carried either fire insurance or life insurance
before 1860. Telegraph connection was not opened until 1866, when
the Atlantic and Pacific Company built a line from Pittsburgh to Fair-
mont, aided by local men who subscribed for stock in the corporation.

Probably the first road in Monongalia followed Decker's creek from
Morgantown to Rock Forge, thence over the general route of the later
Kingwood pike and across Cheat at Dunkard Bottom to the site of
Westernport, Maryland, and to Winchester. It was probably cleared,
as a pack-horse road between 1772 and 1776, and was later known as
the State road or old Winchester road. Over it the early settlers brought
salt and iron from Winchester (before the local iron works and Cone-
maugh salt), and after the Revolution it became an emigrant road to
the West. Even as early as 1772 Michael Kern kept a boat yard at
the mouth of Decker's creek for the accommodation of westward emi-
grants who followed this road to Morgantown-from which they con-
tinued their journey to Kentucky by the Monongahela and the Ohio.
In 1784 the importance of trade with the Ohio, and of political con-
nections between East and West, induced Washington to urge connec-
tion from the Potomac by a canal via Cheat to the nearest navigable
point on the Monongahela. In 1791 the state road from Winchester
was extended to the mouth of Fishing creek (now New Martinsville)
and soon became a wagon road from the mouth of Savage river (Western-
port) to Morgantown. In 1812 the Monongalia Glades road was opened
to Clarksburg via Smithton.

The first ferry established by law was located across Cheat at An-
drew Ice's in 1785, others were established across the Monongahela in
1791 and 1792, and others across Cheat in 1792 and 1805. After Jan-
uary, 1807, ferries were authorized by the county courts instead of by
the general assembly.

In the earlier decades after the Revolution, population and develop-
ment in Monongalia county increased rapidly in spite of the tide of
immigration to Kentucky and Ohio. The population of 4,000 in 1790
was more than doubled in a decade. In 1794- the people resisted the
attempts to involve them in the Whiskey Insurrection. After the mili-
tary advance into western Pennsylvania, it appears that part of the
Virginia division commanded by Governor Henry Lee returned via
Morgantown, Winchester and Frankfort.

By 1810 the population had increased to 12,783 and the iron works
on Cheat and on Decker's creek furnished a basis for prospective in-
crease of material development restricted only by problems of trans-
portation.

To encourage settlements, to meet the demand for connecting the
interests of East and West, and for securing more direct commercial
intercourse with the Ohio from which such commodities as salt could
be obtained far more conveniently than by the overland route from
Winchester or the water route from Pittsburgh, in 1812, the legislature
authorized the opening of a road from the Monongalia Glades (now in
Preston county) via the mouth of Buffalo to the present site of New
Martinsville which was to connect on the opposite bank of the Ohio with
a road from Zanesville. The road, however, did not meet the expecta-
tions of its projectors, and in January, 1817, new efforts for better com-
munications resulted in the incorporation of the Monongahela Naviga-
tion Company to secure better facilities in river transportation, but all
efforts of the next few years to secure slack water navigation failed.

The census of 1820 showed a decrease of 2,000 in the population-
a decrease only partially explained by the creation of Preston county
with a population of 3,000 in 1818. In 1823, all efforts to secure slack-
water navigation having failed, attention was directed toward the ques-
tion of canal communication between eastern and western waters. Three
years later (on April 29), the first steamboat reached Morgantown, and
by 1830 their continued arrival from Pittsburg, causing a shifting of
the old head-of-navigation dispute between Wheeling and Pittsburgh,
stimulated public demand for improvement of the Monongahela which
was presented to Congress by Mr. Doddridge.

In 1830 the census showed an increase of 3,000 white population
since 1820. Morgantown became an educational center by the incorpo-
ration of Monongalia Academy in 1829 and the establishment of a
female academy in 1832. Development in the western end of the county
resulted in the establishment of Blacksville as a town, and growth of
settlements further up the river, together with the demand for easier
access to the county seat, resulted in petitions for the creation of Marion
county, which was accomplished in 1842.

In the decade from 1830 to 1840 the question of roads was still
prominent. Earlier efforts were directed toward securing the survey
of a road over the nearest and best route from a point on the Ohio be-
tween the mouth of Pishing creek and Marietta via Morgantown to the
national road at or near the Youghiogheny bridge, and the establish-
ment of a mail route with semi-weekly stages from Uniontown via Mor-
gantown and Clarksburg to Parkersburg. The first enterprise was op-
posed in 1830 by Kingwood which seemed disposed to enlist Winchester,
Romney, Westernport and Pruntytown against the establishment of the
proposed new route.

The efforts of Monongalia to secure better means of communication
were stimulated by neighboring improvements. In 1831 stages began
to carry great western mail from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh in three
days. Pennsylvania by her canal, and Maryland by her railroad, were
struggling for the western trade. It was evident that the completion
of the canal would soon reduce freights and no one yet knew at what
point on the Ohio between Pittsburgh and the Kanawha the Baltimore
and Ohio would terminate, but it seemed certain that either the Balti-
more and Ohio Railroad or the Chesapeake and Ohio canal would reach
Cumberland which would thus become a deposit for western products.
Therefore it was urged that Morgantown should push the opening of the
road from the mouth of Fishing creek to Smithfield in the direction of
Cumberland (via Monongalia county), and urge the opening of the
navigation of the Monongahela, and secure the establishment of a bank.
In 1836 the Brandonville and Fishing Creek Turnpike was begun. Early
in 1833 a line of four-horse stages was started between Morgantown and
Uniontown by Colonel Johnson and a year later a tri-weekly mail in two

horse stages was established between Uniontown and Clarksburg via
Morgantown. The Morgantown and Clarksburg (and Ice's Ferry)
Turnpike was completed in 1840 via Smithton, and the Brandonville
and Fishing Creek Turnpike to Ice's Ferry and thence to the Penn-
sylvania line.

In 1840 the location and construction of turnpikes and bridges were
the chief subjects of local interest. The establishment of Ellicott's roll-
ing mill at Ice's Ferry on Cheat (1840) furnished a new impetus to
secure better roads and also to obtain slack-water navigation, first on
the Monongahela and later on Cheat (1847). The Dunkard Greek Turn-
pike projected in 1839 was revived in 1847 and located to Blacksville
from whence it was later extended to Burton on the Baltimore and Ohio.
The Morgantown and Bridgeport Turnpike was authorized by act of
1849. The Kingwood, Morgantown and West Union (Aurora) Turnpike,
incorporated in 1848, was completed in 1851 partly on the location of the
Morgantown and Clarksburg Turnpike. The Pennsylvania, Beverly and
Morgantown Turnpike, incorporated in 1837 was revived in 1853 and
constructed via Evansville. From Morgantown to Evansville, it was
usually called the Evansville pike. The Masontown and Independence
Turnpike, incorporated in 1856, was built from a point on the road one
mile west of Ice's Ferry.

Among the various industries of the county besides agriculture, for
a half century after 1800, were the manufacture of iron (one of the
earliest), the preparation of country millstones, the operation of card-
ing and fulling mills, the manufacture of paper (begun 1839), the
manufacture of pottery (which became important by 1830), carriage
making (which became prominent after 1851), the operation of foun-
dries, and the manufacture of furniture. As early as 1839 a rag paper
mill was in operation in Morgantown.

By 1845 Morgantown contained about 150 dwellings, several stores
and mills, two printing offices, two churches and an academy.

The iron works on Cheat near Ice's Ferry were industrially impor-
tant, furnishing employment for over 1,200 persons. The manufactured
products beyond the needs of the neighboring territory centering in the
Morgantown market were sent on flatboats to Pittsburgh. A gradual
decline in the industry, beginning after 1846 and causing the failure of
the Ellicotts in 1848 or in 1849, resulted in its termination, in 1868.

The first iron manufactured west of the Alleghanies was turned out in 1789
at old Alliance Forge, in Pennsylvania, not fifty miles from Morgantown. The
following year the fires of Springfield Furnace were lighted just beyond the county
line. The burnt records of 1796 carried in their ashes all records of the first iron
furnaces in Monongalia county. The Dtecker Creek Iron Works, sometimes known
as the "Rock Forge", were standing in 1798, and were probably in operation as
late as 1815. The earliest official record of a furnace in the county was 1798,
mentioned in a deed connected with the old Jackson Iron Works. At the location
of the latter, Samuel Jackson, of Fayette county, Pennsylvania, about 1800, built
a log dam and a mill and before 1809 also erected an iron furnace and made nails
by hand process.  Other early neighboring furnaces were the Henry Clay, and
Pleasant Furnace. The Henry Clay was run by steam power on Quarry run, four
miles from Ice's ferry, and was built by Leonard Lamb in 1834. Here four tons
were produced in twenty-four hours. The Anna Furnace, at Ice's ferry was built
by the Ellicotts about 1847. It first used charcoal and later coke. The Cheat Iron
Works had a series of furnaces about six miles above the mouth of Cheat. They
were built in 1846, by William Salyards. The Hawthorne Nail Works, owned by
Robert and Alexander Hawthorne, were erected soon after the arrival of the owners
in 1790. They were located four miles south of Morgantown, on Aaron's creek.
They were in operation for many years.

A powder mill was built on Quarry run before 1800. It is related
that one Smith drove a nail into the building one day, and that the spark
that came as a result blew up the mill and killed Smith. In a very early
day, the cutting of mill-stones was a large business. About 1840, Joshua
Swindler had a boat load shipped to Cincinnati, and from there they
found their way to many far western mill sites, even going beyond the
Mississippi river.

In 1839 the Live Oak Paper Mills were established by John Rogers,
on Decker's creek. This plant was a four-story stone structure, costing
$6,000. Pottery was made in large amounts very early. Among the
early successful operators was a man named Foulk. Carriage-making
early engaged the attention of a number of firms. John Shisler com-
menced in 1802 to build a good grade of carriage, and others were added.
John Stealey made stoves prior to 1825 at Rock Forge, but the first stove
foundry proper was erected in 1838 at Morgantown by Joel Nuzum and
the Doughertys.

East of Morgantown, at the union of the Morgantown and Clarks-
burg branches of the state road leading to Winchester in 1800 was a
wooded site well known as a camping place on the route so much used
by early settlers of Kentucky who reached the Ohio at the fort opposite
Marietta. The cluster of houses built there in 1807 was named Kingwood
which was established as a town in 1811. The perceptible progress of
settlement around the town after 1813, and other changes of conditions
resulted in the formation of Preston county in 1818 without objection
of Monongahela. Kingwood, the oldest town, became the county seat.

The panther was retreating before the advance of the settler, although
the wolf and the bear were still numerous beyond the margin of the
settlements. Cattle raising which had begun as a business to meet the
demands of the eastern market, and was encouraged by the completion
of the National road between Cumberland and Wheeling in 1818, brought
money into the community and stimulated new efforts toward new im-
provements-such as the water mills, the introduction of frame and
stone buildings, and the beginning of mercantile business in the small
village store. The frequent passage of immigrant teams on their way to
Ohio indicated further improvement in the roads, and increasing travel
stimulated new enterprises.

By 1845 Kingwood had about thirty dwellings and several stores
and the chief staple of the county was Indian corn. Considerable
sugar and tobacco was also raised. In 1850 one of the first prominent
woolen factories in Preston was established at Bruceton (originally
called Morton's Mills).  In 1840 the legislature incorporated the
Preston Railroad, Lumber and Mining Company, organized to operate
in the lumber and mining business on Cheat. In 1850 it incorporated
the Greenville Furnace company which transported its product by
water from Cheat to Pittsburgh and Cincinnati.

For the earliest settlers of the region centering around the mouth
of Tygart's Valley river Morgantown and Clarksburg were marketing
centers, but with the increase of improvements and the erection of mills
along the streams nearer stores were established, and later monthly
communication with the outside world was secured by a regular mail
route.

In 1819, Middletown (now Fairmont) was legally established and
regularly plotted in a laurel thicket on the farm of Boaz Fleming-
the roughest and poorest land in the vicinity. Its earliest development
was partly determined by the need of a midway stopping-place for
travelers between Morgantown and Clarksburg.(4) Its later growth was
due to the establishment of various industries in the vicinity-such as
the fulling and carding mills of Barnes and Haymond which began
operations in 1831.

In 1837 Rivesville was laid out upon the land of Elisha Snodgrass.
In 1838, across the river from Middletown, was established Palatine
at which the Marion machine works manufactured McCormick reapers
a decade before the civil war.(5) In 1839 a town was plotted adjacent
to the Boothsville postoffice which had been established in 1833 at
Robert Reed's tavern near the forks of Booth's creek. The first news-
paper of the county was established at Fairmont about 1840. Some
of the smaller towns of the county are older than the county, but the
larger number were established after the arrival of the railroad.

The attempt to secure the formation of a separate county in 1842,
twenty-three years after the plan had first been proposed to the legis-
lature, was successful in spite of considerable opposition in the legis-
lature both from the delegates of Monongalia and those of Harrison.
By 1845 Fairmont, the county seat, had seventy dwellings and five
stores; and Palatine across the river had twenty-five dwellings and two
stores. In the vicinity were located several flouring mills and other
mills.

