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THE PE0 PL E

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1712.

l*i*iifE‘i:w5i4iisi‘ivittciN1AA newspaper published weekly at Richwood for West Virginians

In particular and hill-loving people everywhere. and especially forthe little old lady in Dubuque. One year $10, two years $18. Entered as

Second Class Matter, Nov. 3, l956.'Jlm Comstock. editor and pub-’,3, lisher. Richwood. _W Va. 26261.

OVEF same.

................................ '.‘.---no-mn­

The People‘Qf VandaliaCommunity

1928B y Sam W. Hardman.Part 1

HE F I R S Twhite man toexplore theSkin C r e e k

, region ofwhich. any record

has beengiv­sh’ _ _ en to local

history is John Hacker, thefirst settler in the Hacker'sCreek district about the year

According to that tra­ditional account he was at thetime on the trail of threebuffaloes that had devastatedhis corn patch during the sum­mer while absent to the SouthBranch to remove his familyto the newly made home inthe wilderness. The first day'strail brought him to the mouthof a small stream afterwardsnamed Curtis Run on LittleSkin Creek. Here he locateda claim which according tothe custom of that day wasaccomplished by simplygirdling some trees.

_ _ ‘\v/ork. or.lf this can't be done,txx Poetry is usedas spacepermits. .

While Hlllbllly appreciates letters‘and manuscripts from readers,it is impossible to return such or to enter into any verbal exchange

It is suggested that the writers keep copies of their0 request return and send postage.

.;.;.'.-.;.;.;.;.;.;.;.;.;.;.;.

This act within itself didnot constitute ownership butmerely denoted priority toother claims which might besubsequently made. Hacker’ssecond day's pursuit of thebuffaloes brought him to themouth of a stream on the headwaters of the West Fork Riv­er and tradition says havingdiscovered there a colonycrams he named the streamCram Camp Run. Here healso located a claim and thenext day again hit the trailof the buffaloes which hefailed to apprehend for twodays yet. He killed a cow,so the account says. and re­turned home.

Tradition says that henamed the two Skin Creekstreams, Big Muddy and Lit­tle Muddy.

While it is well known thatwestern Virginia as a wholehad longbefore beentraversedby hunters and trappers, it isnot known if this particularregion had even been seenuntil John Hacker gazed uponit. *

John Hardman was beyonddoubtthe first permanentset­tler in the Skin Creek region.The exact date of his com­ing cannot be given withoutrecourse to an examinationof the Harrison County rec­ords which even then wouldshow only the date his patentto the land was issued. The

IillIiLBl'LLY ‘*.LJL;vv.t.o

greater event, however, isthe date showing time of set-.

t_,:_;. “,3” J.AU:_&\rIL"'7B1

the northwestern part ofOhio.- Mrs. Waggoner, the mother

Heme“ This Can be Safelyvoft e three takencaptive.wasfixed approximately at aboutthe year 1797. coinciding withthe date of his marriage. Hesettled near the mouthofCur­tis Run on Little Skin Creekand his lands embraced thefarms known in after yearsas the Isaac Butcher tractand the George H. Coratherstract.- His residence stood nearthe site now occupied by theGeorge H, Cgnathers resi­

ence. He built a mill on thecreek south from his resi­dence run by water powerwhich ground corn only. Oneof the runners of these cornbuhrs is at present used asa top step at the front.en­trance to the house of Thom­as Meadows who lives notfar from the old mill site.The workmanship on this stoneis superior and a model forits kind and shows unmis­takably the hand of an artist":

This mill is said to havebeen built several years be­fore the Curtis mill on Stone­coal known in modern times asGaston. But it ground corn forthe surrounding neighborhoodfor fifty years when both milland dam were swept away bya flood. ,

Rev, John Hardman, as hewas known in late life, was 3,7son of Peter Hardman, a pio-°neer settler on Jesse's Runof- Hacker's Creek,_ and hemarried Elizabeth W ,a daughter of John Waggoner,who lived also on Jesse'sRun. The Hardmans and Wag­goners were close neighbors.‘

Elizabeth Wa oner ‘andsis‘mm.abrother. were all threetakenCaptive by Tecumseh and twoof his warriors in 1792 andcarried to the Shawnee vil.lages on the Sciota River in

killed and also three of thesmaller children. Peter, aftermany years. returned to thesettlement on Hacker's Creekand married Mrs. KatieH dea widow whose maiden namewas Katie Hardman and asis­ter to ev. John Hardman.Elizabeth, so say the his­as notrestoredtoher people until after thetreaty of Greenville in 1795.Some few years later shemarried Rev. John Hardmanas already stated. As theV_'Qg_­oner massacre is so

thrillingly told by Withers inhis “Border Warfare" and byMcwhorter in “Border Set­tlers -of Northwestern Vir­ginia" and also by EdwardC. Smith in his “History ofLewis County." nothingfurther need be said on thatscore.

There is a tradition in theHardman family, especiallyamong the living grandchil­dren0‘&EammHardmanmother. through the aid andassistance of anlndiantrader,escaped from captivity andwas brought to Fort Wheel­ing. Louis Bonnett. her uncle.who was at UTe’time a soldierin the fort brought her throughthe wilderness and to herhome.

5‘She became the mother ofthirteen children. eleven ofwhom reached maturity andsome passed into old age.There was only one daughterand she became The wife ofJacob W. Hudson. Henry, one-of the sons, settled on thehead waters of Big SkinCreek;Joshua lived on Big SkinCreek; and John G. moved toBraxton in 1855 where helived and died. The otherboys went West at differenttimes shortly after reaching

that_ their grand- .

.._.l;

manhood. one to Louisville.Ky., one to Lexington. same-state. one to Peoria. lll_. andthe rest to other points inOhio. Indiana and Illinois.

Elizabeth Wa goner Haid­man died at her home nearGeorgetown in 1854, aged 74.and her husband died near theclose of the Civil War. Bothwere buried at Georgetown

iRichar 0 nson is believed

to have been the first settleron Big Skin Creek and the dateof settlement is fixed at 1797or 1798. This perhaps is thedate he received a patent tohis land, but if the statementof Joshua Hardmanis correct.and we have no reason to doubtit. he was not living therewhen his father