In 1851 the largest and best hotel at Fairmont was owned by John Kearsley,
who had remodeled the building known as the Marion House, formerly occupied
by George Erwin. Thomas Poulton kept the Virginia Hotel and stagecoach office,
at the corner of Adams, or Main, and Jefferson Streets. From this hotel a line
of two-horse coaches left daily for Morgantown at 1 P. M., connecting there with a
daily coach for Uniontown, thence eastward to Cumberland, or westward to Browns-
ville and Wheeling by coaches on the National Road. Returning, the coach left
Morgantown at 6 A. M., arriving in Fairmont at noon.

The building of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad gave the first impetus to the
coal industry in Marion County, although at first wood was chiefly used for firing
the engines. In 1852 the O'Donnel mine was opened for commercial purposes. The
ruins of this mine, which was located on Palatine Knob facing the Monongahela
River, may still be seen. Its first output was shipped to Baltimore over the new
railroad in 1853. Other early mines were those of the Pierponts and the Watsons,
located in what is now Washington Street, Fairmont, the construction of which
followed closely the opening of the O'Donnel mine. These were the small begin-
nings of the great industry that has made Marion County fourth in the production
of coal in West Virginia.

Early improvements developed more rapidly around the center at
Clarksburg on the West Fork. In December, 1784, the Harrison county
court ordered a bridle road opened from Clarksburg to Wickwire's
Ford (below Fetterman) on Tygart's river. By 1790 commissioners
were ordered to mark a road from the state road by Neal's station on
the Little Kanawha to the Harrison and Kanawha county line-partly
to meet the needs of travelers from Kentucky who left their canoes
at "Belveal" and crossed by land from Neal's station, near the mouth
of the Little Kanawha, to Clarksburg (often under direction of a
pilot to keep them from losing their way). This connection with the
Ohio, and another at Isaac Williams' opposite Marietta were made by
William Haymond, Sr., and others between 1788 and 1790. In 1790
or 1791 cattle were collected at Clarksburg to drive through to the
new Marietta settlement. In 1791 or 1792 beaver skins, buffalo skins
and bear skins and meat were carried by canoe down the Little Kanawha
and up the Ohio from Neal 's station to Marietta.

In 1793 Clarksburg was the seat of an academy and by 1797 it con-
tained about forty dwellings. By 1798 it had a post office. In the early
days it was on a mail route between Gandy's (of Preston county) and
Chillicothe via Salem, Webster, Marietta, Athens and Hewitts. By 1804
it had a wagon shop. At a very early date, too, it had a boat yard for
the manufacture of large flat boats which before the era of railroads were
built at several points along West Fork and floated to Pittsburgh loaded
with old iron, whiskey, grain, flour, lumber and country produce. In
1815 its first newspaper appeared. By 1818 its connections with a larger
surrounding region were improved by the opening of new roads such
as the road to Point Pleasant via the Elk river, and Booth's Ferry and
Ohio turnpike from Philippi via Clarksburg and Middlebourne to Sis-
tersville. Its larger trade was always with the East, but by 1819 is re-
ceived supplies of Bulltown salt and perhaps also supplies of Kanawha
salt which by this time found a market at Salem and other points north-
ward. Although its citizens were of old Virginia descendants, its eastern
trading and commercial relations were always with Baltimore which was
more conveniently accessible than Richmond. By 1820 its most natural
markets were either eastward across the mountains to Atlantic cities
(250 or 350 miles distant) or down the Monongahela to the towns of the
Ohio and the Mississippi. The transportation of breadstuffs in either
direction was too expensive to yield a profit. Therefore the surplus grain
was fed to the horses, cattle or hogs which could transport themselves
"on the hoof" to the eastern markets. By some labor the products of
the forest-logs, boats, plank and staves-were a fruitful source of
wealth if the uncertainties and irregularities of navigation had not pre-
vented them from reaching the market in time to meet the demand. The
central position of the town making it a suitable place to collect articles
for transportation to Brownsville and thence to Baltimore over the turn-
pike was one of the factors which induced the state to make a survey of
the West Fork and the Monongahela to the Pennsylvania state line in

1820. In 1830 during the dispute between the Baltimore and Ohio
Railway and the Chesapeake and Ohio canal, both of which planned to
reach the Ohio, Philip Doddridge urged Congress to improve the Monon-
gahela to Clarksburg.

By 1820 other early settlements were growing into towns of some im-
portance Among these were Salem, located on an early strategic site
as a station for troops sent to watch the Indian trail leading from the
Ohio up Middle Island creek and Long run to the settlements on the
West Fork, and named by its first colony of forty families who arrived
from Salem, New Jersey, before peace had been established with the
Indians. On the site of Bridgeport which probably received its first
settlers (Joseph Gavisson and others) between 1771 and 1774 the legis-
lature in 1816 established a town which by 1845 contained twenty-five
dwellings and two churches. Shinnston at which the first settlement
was made in 1773 by Levy Shinn and others, sturdy and independent
Quakers from New Jersey, was first legally established as a town by
legislative act of 1818. West Milford, the site of which had been in-
cluded in tracts of land granted a decade or more earlier, gradually
grew as a village clustering around the Clements Mill which was erected
in 1817, and received legal recognition as a town by legislative act of
1821.

Municipal improvement at Clarksburg did not keep pace with eco-
nomic development. Jack Levegood in 1819 after a journey over the moun-
tains wrote from the safe distance of the Youghiogheny Glades in Mary-
land giving some of his impressions of Clarksburg in which he especially
urged the need of a better cemetery, a hearse and better facilities for
protection from fires. "I wondered," said he, "why the citizens of
Clarksburg who are esteemed as a liberal and intelligent people have not
a place to bury their dead secured by a fence from the intrusion of hogs
and cattle. * * * Neither engine, bucket, hose, or even a public
ladder is to be seen in the town." Perhaps his criticism caused the town
ordinance which went into effect three months later prohibiting hogs'
from running at large.

According to J. H. DisDebar, a French agent for claimants of the
Swan lands who visited Clarksburg in 1846, the citizens were "a some-
what exclusive, conservative set with all the traditions and social preju-
dices pertaining to an ancient moss-grown aristocratic town" with
pretensions "by common consent founded upon antiquity of pedigree
and superior culture and manners."

In 1845 the town had a population of 1,100, seven stores, two news-
paper offices, two churches and two academies, and the county had an
estimated mineral wealth which was already regarded as an element of
prosperity.

Connection with the National road by a line of coaches or stages was
established about 1830 enabling merchants to reach Baltimore by horse-
back in six days, although their laden wagons required fifteen days or
more. The town especially felt the influence of the wide Northwestern
turnpike which was completed about 1836 (macademized from Tygart's
Valley river to Parkersburg in 1848), increasing facilities for travel
and news. By 1845 tri-weekly stages connected on the east with Romney
and thence with Green Springs on the Baltimore and Ohio railroad and
on the west with Parkersburg.

With the increase in the number of settlers and the development of
settlements around the head waters of West Fork, the inconveniences
of communication with the county seat at Clarksburg found expression
in the demand for the formation of a new county. This demand was
satisfied in 1816 by an act of the assembly which created Lewis and
provided for the location of a permanent county seat by five commis-
sioners who chose Fleshersville, which in 1818 was incorporated as a
town under the name of Preston, which in 1819 was changed to Fleshers-
ville and then to Weston, which has since borne the honor with no serious
opposition. In the following spring the first survey of the West Fork
and the Monongahela, with a view to the improvement of navigation,
was begun just below the Weston court house.

Gradually the earlier log houses were succeeded by better structures
expressing refinement, social tastes and prosperity. The early settle-
ments of the northern and eastern parts of the county were supplied
with lumber from choice yellow poplars and black walnuts prepared
by water power saw mills located along the neighboring streams. Trees
which were too large to be easily sawed were split into fence rails or
burned in the clearings. Although in 1843 portions of Lewis were
detached to contribute to the formation of Barbour and Ritchie counties.
The population of the county steadily increased-about 2,000 each
decade-until 1850, after which it was decreased by loss of territory
occasioned by the formation of Upshur county in 1851. By 1845
Weston contained about sixty dwellings.

The large development and aspirations of the people of Lewis at
the middle of the century found expression in many ways-the most
prominent of which probably were the Weston and Fairmont turnpike,
the Weston and Gauley Bridge turnpike, and the Weston and West
Union turnpike. A branch of the Exchange Bank of Virginia was estab-
lished in 1853.

On the eve of the civil war, Weston secured the location of the hos-
pital for the insane-the first and only state institution which was located
in the transmontane territory later included in West Virginia.

On the upper Tygart's Valley, around the site of Philippi the early
scattered settlements were connected by "blazed" trails many of which
were distinguished by the kind of tree blazed in order to avoid be-
wilderment or danger of becoming lost at trail crossings. As early as
1788 the trail from Clarksburg to Winchester, the east and west highway
through the territory included in Barbour and Tucker, crossing the
Valley river a mile below Philippi and Cheat at St. George, was men-
tioned in the records as the "state road"-although it was still only
the "Pringle Packroad." The Beverly trail branched off a mile above
the mouth of Hacker's creek, and passed via Sugar creek and the site of
Belington. With the establishment of Booth's ferry, the road from
Clarksburg to the Valley river was widened for wagons, and steps were
taken to open the road toward Beverly via Sugar creek. By 1803 there
was a wagon road constructed on the east side of the river which was
later extended to Beverly. The first wagon which appeared in the county
was brought (by pieces) over the mountain to Cheat in 1783 via North
Branch, Lead Mine run and Horse Shoe run before trails had been
widened for wagons.

The early economic life was largely confined to the problem of mere
subsistence. Ginseng, however, was exported as early as 1789. A tan
yard was located above Philippi in 1800 and the first mill at Philippi was
erected in 1818.

In 1843 Barbour county was formed from Randolph (and parts of
Harrison and Lewis) and the site for the court house promptly selected
at Philippi (the old Booth's ferry of Randolph) which was then only a
farm. Among the first acts of the court was one fixing the charges for
taverns which was re-enacted every subsequent year for over a decade.
By 1845 the county was regarded as rather thickly settled at the heads
of Simpson and Elk creeks and on the Buckhannon and Tygart 's Valley
rivers. Philippi contained only about a dozen houses but a basis for
later development was believed to exist in neighboring deposits of ex-
cellent coal and iron.

Coincident with improved transportation facilities resulting from the
completion of neighboring turnpikes-the earlier Northwestern and the
Staunton and Parkersburg turnpike completed via Buckhannon in 1847
-various signs of improvement appeared. Instances of the introduction
of improved machinery occurring by 1840 became more common a
decade later. Although the horse-power thresher began to appear per-
haps as early as 1846 the first horse-power thresher and separator was
not introduced until 1852. In 1848 in Cove district there was an attempt
to develop the iron resources and in 1849 the product, after a haul of
fifty miles on wagons, was transported to market from Fairmont by
boats on the Monongahela.(6) At the same time construction of local pikes
was begun. In 1850 Luther Haymond of Clarksburg completed the sur-
vey for the Beverly and Fairmont pike, making changes of route above
Belington and elsewhere which caused bitter controversies. In Barbour
one of the first steam saw and grist mills was built at Peeltree about
1856 and continued to saw lumber for local use for thirty or forty
years.

After the opening of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad the people from
the northeastern part of Barbour found their most convenient shipping
point at Thornton. From various points on the Tygart's Valley river
considerable timber was floated to Grafton. The bank of Philippi, the
first bank in Barbour, was established in 1855, and closed at the opening
of the war. Its notes were bought by speculators even after the close
of the war.

The first newspaper of the county was founded in 1857 and suspended
publication in June, 1861.

At the outbreak of the war nearly all the county officers of Barbour
sympathized with the secession movement of the South.

Along the Buckhannon river, in the earlier years of settlement, hunt-
ing (both animals and medicinal plants) was a necessary occupation
which ceased as such only when the profits arising from it became less
than the profits from other labor.

The settlers of 1770 who.braved the perils of the unbroken forest
found many inconveniences for years thereafter. For thirty years the
region of Upshur county was without a store.

The earlier trails were gradually widened into roads to meet the in-
creasing demands of the settlements-especially after the introduction of
wagons. In 1800 Jacob Lorentz, Abraham Post and Abraham Carper
emigrated from the South Branch, cut an uneven wagon road along the
Indian trail via Beverly and brought the first road wagon to the region.
In the same year goods were transported from Beverly to Buckhannon
in a wagon. The second road wagon was brought to the county in 1810
by the New Englanders on their overland journey.

A mill built 1783 above the mouth of Fink's run near Buckhannon
was the only mill in the Buckhannon valley for many years. A second
mill in that region was built in 1821. Saw mills for domestic use were
established on Spruce run in 1806, at Buckhannon and Sago in 1810
and at French creek (Meadville) in 1813. In 1814 the court of Randolph
ordered a horseback or pack horse road from Beverly to Buckhannon
which was later widened and graded and converted into a section of the
Parkersburg and Staunton turnpike.

Cattle, brought by the earliest settlers of 1770 and by almost all
later settlers, were improved by a better breed brought by settlers from
New England about 1810. Sheep were introduced from Hardy county
and from New England at the same time. Sheep husbandry became an
important industry-especially after the close of the hunters period
along the frontier. Obstacles arising from the migratory habits of the
sheep and the depredations of wolves and dogs -were largely overcome
with the development of the settlements. In the earlier days there were
many and menacing disputes over ownership of hogs-a product which
found a ready sale at Richmond, Winchester or Cumberland.

Spinning, knitting and weaving were common home industries. Every
family contained its own tailor, usually a woman. At first the tanning
of leather was a home process, and almost every family contained a
cobbler. The conditions encouraged native mechanical genius. Salt,
which in the earlier days was brought over the mountains on pack-
horses and sold at prices which made it too dear for extensive use, was
obtained in the county by evaporation after 1839.

Soon after his arrival, Jacob Lorentz went into the mercantile busi-
ness near where the Lorentz post office now is. For many years this
was the only store in all of that section of the country. The roads
were too steep and uneven to permit the general use of the road wagon,
and the goods sold from behind the counter of Lorentz's store were car-
ried on packhorses from Richmond or Parkersburg or Cumberland. Only
a few of the most necessary articles were kept. There was no money,
and no money was brought into the region except on the occasion of
the arrival of a drove of hogs or a herd of cattle being driven to the
eastern markets, or upon the arrival of a train of packhorses loaded
with furs and roots.

The articles sold were necessarily high in price. One of the relatives of this
ancient merchant said that calico was sold at 50 cents per yard; nails at 25 cents
per pound; cotton at 25 cents per yard, and other merchandise correspondingly
high.

The second store in the county was opened in 1820 by Ezra Morgan and Amos
Brooks in a small store room on the farm now known as the Andrew Buckhannon
place, near French Creek. It was opened for general trade, selling goods and buying
country produce. In the year 1830, Levi Leonard kept a store at French Creek in
which ginseng, deer hides, furs and linen were exchanged for calico, which was sold
for from twenty-five to seventy-five cents per yard.

In 1832 Nathan and Waldo Goz put up the first store in Buckhannon. John
Wesley Wilson started the first store at Rock Cave in 1851.

Towns emerged slowly. Buckhannon was established in 1816 on
lands then in Harrison county.

Under the loose system of Virginia land warrants which often applied
to no particular spot resulting in many conflicting claims and endless
controversies, many New England settlers, who settled in the territory
from the first of the century, becoming tired of dilatory courts and ad-
verse decisions, emigrated westward (largely to Illinois) about 1830.
Many people who remained were compelled to repurchase their lands
from rival claimants.

Industrial development and other improvements in the county were
especially stimulated after 1848 by the construction of the Staunton
and Parkersburg turnpike and the Clarksburg and Buckhannon turn-
pike, and especially in 1852 by the completion of the railroad to Grafton
opening a market for logs rafted down the river.

The first attempt to establish Upshur county made in 1848, met con-
siderable opposition especially at Weston which disliked the proposal
to add to the new county a part of the territory of Lewis. The law
creating the new county from parts of Randolph, Barbour and Lewis
was finally enacted in 1851. The town of Buckhannon was incorporated
in 1852 and the first court house was completed in 1854.

By the census of 1860, Upshur had a population of 7,299 which was
about 700 less than that of Lewis and almost 50 per cent greater than
that of the neighboring mother county Randolph.

Early development in Randolph county was much retarded by lack
of communication. The earliest roads were mere "bridle paths" be-
tween the several settlements. In 1787 the first court of the newly formed
county provided for marking a way for a wagon road from Leading
creek to Horse Shoe Bottom on Cheat (now in Tucker), but not until
1826 were wagons able to cross the mountains from the direction of
the South Branch. By 1800 a score of roads had been surveyed in
Randolph county. By 1801 the court ordered a survey from the mouth
of Black Pork of Cheat to the head of North Branch-which, although
it resulted in no road, was later followed by the West Virginia Central
and Pittsburgh railroad from Fairfax to Parsons. In 1814 a pack horse
road was ordered from Beverly to Buckhannon. In 1822 aid was voted
to open a road from Beverly via Clarksburg to Sistersville. In 1824
the legislature authorized a "state road" from Staunton to the mouth
of the Little Kanawha which was built via Beveriy over the same gen-
eral route followed by the Staunton and Parkersburg turnpike twenty
years later. In 1826 Randolph co-operated with Monongalia in con-
structing a bridge across Sandy creek which was their boundary until
the creation of Marion county in 1842, after which it became successively
the boundary between Randolph and Marion, then between Marion and
Barbour (1843) and finally between Barbour and Taylor (1844). In
1832 steps were taken to raise money by lottery to build a road from
Beveriy to Morgantown.

Development, with few exceptions, was slow. The first saw mill at
Mingo (upper end of the county) was built near Valley Head in 1822
and the wagon which hauled the irons for the mill was the first that
crossed the mountains to Mingo. The first grist mill in the upper fifteen
miles of the river was built about 1820 or 1822.

Outside the valleys of Tygart's river and Leading creek the ter-
ritory of Randolph was occupied but slowly-and a century later
much of the forest land remained undisturbed. Even after half a cen-
tury few houses were built of sawed lumber. A saw mill introduced
near Valley Head in 1822 was probably the only one in the county in
1835 and perhaps for several years later. Even in 1840 there were
few settlements except along the Cheat and in the narrow bottoms of
the larger creeks toward the northern end of the county. In 1853 there
were large tracts entirely uninhabited and almost inaccessible.

Changes in markets and transportation are illustrated in the case of
David Blackman who, being engaged in the mercantile business at
Beveriy from 1824 until the civil war, hauled his goods first from Bal-
timore, then from Winchester, then from Cumberland and later from
Petterman.(7) The chief source of wealth in the county in the ante-bel-
lum period was live stock-a product which exported itself to the
eastern market.

The population of Beverly in 1845-three years before it was incor-
porated as the "Borough of Beverly"-was about 200. The population
of the originally larger county which reached its highest point in 1840
(6,208) suffered a reduction from 5,243 in 1850 to 4,990 in 1860-due
to the loss of territory to form Tucker county in 1856.

"No event in the history of Randolph county will leave more permanent traces
than the settlement on Roaring Creek by the Irish in 1840-50. This is true from a
business, educational, political and religious point of view. These settlers, strong of
body and intellectually alert, inured to toil and hardship, soon converted the wilder-
ness into a prosperous community of comfortable homes, churches, and schools amid
which sprang up the village of Kingsville, with the conveniences of a store, post-
office and blacksmith shop. These settlers were not only eminently successful them-
selves in their undertakings, but bequeathed sons and daughters, who took front
rank in the business and professional life of the county."

The first to locate in what is known as the Irish settlement was Patrick
Flanigan. He was a contractor and was engaged in the building of the Staunton
and Parkersburg pike.

John O'Connell was the next to locate in that vicinity, in about 1850. In the
Civil War he was a strong southern sympathizer and in attempting to communicate
with the Confederate army at Philippi, in the first year of the war, was shot and
killed near Laurel, from ambush.

Patrick O'Connor, who had been engaged in the construction on the Staunton
and Parkersburg Pike, bought land of Patrick Flanigan and with his family added
to the nucleus of a settlement in its earliest days. He lived to the ripe old age
of 108 years.

About seventy families located in that section. Among them were Michael
O'Connor, Peter King, Patrick Riley, Patsy King, Miles King, Edward King, Owen
Biley, Andrew Durkin, John Madden, Owen Gillooly, Andrew Durkin, Patrick
Gillooly, Patrick O'Connor, Richard Ford, John Ford, Patrick Rafferty, Morris
Hanifan, John Nallen, Sr., Thomas Burke, Alexander Burke, John Conley, Mathew
Davis, John Cain, Patrick Moyles, John A. King, Thomas O'Connor and John
Staunton.

Morris Hanifan, born in County Cavan, Ireland, 1820, came to America in
1840. He worked on the C. & O. Canal in its construction to Cumberland, then on
the Winchester and Strawsburg Pike to New Market, Va., then on the Staunton and
Parkersburg Pike to Huttonsville. He settled on Roaring Creek in 1847. He died
in 1868.

Daniel Tahaney, who came in 1846, was born in the County Sligo, Ireland, in
1815. He came to America in 1835. He married Bridget McCan of New York
City in 1837. For a time he worked on the construction of the Staunton and
Parkersburg Pike. He died 1872.

The first priest to celebrate mass in the Kingsville parish was Father Stack,
of Staunton, Va., at Patrick Flanigan's house in 1865. In 1863 Father O'Connor
with the aid of his people commenced the erection of a log church, the first Catholic
church in Bandolph. In 1872 Father Dacey came as resident priest, but died soon
thereafter. In 1873 Father Fitzpatrick came to take charge of the Mission. Soon
the growing congregation became too large for the little church and under the
leadership of Father Fitzpatrick, they built a commodious church and rectory in
the growing village of Kingsville. Father Fitzpatrick also commenced the erection
of a church at Coalton, but it was completed by his successor, Father Sauer.

Father Fitzpatrick was in Kingsville twenty-eight years. He was for many
years one of the leading figures of the county and had many friends throughout
Bandolph and adjoining counties among the Protestants as well as the adherents of
his own religious faith. He died in Wheeling.

John Madden, son of William and Mary (Brennan) Madden, was born in the
Parish of Kiltormer, County Galway, Ireland, in 1815. In 1834 he sailed for
America, landed in New York City, and after a short stay in the State of New
York he went to Baltimore, Md., and was employed on the construction of the Chesa-
peake and Ohio Canal from that point to Cumberland. In 1839 he was married to
Cecelia Dwire. He then went to work on the State road from Winchester to Staunton,
Va., and later was employed on the Staunton and Parkersburg pike to Huttons-
ville, W. Va. He then located in Tygarts Valley near Huttonsville, where he worked
as a tenant on the farms of Moses and John Hutton, and also on the Nagler
farm.

John Stanton was born in Ireland, County Galway, Parish of Kiltormer, in
1826. He came to Grafton, W. Va., and worked along the B. & O. railroad from
that point to Kingwood, W. Va. In 1857 he migrated to Bandolph County, W. Va.,
and settled in Roaring Creek district.

Luke White, born in the Parish of Kiltevin, County Boscommon, Ireland, came
to America in 1854, landing in New York City. He came to West Virginia and mar-
ried Margaret Burke, a widow. He worked on the B. & O. for a time and later
settled in Roaring Creek district, and in 1858 purchased a farm of 100 acres where
he made his home for the rest of his life.

The opportunities of a new country with cheap lands, together with the op-
pression of English landlordism at home were, perhaps, among the principal reasons
for Irish immigration to America. The average price paid by Irish' settlers for
Roaring Creek lands was about $1.25 per acre. These lands at the present time
command fabulous prices, in many instances, as a result of the discovery of very
rich veins of coal in that vicinity.

At the close of the Indian troubles the few people of the northern
end of Randolph in scattered settlements along upper Cheat in the
vicinity of Leading creek turned to the hard work of clearing small
spaces on which they cultivated small crops of corn from which to make
corn bread. During a part of the autumn they hunted deer and bear
-and in the earliest years sometimes found buffaloes, which, however,
were never as plentiful as in the region of Buckhannon, Clarksburg
and farther west along the Ohio.

At an early date a sash mill was operated in the county by N. M.
Parsons and George M. Parsons. Among other later ones was that
built on Cheat as early as 1830 by Arnold Bonnifield who operated it
continually for thirty-five years. The first commercial demand for
lumber outside the county was created by the construction of a bridge
over Cheat at the crossing of the Northwestern pike, five or six miles
above Rowlesburg. Much of the lumber used in the bridge was sawed
by Bonnifield, hauled to the river and built into rude rafts which were
driven by the current to their destination.

Beginning about 1852 and continuing long after the civil war, the
main Cheat river for about twenty or twenty-five miles above the rail-
road was somewhat developed by an enterprising company which sought
ship-timber for the English market and had mill-works located at
Rowlesburg. After 1860 portable and stationary steam saw mills rapidly
increased, replacing the old water-power mills by which seven-eighths
of the timber both for home and foreign use had been manufactured.

As late as 1840 there were very few settlers except along the river
and in the narrow bottoms of the larger creeks. The region called
"Canada" and the land of Canaan-a high basin surrounded by moun-
tains, the Backbone on the west and the Allegheny on the east-was
an uninhabited wilderness. From the head of Black Fork to Pair-
fax stone was an unbroken forest of trees which stood so thick that
their branches interlocked for miles completely shutting out the sun-
light from the soil below. Bears and panthers traveled through tun-
nels which they had broken through the thickets in all directions. Al-
though the wilderness of the mountains was largely unbroken, oc-
casionally among the hills appeared the cabin of a settler who was
opening a farm. In 1836 settlement was begun about the headwaters
of Clover run. The first cabin was without door, floor or chimney but
it attracted other settlers who obtained lands and by 1840 the neigh-
borhood consisted of five families (including about thirty children) who
had begun the earnest work of breaking up the thick forests and its
dens of panthers and bears, and had also built a round-poled, floorless
school house in which their children might be able to obtain some rudi-
ments of an education. Canaan valley and the surrounding plateau
country remained practically undisturbed until the forest fire of 1865
which was soon followed by other "burnings" started by hunters.

The people of the northern end of Randolph, long dissatisfied with
the inconveniences of the journey to the county seat at Beverly over
bad roads between settlements separated by large tracts of woods, re-
peatedly agitated the subject of a new county even before the revival
of the activity resulting from the new industrial opportunities opened
to them by the construction of the railroad through the neighboring-
woods on the north at the middle of the century. The decisive step
was finally taken in the winter of 1854 by a meeting at the residence
of Enoch Minear in the old stone house at St. George-which was then
called Westernford. Through the influence of strong petitions and
strong lobbying, supplemented by the enthusiastic assistance of Judge
John Brannon of Lewis county in the legislature, early in 1856, the
new county of Tucker was created with the seat of justice at St.
George-which remained the county seat until long after the war. The
size of the county was later increased by the addition of a strip of ter-
ritory taken from Barbour. The total population in 1860 was only
1,428.

When Tucker was created, a few of its citizens foresaw a future of
greater industrial prosperity. Abe Bonnifield, viewing the principal
ridge of Backbone mountain along the side of which the sugar maples
belonging to W. R. Parsons were falling beneath the axes of his slaves,
saw the promise of rich grazing plantations. Considering the unoc-
cupied regions of the land of Canaan which had recently come into the
market, he expected to see a new tide of emigration. Knowing that
coal had been discovered about 1835 on the sugar lands, and about
1855 on the other side of the mountain, he had confidence that the rail-
road projected in 1856 up the North Branch from Piedmont on the
Baltimore and Ohio would soon be built, and that its terminus would
be in the coal lands of Tucker. The realization of his dreams, which
came in surplus measure thirty years later, was doubtless postponed
in part by the war of secession in which he was a participant in the
Confederate service.

ALONG THE OHIO

At Wheeling, which early became an important outfitting point for
flat boat traffic and which was laid out in town lots by Colonel Zane
in 1793 (when it had only twelve families), the first post office was
established in 1794. By 1795 mail boats carried mail between Wheeling
and Cincinnati (by four relays) in six days downstream and twelve
days upstream. After the Indian treaty of 1795, additional facilities
were secured by establishing land routes.

A factor of influence in the early development of Wheeling waa the opening
of Zane's Trace in 1796 from Wheeling through southeastern Ohio via Zanes-
ville, Lancaster, Chillicothe to Aberdeen opposite Limestone (Maysville, Kentucky),
where it connected with the old "Smith's wagon road" which closely followed the
old buffalo trail from Limestone to Lexington, Kentucky. This new route author-
ized by Congress as a result of the large increase of emigration and travel to the
West after the treaty of Greenville, was opened by Ebenezer Zane the patriot-
pioneer of Wheeling who for his service was granted three tracts of land: one on
the Muskingum; one on the Hockhoeking and one on the Scioto at points crossed by
the new road. By this path, at first only made fit for horsemen, the Washington
administration promptly established a regular mail route between Wheeling and
Lexington, Kentucky, and travel and traffic steadily increased.

Wheeling was incorporated as a town in 1795 and became the county
seat of Ohio county in 1797. In 1801 (8) its connection with Pennsyl-
vania and Morgantown was improved by repairs on the roads. In 1802
it was reached by two routes from Pittsburgh-the more direct but
rougher route passing through West Liberty. At this date, according
to F. A. Michaux who visited it on his western travels, it had seventy
houses built of wood.

"This little town," wrote Michaux, "is bounded by a high hill,
nearly 200 fathoms high, the base of which not more than two fathoms
from the river. In this space the houses are built, forming but one
street, in the middle of which is the main road which follows the wind-
ings of the river for a distance of more than 200 miles. From fifteen
to twenty shops, well stocked, supply the inhabitants twenty miles
around with provisions. This little town also shares the export trade
that is carried on at Pittsburgh with the Western country. Numbers of
merchants at Philadelphia prefer sending their goods here although the
journey is a day longer; but the trifling inconvenience is well com-
pensated by the advantage gained in avoiding the long winding which
the Ohio makes on leaving Pittsburgh where the numerous shallows and
the slow movement of the stream, in summer time, retard the navi-
gation."

A year later Harris, who visited the place, wrote the following:

"Most of the houses are handsome, several being built of brick and
some faced with stone.(9) Next to Pittsburg, it is the most considerable
place of embarkation to traders and emigrants, anywhere on the west-
ern waters. Boat-building is carried on here to great extent.

"Opposite the town is a most beautiful island containing about 400
acres, interspersed with buildings, highly cultivated fields, some fine
orchards and copses of woods; it appears to a great advantage from the
town. Just below the town stands an old fort at the junction of Big
Wheeling Creek and the Ohio."

Thomas Ashe, an English traveler, who made a short stop at Wheel-
ing in 1806, reported that the town had 250 houses (including ten of
brick and eighteen of stone), predicted that it would "ultimately rival
all the towns above its waters," but he was shocked at the sporting pro-
pensities and lawlessness of the inhabitants and stated that "much time
and unremitted assiduity must be employed to make it a tolerable resi-
dence for any class of men." (10)

In 1807, Cummings, another traveler, wrote the following descrip-
tion of the place:

"The town appeared very lively, the inhabitants being about their
doors in the street. It contained 120 houses of all descriptions from
middling downward, on a street about one-half mile long. The ave-
nues of the landing are very steep and inconvenient. The court house
is of stone with a small belfry which has nothing in beauty to boast
of.(11) The gaol joins it in the rear.

"It is probable that Mr. Zane, the original proprietor, now regrets
that he did not place the town on the flats below, at the conflux of the
Wheeling and the Ohio, where Sprigg's inn and the ship yards now
are, instead of cultivating it as a farm until lately, when a resolve of
Congress to open a new public state road from the metropolis through
the western country, which will come to the Ohio near the mouth of
Wheeling creek, induced him to lay it out in town lots, but I fear he is
too late to see it become a considerable town to the prejudice of the old,
notwithstanding its advantageous situation.

"The present town does not seem to thrive if one may judge by the
state of new buildings, two only being built. Stores appear thinly
stocked with goods; retail prices high.

"When new road is finished, it will doubtless be of great use to
Wheeling.

"Wheeling island in front of the town, one mile long, one-half mile
wide, is very fertile and all cultivated as a farm by Mr. Zane. The post
and stage road to Chillicothe, Ohio, goes across it, which occasions two
ferries, an inconvenience which will be remedied by the new road cross-
ing by one ferry below the island."

The Navigator, published at Pittsburg, contains the following de-
scription of Wheeling in its edition of 1810:

"The town fronts the Ohio on a high gravelly bank, opposite the
middle of the island, and having immediately back of the town, Wheel-
ing Creek hill, which is steep and lofty, and so narrow at the top that
at some places there is scarcely room for a wagon to pass along, and
nearly a precipice to the bottom of the creek. This singular formed
backbone, as it were, between the Ohio and Wheeling creek, slopes off
gradually into a fine bottom just below the town and above the mouth
of the creek, but is considerably lower than the ground on which Wheel-
ing stands, and in some seasons has been known to be inundated by
the floods. There are on this bottom an excellent public inn, a ware-
house, a boat yard, and a rope walk, and some other buildings. Imme-
diately above the mouth of the creek there used to stand a fort, serving
as a pioneer post during the wars with the Indians.

"In the consequence of the hill just mentioned, and which crowds the
town to the bank of the river, Wheeling has but one street, which is
thickly built on for a quarter of a mile in length. The town has about 115
dwellings, eleven stores, two potteries of stone ware, a market house, and
it had in 1808-09 a printing office, a book store and a library; the two first
quit the town for want of public patronage, the last is still upheld by the
citizens. The mail stage from Philadelphia, Baltimore, etc., arrives here
twice a week, by way of Pittsburgh, Washington and Wellsburg; thence
westward the mail is dispatched once a week on horses. The town has a
court house and jail. The hills about Wheeling contain a good mineral
coal, which is used as fuel. The thoroughfare through Wheeling, of
emigrants and travelers into the state of Ohio and down the river, is
very great during the fall and spring seasons."

The printing office to which the Navigator refers was evidently the
office of the Repository, Wheeling's first newspaper, which appeared in
1807.

At that date the town probably supported only two physicians. Its
first resident physician arrived in 1803,(12) probably from Chester county,
Pennsylvania. He was alone in the practice until 1806, when he took
into his office Dr. H. Potter, who had studied medicine under his in-
struction, and who in 1808 opened an office for himself. Dr. Forsythe
continued to practice at Wheeling until after the close of the war of
1812, when he emigrated to the "English Turn," below New Orleans
and embarked in the manufacture of rum from molasses. Another of
his students in medicine, Dr. Thomas Toner, practiced four or five
years, but abandoned practice and became associated with his brother-
in-law in editing and publishing the Northwestern Virginia Gazette.
Wheeling's first medical society was not organized until 1835, and its
first hospital was not established until 1850.

From 1818 Wheeling became the principal town of the panhandle.
With the approaching completion of the National road to the Ohio,
business men from other places arrived and began to promote new enter-
prises which received little attention from the older inhabitants whose
money was invested in lands. The first manufacture of window glass
began by 1820.

The Northwestern Bank of Wheeling was organized under an act of
February, 1817, and was probably ready for business in 1818. It con-
tinued until the civil war when it was succeeded by the National Bank
of Wheeling.(13)

Wheeling's first iron mill was erected in 1834, by Peter Shoenberger
and David Agnew. It was located on a portion of the site later occupied
by the Top Mill, and was designed for the general manufacture of bar,
sheet iron and nails. For several years the mill was operated success-
fully. Mr. Agnew, succeeding to the business of the earlier firm, pros-
pered and in a short time became one of the wealthiest men in the
town.

The success of the iron mill suddenly awakened the people of Wheel-
ing from a Rip Van Winkle slumber, and resulted in the beginning of
wild schemes of aggrandizement. Its total failure in 1840 was a result
of one of the crises incident to that day of variable tariff policy and
uncertain currency, which was the bane of our manufacturing inter-
ests. After the failure, the mill was operated by Greisemer and Tal-
lant, both of whom had held positions with Mr. Agnew and who con-
tinued the business during the adverse times between 1840 and 1845
without financial profit. When the general business interests of the
country began to revive, E. W. Stevens, having just withdrawn from a
Pittsburgh iron firm, came to Wheeling with a cash capital of $75,000,
enlarged the nail department of the mill, and brought to Wheeling the
two Norton brothers (E. M. and George W.) who were practical nailers.
From this date began Wheeling's reputation for nails-a reputation
which has known no retrograde. Mr. Stevens was on the high road
to immense wealth, and had he profited by the experience of his pred-
ecessor would undoubtedly have attained it. In an evil hour, however,
he listened to the wonderful talk of an eastern speculator, concerning
the fabulous riches to be found in the mineral veins of New Jersey, and
he lost heavily by investing largely in one of those copper mines. Under
the financial crisis of 1857, the firm "went to the wall." During the
war the iron works were rented to Norton, Acheson and Company, for
manufacturing gun boat plates.

Long after the visit of Ashe, who notes the sporting proclivities of
the place, Wheeling was interested in horse racing. The first improved
track was opened prior to 1827-probably 1825-at Beech Bottom, some
twelve miles up the river from Wheeling. The second track was opened
about 1834, on the farm at present owned by Mr. Samuel Spriggs, and
was owned by Henry Eccles and John Wires. On it occurred one of
the greatest races ever placed on record in the earlier days of racing.
The third track was opened on the farm of General Moses Chapman,
north of Bogg's run, the exclusive right and care of that track being
retained by John Harvey. Up to this time, gambling had become so
intolerable at the meetings that the state had to adopt the strongest
measures to suppress it, and in 1836 there was a great raid made on
the race course by the state officers, one of whom was seriously wounded
in the general shooting which resulted from the raid. One gambler
ran into the river, five or six were apprehended and their entire set of
gambling tables and unique paraphernalia was confiscated. Although
this track was closed after the raid, another sprang into existence about
1838-9, on property owned by Major Good, on the pike. The usual
rowdyism appeared, but following a brutal assault on Captain H. Mason,
all races were suspended.

The development of Wheeling, as a municipality, began in Jan-
uary, 1806, when it was incorporated as a village. In 1810 it had 914
inhabitants. By the building of the Cumberland road to the Ohio river
in 1818, and its subsequent extension through the state of Ohio about
this time, it received additional prominence as an avenue and distribut-
ing point for passengers and freight east and west, until the national
turnpike was superseded by railroads. The population increased rapidly.
In 1836 it was incorporated as a city and the present city water works
were built. In 1847 telegraphic communication was obtained by a tap
wire from the main line of the Pittsburgh, Cincinnati and St. Louis Tele-
graph Co. under construction along the opposite bank of the river.(14)
In the same year the project of building a bridge over the Ohio river
at Wheeling, which had been previously advocated unsuccessfully by
several western states as a national measure before Congress, was re-
vived by the people of Wheeling as a private enterprise, and under a
charter from the state of Virginia a suspension bridge with a clear
span of 1,010 feet was in 1849 built over the main channel, and con-
nected with the Ohio shore by a pier bridge previously built-the two
structures being subsequently protected by an act of Congress declaring
them postroads. The suspension span was blown down in 1853, and
was rebuilt during the same year.

The corner stone of Wheeling's prosperity to 1860 was the Ohio. In
1830 the city was made a port(15) of delivery, and boatbuilding which had
been carried on to some extent previously became one of its important
industries. Its position as the largest town in western Virginia was
also influenced by the vast number of emigrants, who, passing through it
en route to the middle and farther west, increased its trade and gave
it an atmosphere of business. Its population increased steadily from
914 in 1810 to 1,567 in 1820, 5,221 in 1830 and 7,885 in 1840. Its con-
nection with the East was facilitated by the completion of the Baltimore
and Ohio to Cumberland enabling it to secure goods from Baltimore in
seven days. From 1849 to 1879, ninety-nine steamboats, varying from
651 to 14 tons burden were launched from Wheeling boatyards. The
quality, abundance, and location of the coal strata adjacent to Wheeling
induced the establishment of other manufactures, notably of glass and
iron, at an early date, and wagons, furniture and other similar products
were turned out in considerable quantities for western and southern
markets. With the establishment of such manufacturers came a further
proportionate increase of the population of the city, besides a very con-
siderable increase in its suburban towns and villages. The growth was
assisted largely by the opening of the Baltimore and Ohio railway to
Wheeling in 1853, and the completion of its branch connection with the
West, Northwest and South; and the completion of the Cleveland and
Pittsburgh railroad and other branches of the Pennsylvania system, and
of minor roads, opening up communication with adjacent territory. In
1848 the gas works, now owned by the city, were begun by a private
corporation. In 1851-52 the building known as Washington Hall, which
was subsequently burnt and replaced by the present structure, was
erected, and in 1859 the custom-house, post-office, and the United States
court building were built.

Development in Brooke county was also rapid. At an early day
Wellsburg was the rival of Wheeling for travel between East and West.
Until 1818 she was one of the most noted shipping points on the upper
Ohio-even exceeding Wheeling in exports. Her first bank began opera-
tions in 1813, but was closed in 1815. Though she lost by the decision
which made Wheeling the terminus of the National road, she renewed
her rivalry with desperate zeal in 1825 when the question of repairs on
the road revived her hope of securing a more northern route. To divert
travel from the route via Wheeling she projected the Wellsburg and
Washington turnpike which was soon abandoned in despair and allowed
to languish for many years. In 1832 she obtained the establishment
of a branch of the Northwestern Bank of Virginia. In 1834 she was
disappointed in her expectation to become a prominent point on a railway
between Washington, Pennsylvania and the Ohio canal at Stillwater.
The Bethany turnpike, connecting with a turnpike to Washington was
engineered and graded in 1850 and macadamized gradually thereafter.

The early settlers depended largely upon the New Orleans market,
but trading by packhorse over the mountains continued until the open-
ing of the Mississippi was assured.

The distilling and milling business was begun in 1807 and flourished
for many years. Distilleries almost succumbed by 1836 and ceased to
operate by 1845. The flouring business also declined with the deteriora-
tion of the land and the opening of new areas elsewhere. Glass works
were erected in 1813 and cotton manufacture became prominent in 1829.
Boat building also thrived for a while.

Bethany college was founded in 1841. The town of Bethany was laid
out in 1847 by Alexander Campbell who in 1827 had secured the estab-
lishment of a post-office at his residence there, by agreeing to carry the
mail free twice a week between his house and West Liberty.

In the territory included in Hancock county one of the earliest in-
dustries was the manufacture of iron at a furnace which was erected
on King's creek between 1790 and 1800 and continued in operation for
several years.

The formation of Hancock county in 1848 was the sequence of an
earlier plan to move the county seat of Brooke from Wellsburg to the
more central point at Holliday's Cove. Fearful of losing the court house
the people near Wellsburg voted with the people farther north for a
division of the older county.

New Cumberland was laid out in 1839 and enlarged in 1848 and 1850.
It obtained a post office in 1844. At the formation of Hancock it was
selected as the county seat by popular election, but the county court
which sat at New Manchester (now Fairview) refused to remove the
records until after a second election (1850). On a third vote to settle
the question, New Cumberland lost by one vote (1852), resulting in the
return of the records to New Manchester and the settlement of the
county seat question for a quarter of a century.

Along the Ohio below Wheeling, development was less rapid. On
the site of Mr. Tomlinson's earlier town which had decayed after its
failure in the competition with Wheeling for the county seat, Mounds-
ville was laid off in 1831 and established as a town by act of 1832. New
Martinsville at which a hotel was erected in 1807 was established as a
town in 1838 and became the county seat of the new county of Wetzel
at its creation in 1848. Its earliest church building was erected by the
Methodists in 1854 under the pastorate of J. J. Dolliver. Sistersville,
through its advantages as a convenient boat landing, assumed some im-
portance as a promising town by the middle of the century. The
Sistersville and Salem turnpike, begun in 1840, was completed in 1848.

At the mouth of Middle Island creek St. Marys was founded in 1849
by Alexander H. Creel who came from eastern Virginia in 1834. Near
its site the earliest settlement was probably made before 1797. Several
settlements were made along the Middle Island creek early in the nine-
teenth century. Mr. Creel in 1834 purchased land on the site of the
future St. Marys, but in 1837 he located at the mouth of Green's run
(a mile below) and established a village which he named Vancluse and
from which he obtained interior communication by a road called the
Ellenboro Pike, which intersected the Northwestern turnpike at the site
of the present post office of Pike. By its terminal facilities, Vancluse
became a central point for the distribution of goods on both sides of the
river, and for a while seriously affected the monopoly of trade pre-
viously enjoyed by Parkersburg-even causing several Parkersburg
merchants to establish "wholesale houses" there. Finding the site too
contracted for a town, Mr. Creel in 1847 returned to the site of St.
Mary's and in 1849 made a lot survey of the proposed town at the same
time giving one acre to the future county of Pleasants on which to erect
a court house. To secure connections with the interior a road was con-
structed to join the Vancluse pike at the top of the hill. The population
increased rapidly and business became active-stimulated especially by
a wagon trade with interior points including Clarksburg from which
goods were shipped by flat boat or steamer to pioneer settlements farther
west. This trade declined after the construction of the railway to
Parkersburg which offered special inducements for the abandonment of
the Middle Island route.

At the mouth of the Little Kanawha industrial and social develop-
ment was retarded for a generation. The first licensed tavern or ordi-
nary was kept by Hugh Phelps on the south side in 1789. For some time
settlers at the mouth and along the river above received their mail at
Marietta. After the formation of Wood county (in 1799) the first
county court was held at the house of Colonel Phelps who was one of
the first justices of the county, and was later (by 1806) captain of the
militia. William Lowther was the first sheriff and John Stokeley was
clerk. In 1800 the fourteen justices constituting the county court
settled upon the "Point" on lands owned by John Stokeley as the
location of the court house. Soon thereafter a two story building of
hewn logs was constructed. The upper story, entered from the outside,
was the court room, and the lower was the jail. (The building was still
standing a century later.) A whipping post and stocks were also pro-
vided, in accord with the laws of Virginia. Among the prominent
citizens in 1800 was Harman Blennerhassett whose costly mansion on
the neighboring island was completed in that year. At that time the
site of Parkersburg was known as Newport or Stokeyville, but usually
called "The Point." It then contained about a half dozen log cabins,
a tavern ("The Rest"), and possibly a small store. It was merely a
small pioneer village, whose chief commercial life was based on trade in
peltries from animals usually killed to provide meat for the settlers. Its
early supplies came in flat boats from Pittsburgh or from Redstone, to
which they were brought over the mountains from the East. Its early
mails were by boat from Wheeling.

By act of the legislature of 1810, Parkersburg was established, ad-
joining and including the town of Newport, and provision was made
for removal of the seat of justice to a brick court house which was
erected there in the Public Square about 1812 or 1813. While the new
court house was under construction, a substantial hotel, the historic
"Bell Tavern" was built on the northwest corner of the square. It be-
came a popular stopping place and a center of many gayeties. It was
later known as the United States Hotel and finally as the Commercial.

By 1818 the steam boat began to create a new era for towns on the
Ohio. At Parkersburg new stores began to appear and dealers in
leathers and shoes. Before that date the first school had been opened.
In 1820 Parkersburg obtained a charter allowing freeholders to vote
for trustees, recorder, and other officers and authorizing the town gov-
ernment to collect taxes for expenses and improvements. In 1822-24
the town suffered from an epidemic of fever which attacked both old
and young and resulted in many deaths.

The population of Parkersburg was scarcely 200 (some say about
400) by 1832. In 1833 the first newspaper was established. As late as
1830 to 1835 there were few carriages in the region. Although the
first religious organization (Methodists) held meetings near Neals
station in 1799, the first church building in Parkersburg was not built
until 1835, following the great revival of 1832. In 1845 its members
(Methodists) became divided on the question of slavery, resulting in suits
for the church property in which the anti-slavery members won. The first
Baptist church building was completed in 1838 and the Presbyterian in
1839. The Southern Methodists erected a building in 1858.

The larger development of the town dates from the completion of
the Northwestern turnpike (in 1837) and the Staunton turnpike (in
1843) both bringing business and traffic which increased the value of
steam boat connection. In 1839 the Northwestern Bank of Virginia was

HISTORY OF WEST VIRGINIA          159

established. By 1844 the population was about 1400. In 1847-48 a toll
bridge was built across the Little Kanawha for the convenience of the
people south of the river. Later, the St. Marys pike was built.

The new stimulus received from the completion of railway con-
nection with the East in 1857 was re-inforced by the oil development
after 1859. The first National bank was established in 1862 with J. N.
Camden as president and W. N. Chancellor as cashier.

In the interior, east of Parkersburg, Harrisville was located and laid
out in 1822 in a sparsely settled region. It became a post office in 1830
and the county seat of the new county of Ritchie in 1843. Pennsboro,
the oldest postoffice in Ritchie came into existence about 1820. Smith-
field was established as a town in 1842.

The way to the region now known as Ritchie county was opened near the close
of the eighteenth century by the construction of a state road from Clarksburg to
Marietta, which became a leading thoroughfare to the Ohio. Along this road the
pioneers erected cabins used as "inns" or "taverns" for the convenience of trav-
ellers. The first cabin within the limits of Ritchie was built by John Bunnell about
1800 on the site of Pennsboro at which a postoffice was erected by 1820.

In 1803 another cabin was built by Lawrence Maley, a Scotch Irish Presbyterian,
one mile east of the site of Harrisville. Around this the "Maley settlement" was
formed. On the date of Maley's death in 1808, the Harrises and many other set-
tlers were arriving in the vicinity and thereafter many others arrived. In the near
neighborhood on the bank of Hughes river the first mill was built about 1812. The
nearest store for many years was at Marietta, to which the settlers went once each
year to exchange their furs, venison, ham (and perhaps snakeroot and ginseng) for
salt and iron.

Harrisville was laid off in lots in 1822, but only on one lot was a building
erected before 1837. In this first house a store was opened, perhaps as early as
1825 and a post office was established in 1830. On the same lot was erected (about
1843) the old "Lincoln House" which served as a public hostelry until 1888 when
it was destroyed by fire. In 1840 an additional store and two residences were built,
thus increasing the size of the village to four houses. The first hotel was erected in
1842. Another, the "Watson House," was built in 1843. The White Hall Hotel
was built by Robert Porter on his arrival from New York about 1846, and in it
was opened another store. In the meantime a tannery had been established in 1827.
The Sugar Grove flouring mill had been erected near by in 1842 and other residences
had been built. The pioneer church building, the Methodist Episcopal, erected on
a neighboring farm in 1843 was relocated in 1855, and on the same lot was built
a parsonage. A Methodist Protestant church was built in 1858. The court house
constructed in 1844, one year after the formation of the county, served until 1874.

About 1830 a post office was established at Smithville under the name of
"Hughes River." The first mail carrier, a boy of twelve years of age, arrived
from Weston one day of each week, spending the night at Smithville.

The pioneer bridges in the county were constructed in the forties at Smith-
ville and at the forks of Hughes river by a constructing company of the Staunton
and Parkersburg turnpike. The Smithville bridge was swept away by a flood in
1852, but was soon replaced by another old structure.

In Calhoun county, which was formed from territory taken from Gilmer in 1855,
the earliest settlement was made on the West Fork of the Little Kanawha in 1810
and several families had established homes by 1815. In Shennan district, however,
no settlement was made until 1830 when John Haverty and John B. Goff located on
the Little Kanawha. At Arnoldsburg, on the north side of Henry's Fork, where
Philip Stareher built his cabin in 1810, and which was named for Charles Arnold
who taught school there in 1832, a post office was established in 1832 and a store
was opened by Peregrine Hays in 1833.

The location of the county seat at Grantsville on the north bank of the Little
Kanawha was the final settlement of a long contest.

In no other part of the state has there been so much difficulty regarding the
permanent location of the seat of justice. The act creating the county provided for
its location at Pine Bottom, at the month of Yellow Greek, or at the Big Bend on
the Little Kanawha river, a vote of the people to decide between the two places.
Further it required that first court to be held at the home of Joseph W. Burson.
This last requirement appears to have been about the only one which was regarded,
for when the first court adjourned it was to meet not at Pine Bottom or Big Bend,
but at the residence of Peregrine Hays, on the West Fork. According, the second
court convened at that place September 9, 1856, and here it was held until 1857.
But in August of that year, two courts were in session at the same time, one at
Arnoldsburg, and another at the home of Collins Betz, on the Little Kanawha.
For the purpose of effecting a reconciliation between the warring factions, it was
decided to hold court at the mouth of Yellow Creek, now Brookville. A contract
for a court house was let for that place for $675. But legal proceedings were now
instituted, and on June 15, 1858, the court again convened at Arnoldsburg, and here
it continued to be held until 1869. It now seemed that the matter was settled.
The erection of a substantial brick building was begun at Arnoldsburg.  But
after the basement story had been completed, all of cut atone, at a cost of $1,500,
the question was once more agitated and another move made, this time to Grants-
vine (on the bank of the Little Kanawha)-where Eli Riddle had made the first
improvement before 1839. Here a frame court honse was erected, but burned to
the ground before it was occupied. Another arose upon its ruins and was occupied
until 1880, when a brick building was erected at a cost of $8,400.

Below Parkersburg at Belleville, which Mr. Avery had established on
his tract fronting five miles on the river, the expectations of the founder
were never realized. In 1806 Mr. Avery had lost heavily from a fire
(started by incendiaries) which destroyed his grain-filled barn, and his
grist and saw mill. In 1807, after failing in the ship-building business
in which he had largely invested, he was confined (for debt) in the Wood
county jail. At the same time development on the Ohio below Belle-
ville was prevented by the high price demanded for the land by the heirs
of Washington whose will had admonished the executors not to dispose
of it too cheaply and had suggested a price of $10.00 per acre.

In the northern part of Mason county within the large bend of the
Ohio, Mason City was laid out opposite Pomeroy in 1852 by coal oper-
ators who found a market for their product principally at Cincinnati and
Baton Rouge and who were later succeeded by a company which long
after the war used all its own coal for the manufacture of salt which was
sold to the Ohio Salt company of Pomeroy. The town was incorporated
in 1856, coincident with the opening of its first salt well and salt furnace
by the Mason City Salt company, which later also opened new coal mines
which were operated until 1882. At the same time its industrial activity
was increased by the establishment of its first saw mill resulting soon
thereafter in the opening of the boat yard.

Although even early in 1774, the mouth of the Great Kanawha was
a resting place for surveyors and their attendants and a rendezvous for
explorers and restless pioneers, the real pioneers of Mason county were
the occupants of Port Randolph and the settlers who, after the danger
from the Indians had subsided, established log-cabin homes in the un-
broken wilderness along the two rivers. At Point Pleasant although
Boone lived there in 1786 and ferries were established over both rivers
by Thomas Lewis in 1791 and a few other cabins began to appear around
the old fort by 1794, and an inn opened in 1797, growth of community
life was long retarded by the size and price of the tracts held by
absentee landlords and the difficulty of establishing titles to lands while,
at the same time on the Ohio side of the river lands could be bought at
a reasonable price and in small tracts suitable for farms for real settlers.
In 1806 Thomas Ashe in his description said that the town contained
about forty houses frame and log with an aspect indicating no prospective
increase. "The few disconsolate inhabitants who go up and down, or
lie under the trees," said he, "have a dejected appearance and exhibit
the ravage of disease in every feature and the tremor of ague in every
step. Their motive for settling the town must have been to catch what
they can from persons descending the river and from people emigrating
from the southwestern part of Virginia, with a view to settling lower
down the river, and who must make Point Pleasant a place of deposit
and embarkation. Were it not for the unhealthiness of the town, it would
not be unreasonable to presume that this circumstance would render it
in time a place of considerable note."

In 1807 Cumings saw only "Twenty-one indifferent houses includ-
ing a court house of square logs." In 1820 The Navigator described it
as a village of "fifteen or twenty families, a log court house, log jail and
(as usual in the Virginia towns) a pillory and a whipping post." Henry
Clay who later was on a steamer which stopped at the town compared
it to a "beautiful woman clothed in rags."

The first practising physician in this region was Dr. Jesse Bennett
(one of the jurors in the trial of Burr) whose practice extended from
Point Pleasant to Marietta and from Lewisburg to Chillicothe. Among
the earliest industrial establishments were distilleries and tanneries. A
new court house and jail were completed in 1826. The town was incor-
porated in 1833 and again in 1840 and soon thereafter, coincident with
the extermination of wolves in the neighboring region, its business was
increased by the opening of a ship yard. The first bank, a branch of
the Merchants and Mechanics bank of Wheeling, was opened in 1854.
The Charleston and Point Pleasant Turnpike Company, organized in
1837, constructed a road which after the destruction of its principal
bridges by the unusual flood of 1847 became impassable for wheeled
vehicles and useless except for neighborhood travel.

Below the mouth of the Great Kanawha, in Cabell county, develop-
ment was early influenced by the opening of the state road through
Teay's valley and later by the construction of the Kanawha turnpike
which connected with Ohio steamer lines at Guyandotte. Guyandotte
after a steady growth was incorporated and extended in 1849 and its
prospects were brightened by the incorporation of the Guyandotte Navi-
gation company which built locks and dams to secure navigation for the
transportation of timber at all seasons of the year. The Cabell and
Logan Coal Company was incorporated in 1852, the Bank of Guyandotte
in 1854, and the Guyandotte River Railroad in 1858.

ALONG THE GREAT KANAWHA

Up the Kanawha from Mason, in the territory which was included
in Putnam at its formation in 1848 the oldest town was Buffalo, laid
out in 1834 (incorporated in 1837) and named from the earliest post
office which was removed to it from the mouth of Big Buffalo creek four
miles above. At Winfield, on the site of a ferry which had been estab-
lished in 1818, the first hotel was opened in 1850 and the first church
built in 1856.

Farther up the Kanawha above the head of Teay's valley earlier
development was favored both by location on an earlier route of travel
and by various local influences-especially the salt industry which be-
came prominent after 1808. At Coalsmouth, however, there was little
industrial development for a generation. In 1816 Colonel Philip Thomp-
son of Culpeper, Virginia, arrived at Coalsmouth with his family and
purchased a part of the George Washington survey on the Kanawha at
that point. Here he built his home and was later followed by others
from eastern Virginia. In 1834, three years after the place had become
a "stage stand," he laid off part of his farm into town lots and named
the place Philippi which after his death in 1837 continued to be known
as Coalsmouth, the name of the postoffice. In 1856 Samuel Benedict of
Pennsylvania laid out adjoining lots and called the town Kanawha City
-a name by which it was known until the construction of the Chesa-
peake and Ohio railway furnished the impetus for an additional lot sale.
A general store and merchant mill, established about 1820 a mile below
the mouth of Coal, was later moved to Coalsmouth and proved a profit-
able enterprise. After the improvements were made up Coal at Peyto-
nia, the work of the mill greatly increased. Another early industry was
the manufacture of lumber for whip saw and the construction of flatboats
for the transportation of salt from the Kanawha salines to lower river
markets. About 1858 the first saw mill was built at the mouth of Coal.

Charleston had a steady growth, although slow in the earlier years.
Its first awakening was marked by the authorization of the first ferry
across the Kanawha and the Elk in 1794 and the establishment of the
first post office in 1801.(16) Its houses were still chiefly of logs in 1803,
and its population was probably less than 150.(17) Its first tub-mill was
built below the mouth of Elk in 1805.

After 1803, the region had an increased attraction for good families
of tidewater Virginia, or of the Shenandoah valley, who desired to better
their conditions, and saw the larger opportunities for the west resulting
from the acquisition of Louisiana and the consequent removal of the
earlier restrictions on navigation and trade at the mouth of the Missis-
sippi. By 1808 the social life at Charleston had an attraction which
influenced prominent land hunters from the east to extend their visits
to the place and to return to establish homes. This attraction is illus-
trated by the migration of the Summers family.

Among the prominent families on the Kanawha in the early part of
the nineteenth century was that of Col. Geo. Summers, who before he
settled in the valley lived near Alexandria, Virginia, in Fairfax county.
Planning for a home in the far west, desiring information in regard to
lands in 1808, he sent his son Lewis (18) on a long trip by horseback down
the Kanawha and up the Ohio. He was evidently well pleased with the
report which his son brought and especially the report of his visit to
Charleston and the Kanawha lands. Two years later, in 1810 he took
the same journey on horseback, accompanied by his oldest daughter
Jane, and following the route previously marked out by his son Lewis.
He went down to the mouth of the river and as far down the Ohio river
as the town of Guyandotte, and, returning from thence, continued the
journey up the Ohio to a point beyond Wheeling (probably to Wells-
burg). From the upper Ohio, he and his daughter returned to their
home near Alexandria. Think of one of the young ladies of the present
day taking this long and wearisome journey on horseback! Yet this
faithful daughter often spoke of it as one of the most delightful ex-
periences of her life. Her admiration of the wild and beautiful scenery
through which they passed with the companionship of a father whom she
loved with more than ordinary devotion, made it always a most pleasing
recollection to her. This tour of inspection resulted in the purchase of
the Walnut Grove estate, a tract of land on the Kanawha river nearly
three miles in length and it is somewhat phenomenal that most of it was
still owned by Col. Summers' grandchildren, a hundred years from the
time it came into his family. In the spring of 1813 he came to take
possession of the new home and to prepare it for the reception of wife
and children. Knowing that he must depend upon himself for every-
thing, he brought with him a number of his negro men and two or three
white men of experience. The trees were felled, crops planted, a com-
fortable house erected and stores of every bind provided. This included
the purchase of a flock of sheep and the growing of flax and cotton, the
product of which was to be made into clothing. Even the burial place
was selected and a quantity of Walnut lumber prepared, and placed
to season, so as to be in readiness when death should visit the little
colony. In the autumn of the same year he went back to Virginia to
bring his family and knowing that in early spring the master's eye must
be over farm operations, he determined upon a winter journey and early
in December, with those dear to him, made the slow and tedious passage
through the almost trailless forests of the Blue Ridge, the valley of
Virginia, surmounting the Alleghenies and through the canyons of the
New River. The cavalcade consisted of Col. Summers and three of his
daughters on horseback, a strongly built "carry-all" in which were
bestowed Mrs. Summers and the younger children, a two-wheeled vehicle
called a Gig, in which his daughter, Mrs. Ann Matilda Millan, was taking
her bridal journey with her newly made husband Mr. Lyie Millan, fol-
lowed by covered wagons filled with negro women and children, furniture,
etc. In one of these, fitted for the purpose, the ladies sometimes slept
when "camping out." These with Mr. Thomas Summers, Col. Summers'
brother, and a few negro men composed the party, and in January,
1814, after great perils and hardships, they arrived at "haven where
they would be." * * * Col. Summers lived to see the new home
fairly established and his family somewhat accustomed to its new sur-
roundings, and January 10, 1818, was gathered to his Fathers in the
confidence of "a certain, religious and holy hope." He was the first to
be laid in the cemetery of his own selection.

In 1815 Lewis Summers returned to Virginia (from Gallipolis, Ohio) and took
up his residence in Charleston. He commenced the practice of law but combined
it with other pursuits. The large business firm of "Bureau Scales and Co.," after-
wards "Summers, Seales and Co.," which was the leading establishment of the
valley from 1816 to 1822, was of his inception and he was one of the largest part-
ners. He also started one of the largest salt furnaces, then the leading industry
of the valley, and it was in successful operation until 1833. This furnace he called
by the name of his old parish in Fairfax, the Truro.

Soon after the death of his father in 1818 he prevailed upon his mother to
join him in Charleston where his two younger brothers, Albert Smith and George
William would have somewhat better educational advantages.

In 1821, the boys having exhausted the schools of Charleston and being away at
college, Mrs. Summers returned to the farm and thither her son Lewis accompanied
her. It was ever afterwards his home and under his watchful and energetic care
the "Grove" became the fair and beautiful estate which it was at the time of
his death.

In connection with this he built the largest lumber and flouring mill then in
the valley, which was considered a wonderful undertaking for those days. The ma-
chinery was of the best obtainable and all the latest improvements were adopted.
In connections with it was a dry goods store, a large warehouse and a packing
house for meats. It was soon surrounded by small, but comfortable, houses for
the occupancy of the employees and was quite a little village. The timber sawed in
the mill, the fuel it consumed and that used in all the houses about it, was taken
from his own forests, coal being then unknown outside of the salt works.

Being of literary tastes he early began the accumulation of a library, both of
law and miscellany, and long before his death it was said to be the best in the state
west of the Alleghenies.

In February, 1819, he was chosen by the Legislature of Virginia to be one of
the Judges of the general Court and the Judge of the Kanawha Judicial Circuit,
then but recently created. He was also ex-officio a member of the Board of Public
Works, and these offices he held until the time of his death nearly twenty-five years
afterwards.

By 1820, Charleston had a promising future as a business center for
a large area. The first clock and watch maker came in 1808, the first
regular merchants began business in 1813. The first resident physician
arrived in 1811, but the first drug store waited until 1825. There were
several tailors by 1822. Saw mills were erected on Two Mile creek of
Elk between 1815 and 1820. Its first steam flour mill was erected by
Daniel Ruffner in 1832. The first local newspapers were the Spectator
established in 1818 or 1819, the Kanawha Patriot in 1819, the "Western
Courier" in 1820 and the Western Register in 1829. The erratic lawyer
who founded the Spectator soon became principal of Mercer Academy
which was founded in 1818, and sustained a "Law Department" by
1823. A library was opened by 1823. A Sunday school, although
strongly opposed, was opened in 1823. A whipping post, set up by 1817,
was used for the last time in 1842.

A new era of growth was stimulated by the opening of steam naviga-
tion in 1820-resulting in steamboat connection with Cincinnati about
1823-and especially by the opening of the Kanawha turnpike and the
increasing traffic which followed. The first bank, a branch of the Bank
of Virginia, was established in 1832. The first church buildings were
those of the Presbyterians erected in 1828 and the Methodists erected
in 1833, and of the Episcopalians erected in 1834. The Kanawha tele-
graph company (organized 1849) constructed a telegraph from Kanawha
Salines via Charleston and Point Pleasant to Gallipolis in 1852. A wire
suspension bridge over the Elk was erected in 1852.

In the earlier growth of Charleston, after 1808, the development of
the neighboring salt works at Kanawha Salines was the most stimulating
factor or influence.

Owing to the value of the licks, Joseph Ruffner in 1795 had bought of John
Dickinson 502 acres extending up the Kanawha river from the mouth of the Elk.
But preferring to farm on the rich bottoms where Charleston now stands he rented
the licks to Mr. Elisha Brooks.

Elisha Brooks put salt making on a commercial basis. In 1797 he made a small
furnace, set up a double row of kettles and turned off a hundred and fifty pounds
of salt a day. He got his brine from the springs and used wood for fuel. Owing
to the presence of iron and there being no clarifying process the salt was red in
color. Notwithstanding, it had an excellent flavor and consumers would ask for
"that strong, red salt from the Kanawha Licks" This salt was sold at the fur-
nace for eight and ten cents per pound.

David and Joseph Ruffner, the sons of Joseph Ruffner, familiarly styled "The
Ruffner Brothers," were pioneers in well-boring and in the use of coal for fuel.
After much patient labor with the crudest of tools, they succeeded in boring, tubing
and rigging a well several hundred feet deep. This is said to be the first deep well
west of the Alleghenies and very probably the first in America. Now they were able
to secure an abundance of strong brine. Wood was becoming scarce: the slopes had
been stripped. Coal was plentiful, however, so these ingenious brothers experimented
with coal and found it much superior to wood. The price of salt was reduced to
four cents.

The whole story of their many months of preparation for the great experiment
in searching for a larger and richer supply of brine-their difficulties and marvellous
labor, their development of inventive genius, and their unfailing faith, unconquerable
energy-is full of interest. Finally, in January, 1808, at the depth of forty feet they
struck a third and better stream of salt water and a month later succeeded in
obtaining a satisfactory tube by which to exclude upper and weaker veins of water.

On the llth day of February, 1808, David and Joseph Ruffner made their first
lifting of salt; and immediately reduced the price from $5.00 a bushel to $2.00.
On this achievement of the brothers Ruffner, Dr. Hale pertinently remarks: "Thus
was bored and tubed, rigged and worked, the first rock bored salt well west of the
Alleghenies, if not in the United States."

In 1813 Joseph Ruffner, Jr., sold his interest in the salt property, including
the land, to Capt. James Wilson, but the next year David traded land near Charles-
ton to Capt, Wilson, and thus became the sole owner of all that had belonged to him
and his brother Joseph jointly, and originally to all five brothers, the strip cut off
to Tobias only excepted.

The successful operations of the Ruffners were soon imitated by their neighbors
on the river both above and below. The rapid growth of salt manufacture is shown
in a letter written by David Ruffner in 1815, and published in Niles Register. In
this he states that there were then, only seven years after the first lifting of salt,
no less than fifty-two furnaces in operation, and many others in course of erection;
all within six and a half miles along the river beginning two and one-half miles
below the first well and extending four miles above.

These furnaces severally contained 40 to 60 kettles of 36 gallons each, and
altogether produced from 2,500 to 3,000 bushels of salt per day; which would
amount to about 1,000,000 bushels in a year. From 70 to 100 gallons of water were
required for one bushel of salt. Furnaces continued to multiply and grow in size,
wells deepened, and processes improved, until the annual production reached 3,000,000
bushels of superior salt.

The next scheme which David initiated was the formation of a joint stock
company in 1831 which laid off a town on the upper end of his Alderson tract;
where might be accumulated stores, mechanic shops, residences, churches, etc., all
of which would be needed for the convenience and comfort of the salt manufacturers
and business men generally.

This place still lives under the name of Malden. At first considerable diffi-
culty was found in settling upon a name for the town, and in fact it was called
sometimes Saltboro, sometimes Terra Salis, and more generally Kanawha Salines,
which last name prevailed and became the official designation. The common people,
however, for what reason I know not, rejected all these names and called the town
Maiden, which ultimately was settled upon as its permanent title. During the flush
times of salt making this town grew rapidly and a large amount of business was
done here. It was the headquarters of the salt companies, and large commercial
and mechanical operations were carried on for some years; but, with the decline of
the salt making interests, the town also declined until it became a mere skeleton of
its former self.

The character of the population which infested the saltworks during
the earlier period of its history is thus described by Dr. Henry Ruffner
in a manuscript written in 1860: "Adventurers flocked in from all parts
of the country eager to share in the spoils. Most of the newcomers
were men of bad morals. Some were young men of good character.
Many boatmen of the old school frequented these salt-making shores,
before steamboats in a great measure had superseded the old sorts of
river craft. The old people of Kanawha remember, no doubt, what
horrible profanity, what rioting and drunkenness, what quarreling and
fighting, what low gambling and cheating prevailed through this com-
munity in those days."

Dr. Ruffner adds that the locality now included in Malden was in
those days "the wickedest and most hopeless part of Kanawha." Of
course, when he made those remarks he had no reference to the popula-
tion then existing (1860), which was a great improvement on that of
the period he was alluding to.

In 1835 Mr. Patrick put into use the steam furnace. This gave an
impetus to the industry. Deep boring was common in an effort to find
stronger brine. M. William Tompkins struck a flow of gas. He utilized
this in boiling his furnace. In 1843 Dickinson and Shrewsberry were
boring for stronger brine when they tapped a great reservoir of gas.
The gas blew out the tubing and escaped with such force that the
roaring could be heard for miles. This gas well became an object of
interest and the stage driver would stop to let his passengers view the
spectacle.

The transportation of salt was difficult. In early times it was carried
overland by packhorses. From this we get the word "pack" which is
frequently used instead of "carry." It was sent down the river in
tubs on rafts. Frequently a load would be lost. They say Mr. Donnally,
on hearing of a load of his having sunk, would ask if any men went
down with the salt. On being told that they did not he would say that
"It was not a fair sink." The flat boats carried quantities of it to the
western markets.

For over 60 years Kanawha Valley on both sides of the river pre-
sented a busy and most interesting scene, and directly and incidentally
gave employment to a great number of men, and kept the river lively
with its great transportation boats. The height of production was
reached in 1850 when it exceeded 3,000,000 bushels per annum.
Much the largest single producer in the valley, possibly the largest in
the world at that time, was Dr. J. P. Hale, whose great Snow Hill
furnace reached the aggregate of 420,000 bushels in one year. But, alas!
the irresistible force of circumstances gradually extinguished the fur-
nace fires, until but one was left to wave its black plume of coal smoke.
This belonged to John Quincey Dickinson, the grandson of one of the
largest and most noted of the early salt makers.

In 1853-57 the salt industry on the Kanawha was impoverished to
satisfy the demands of the salt men of Meigs county, Ohio, and Mason
county, Virginia, who formed the Ohio River Salt Company which was
not dissolved until 1872. As the manufacture of salt became a "vanish-
ing industry," the mining of cannel coal arose into prominence largely
through the investment of foreign capital which was attracted by the
reports of the exploration of Kanawha coal deposits by Professor W. B.
Rogers of the University of Virginia in 1839 and to 1841. Several coal
companies organized between 1849 and 1856 to operate on the Kanawha,
Elk and Coal rivers were the avant couriers of business expansion and
increasing prosperity. In 1857 the Kanawha Cannel Coal Mining and
Manufacturing Company erected at Charleston buildings for use in the
manufacture of cannel coal oil. In 1858 the Corwin Coal Company
erected buildings at Mill creek, seven miles up Elk. All the various
companies advertised for all classes of laborers in 1859 and were in a
prosperous condition in 1860.

Along the upper Kanawha and lower New, Fayette county was
created in 1831, from Kanawha, Greenbrier, Nicholas and Logan. The
county seat which at first was located at New Haven (in Mountain Cove
district) was removed in 1837 to the site of Fayetteville (then called
Vandalia) where court was held in the house (or tavern) of Abraham
Vandall until public buildings could be completed. The vote by which
Vandalia won against New Haven in the election contest was obtained
by strategy. According to Colonel G. W. Imboden on the authority of
his father-in-law (Colonel William Tyree) enough votes (of qualified
free holders) to carry the election were secured by Hiram Hall, the first
county clerk, by a liberal distribution of one-acre tracts of land with no
specified boundaries. Shortly before the war the history of Montgomery
began with the arrival of boats from Cincinnati and other points on
the Ohio to unload goods at Montgomery landing which was then the
distributing point for merchants in Wyoming, Mercer, Raleigh, Mc-
Dowell, Nicholas and Fayette counties. From it they also shipped
tobacco, hides, wool and other products. Oak Hill, near which Peter
Bowyer operated a water-power mill as early as 1820, received its name
later from the earliest post office established at Hill Top on the mail
route from Fayetteville to Raleigh Court House (now Beckley). On
the site of Glen Jean a water-power mill was operated as early as 1850
and a post office was established soon after 1854.

SOUTH OF THE GREAT KANAWHA

In the interior south of the Kanawha development was usually long
retarded. On the Madison map of Virginia of 1807, corrected to 1818,
no towns are indicated in any part of the interior region and only one
public road is represented-a road from the Kanawha via Loup's creek
and upper Piney to Pack's Ford at the mouth of the Bluestone and
beyond through Monroe.

In the original county of Logan formed in 1824 from Giles, Kanawha,
Cabell and Tazewell the county seat was located at Lawnsville or Logan
Court House which was laid off in 1827. It received its earliest mails
by horse over a postroad from Charleston. About 1850 it obtained
better communication with Charleston by a state road through Boone
which for many years was traveled by long trains of wagons from the
interior.

Boone was formed in 1847 from Kanawha, Cabell and Logan. The
county seat was at first located at the mouth of Spruce Pork which was
unsatisfactory to the people. By an election authorized by legislative
act of 1848 to settle the question, the location was changed to a point
near the mouth of Turkey creek. The earliest road in the territory
included in the county was a pack horse road via Marmet to Maiden
and Charleston at which the early settlers found a market for ginseng,
venison, and bear hams. The first post offices in the county were estab-
lished at Ballardsville and Madison. The largest industrial stimulus
after the opening of the state road from Logan to Charleston was the
work of the Peytonia Cannel Coal Company which in 1854 placed locks
and dams in the Coal river and erected an extensive mining plant at
Peytonia.

Raleigh county was formed from Fayette in 1850. Beckleyville
(now Beckley) incorporated in 1850 coincident with its selection as the
county seat received its early growth largely through the activities of
General Alfred Beckley who in 1836 married Miss Amelia Neville Craig
of Pittsburgh, resigned his commission as first lieutenant in the army and
removed to Fayette county to improve a body of unsettled lands (now
in Raleigh) for his widowed mother and himself. Largely through
Beckley's influence, the Giles, Fayette and Kanawha turnpike, author-
ized by acts of 1837 and 1839 was constructed from Giles Court House,
via Red Sulphur, Indian creek, the Bluestone to its mouth, Flat Top
mountain, Beaver creek, Beckley's, Loup creek and Fayette Court House
to the Kanawha.

Wyoming county was formed in 1850 from Logan and McDowell in
1858 from Tazewell by a legislative act which declared that the county
seat should be called Peerysville and appointed a committee to locate it.
Both counties long remained largely isolated by lack of roads. In 1805
although it had become the abode of many of the "old Families," the
region along the Big Sandy and the Guyandotte was one of the wildest
of western Virginia-a famous hunting ground for bears which fat-
tened on the chestnuts and acorns and furnished many valuable glossy
hides to decorate the soldiers of the two contending armies in Europe.

The pioneers along the Big Sandy and neighboring country often
belonged to the best families of the older East, and some of them brought
slaves with them as well as the household goods which they carried on
the backs of horses. They found the earliest markets for their prod-
ucts down the Ohio for up-river conveyance; for their larger purchases
they used flat boats above the Sandy. They received their earliest
mails from Catlettsburg, Kentucky. To make their earliest exchanges
they went to the mouth of the river and continued to Burlington, Ohio,
(three miles below), or to Limestone. In 1815 or 1816 Joseph Ewing
began store keeping one-fourth mile above the mouth of Sandy in Vir-
ginia. Frederick Moore established a store farther up the river which
from 1815 to 1834 secured the larger part of the Sandy trade. Coming
west from Philadelphia with goods he reached the forks of Sandy six
years before Louisa became a town. He purchased tracts of land on
both sides of the river. In 1818 he sent for his wife and children and
established himself below the "forks" on the Virginia side.

Among the earlier industries in the Sandy valley was salt manufac-
ture. As early as 1795 salt was made on lands belonging to Henry
Clay on Middle Island creek in Floyd county, Kentucky, ten miles
from Prestonsburg (founded 1799). Near the mouth of Blain on the
Virginia side of Sandy considerable salt was made as early as 1813.
Warfield on Tug received its earliest stimulus from salt works established
before the war by Governor John B. Floyd and brothers of Tazewell
county.

The new county of Wayne was formed from the southwestern part
of Cabell in 1842 and the county seat was located at Trout's Hill (at
Wayne). Ceredo was founded on the Ohio in 1857 by Eli Thayer who
had dreams of founding a great manufacturing city there coincident
with his activities to aid the emigrants of anti-slavery men to Kansas.
Fairview was incorporated in 1860.

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Chapter Footnotes:

(1) It appears that James Rumsey was employed in September, 1781, by the
Potomac Company (of which Washington was a member) to improve the navigation
of the Potomac. In the summer of the year 1783, he directed his attention to the
subject of steamboats; and in the autumn of 1784 succeeded in a private, but very
imperfect, experiment on the Potomac at Shepherdstown in order to teat some of
the principles of his invention. In October, 1784, he obtained from the Virginia
Assembly an act guaranteeing to him the exclusive use of his invention in navigat-
ing the waters of that state for ten years. In January, 1785, he obtained a similar
patent from the general assembly of Maryland. Finally, in 1786, at Shepherds-
town he gave a public trial of his boat succeeding in propelling it by steam against
the current at the rate of about four miles per hour.

(2) By 1800 Shepherdstown had become quite an active business center. By its
doors passed "commodities such as flour, cattle, grain, horses, sheep and turkeys"
enroute from the great southwest to the eastern cities and especially to Baltimore.
Almost the whole population of the town were interested in keeping boarders or in
managing wagon yards and warehouses to accommodate the traffic. The ferry was
kept busy with the wagon traffic. Rafts or flatboats propelled by man power carried
much produce from Shepherdstown down the Potomac river to Washington or Alex-
andria. In the early part of the nineteenth century one could purchase there any-
thing from a silver spoon to a church steeple. There were blacksmiths and white-
smiths, hatters, clothiers, harness and wagon makers, fullers, dyers, and weavers,
Almost every other guild and trade was represented in the village, which was now
approaching the period of its greatest prosperity. A constant stream of coaches,
Conestoga wagons, herds of sheep, cattle, horses and hogs, besides horsemen and foot
passengers, passed daily through the town. No wonder there are so many old tavern
stands "in the village, for it was on the main route between south and west. Old
residents of Shepherdstown have stated that their fathers remembered the time
when long line of vehicles extended from the river as far out as what is now Elm-
wood cemetery, waiting to be ferried across the Potomac.

A long ordinance made by the Trustees to regulate the market of Shepherds
Town is printed in the issue Berkeley and Jefferson Intelligencer of June 25, 1802:

"Be it enacted and ordained by the President and Trustees of said town" * * *
"No person shall sell or cause to be sold victuals or provisions at any other place
but at the market-house there-in, will be under the penalty of five dollars for every
such offence, and if any servant or slave shall sell or offer for sale, any victuals or
provisions contrary to the meaning of this act, he or she shall receive ten lashes
on his or her bare back for every such offence" Wednesdays and Saturdays were
market days. The hours for the market shall be established "from 4 o'clock until
8 o'clock, A. M. from the first part of April to the first of October, and from 4
o'clock to 9 o'clock A. M., from the first of October, to the first of April."

(3) The civic development is also interesting. In 1810 the first necessary step
toward self-government was taken by making the trustees elective by the free-
holders, and in 1816 they were given power to levy taxes. By the new charter
of 1838 a government under seven trustees of more extended powers was inaugurated
resulting in an increasing number of ordinances-some of which, necessitating a
serious break with long-established customs, met with fierce opposition. The latter
are illustrated by the "hog ordinance" which after a varied career as one of the
chief municipal problems was finally settled by the referendum in the election
of 1852, by which the hogs lost by 25 Totes. An amended charter by legislative
act of March 20, 1860, provided for election of a mayor, a sergeant, five councilmen
and a recorder. The borough records are complete from 1838 to 1860.

(4) The first hotel built in Fairmont was owned by Frederick Ice, and was located
near the site of the Watson Hotel. It accommodated travelers between Clarks-
burg and Morgantown after Middletown became a regular stopping place.

(5) The Marion Machine Works were built on what is now Water Street, on the
east side of the river, by E. N. Hazen, who manufactured hardware. James Miller
opened a cooper shop in 1837, the first of its kind to be established in this section.

(6) Iron ore is found over an area of 10,000 acres, chiefly on Brushy Fork. It is
in veins and ledges from one foot to fourteen feet thick, p. 318. The furnace
on Brushy Fork was built in 1848 and was used six years. The blast was oper-
ated first by water power and afterwards by an engine (believed to have been the
first in Barbour County, about 1850). It was thirty-nine feet high when built, but
is little more than half of that now, much of the stone of which it was built having
been removed for various purposes. The fuel was charcoal, and about 9,000 pounds
of iron were produced a day. This was hauled by mule teams to Fairmont.

(7) David Blackman of Connecticut emigrated to Randolph county in 1822. In
1824 following his marriage he located in Beverly and engaged in the mercantile
business until 1861. He first hauled goods from Baltimore, later from Winchester,
later from Cumberland and finally from Fetterman. His store was the principal one
in the county; at first he had as a partner John Shennan who in 1827 moved to
Ohio where he raised and educated his cousin's son, John, who later became United
States senator. In 1829 his former partner wrote him "I have just bought 125
barrels of whiskey at 25c a gallon. If it were in Beverly it would not last long."

(8) Mrs. Harris, of Morristown, Belmont county, Ohio, a daughter of John Mc-
Culloch, in narrating some early recollections of Wheeling, said that at the age
of ten she was taken by her father to a show in Wheeling in 1801, and that they
stopped at Ebenezer Zane's, who was related to them. Mrs. Harris thinks it was
the first show that was exhibited in Wheeling, and it only consisted of an elephant
and a camel.

(9) The rude log structures and more modern scantling shanties of "ye pioneer"
days, were first superseded by a substantial brick structure in 1803-4, when one
Jacob Goodling erected for himself a house where the St. James' Hotel formerly
stood, on Water street. According to tradition, the second brick house was erected
by William McConell, about 1805-6, on the corner of Main and Eighth street.

(10) Ashe's assertion in regard to the border lawlessness at Wheeling is par-
tially substantiated by an event which occurred in September of the following
year, and was reported in the Wheeling Repository as follows:

"On the evening of Thursday, the 24th of September, a man who was strongly
suspected to be grossly inattentive to this place, tarred and feathered, mounted on a
rail, and carried up and down the street for about two hours. 'The gentleman' as
his carriers and followers very complaisantly styled him, was occasionally saluted
with keen reproaches, which together with cries of 'Here goes the man that beats
his wife,' etc., rendered the procession a very noisy one. The crowd of spectators
was great, and the proceeding, outrageous as it was, met with very general appro-
bation."

(11) The first court house erected in Wheeling was a small stone structure with a
diminutive cupola on the top, much resembling a full sized chimney. It was located
on Main street, at its juncture with Tenth street.  A Kentuckian once riding
through the town looked upon it amazed, exclaiming-"Well, the people of Wheeling
must be mighty fond of bacon-I never saw such a large smoke house before in
my life."

In 1808, an effort was made to remove the seat of justice of Ohio county from
Wheeling to Grave creek (now Monndsville). Mr. Tomlinson of the latter place
visited Richmond with a petition liberally signed by citizens of the lower part
of the county, and by diligently working personally with the members of the house
of delegates succeeded in getting his project passed by a majority of fifteen, not-
withstanding the opposition of the two members (Mr. Irwin and Mr. Morgan) from
Ohio county. In Wheeling the measure was called Mr. Tomlinson's "wheel-barrow
project." It was ably opposed in the senate by Philip Doddridge who represented
the district and was defeated. It appears that Mr. Doddridge was late in reach-
ing Richmond, and Mr. Tomlinson afterwards remarked that if the senator had
stayed away six days longer the bill would have obtained the majority of the
senate.

(12) During the period from the fall of 1769, the time of the first occupancy of
the site of Wheeling by the Zane brothers, until they laid it out in 1793, there is
no record, or tradition, that any physician practiced there. "The early settlers
being in a wild, uncultivated country, far removed from any other, upon a frontier
exposed to daily attacks from their savage neighbors, surrounded by dangers and
privations, created a community of interest and benevolence, exhibited by mutual
nursing and attendance in sickness or injury."

(13) The Merchants and Mechanics Bank was founded in 1834 and was succeeded
by the Merchants and Mechanics National Bank in 1865. The Commercial Bank
of Wheeling was established by 1853. The Peoples Bank of Wheeling was founded
in 1860. The Bank of Wheeling was originally started by C. D. Hubbard and D C
List about 1853.

(14) This company was merged with the Western Union in 1853-54. The Western
Telegraph Co. opened an office in Wheeling in 1848-49 and the "United States" in
1864. Both were ultimately absorbed by the Western Union.

(15) The port of Wheeling was established by law March 2, 1831. Due to heavy
importation era of 1854, Custom House was erected at Wheeling Aug. 4, 1854.

(16) Charleston was on the mail route extending from Lewisburg to Scioto Salt
Works in 1804 and from Lewisburg to Chillicothe for several years after 1808.
About 1811 a mail route was established between Kanawha Court House and Galli-
polis and in 1814 there was a route from Boyers to Catlettsburg.

(17) A glimpse of Charleston in 180S may be obtained from the following
reminiscent record, written by Samuel Williams fifty years later:

"The houses were mostly constructed of hewn logs with a few frame buildings,
and, in the background, some all round log cabins. The principal, or front street,
some sixty feet in width, was laid out on the beautiful bluff bank of Kanawha river,
which has an elevation of thirty or forty feet above low water. On the sloping
bank between this street and the river, there were no houses or structures of any
kind, and it was considered the common property of the town. On this street, for
half a mile in length, stood about two-thirds of the houses composing the village.
On another street running parallel to this, at a distance of some 400 feet from it,
and only opened in part, there were a few houses. The remainder lay on cross streets,
flanking the public square. The houses were constructed in plain backwood style
and to the best of my recollection the painting brush had not passed upon them.
The streets remained in the primitive state of nature, excepting that the timber
had been cut off by the proprietor who had originally cultivated the ground as a
corn field. But the sloping bank of the river in front of the village was covered
with large sycamore trees and pawpaw bushes. Immediately in rear of the village
lay an unbroken and dense forest of large and lofty beech, sugar, ash and poplar
lumber, with thickets of pawpaw."

(18) Lewis Summers, the eldest son of Col. George Summers, and Ann Smith Rad-
cliffe, his wife, was a native of Fairfax County, Virginia. His earlier years were
spent on his father's farm and his education, a liberal one for that time, was
acquired in Alexandria at a private school kept "for the sons of gentlemen."

Although successfully pursuing his profession in the city of Alexandria his
thoughts turned to the western country, as offering a wider field of usefulness and
activity, and actuated by his father's wishes, as well, to find a home for his family
in the same region, he left his home June 22, 1808, on horseback, to seek a location
west of the Alleghenies. * * * On his journey he kept a minute journal from
which much information was obtained by his father as to routes, distances, prices
of land, titles, etc. Inspecting Charleston and the Kanawha Valley to the mouth
of the river he spent a few days at Gallipolis. Thence he travelled northward to
Wellsburg, where he visited his sister, Mrs. Robert Lowriton, and Aug. 22d, started
homeward across the northern part of the state. In due time he reached home and
made his report having travelled almost continually on horseback for over two
months. (See Chapter X.)

In the fall of the same year he made his final removal to the west and settled
in Gallipolis. Although his residence there only extended over a few years, his
vigorous and well informed mind at once impressed itself upon the community.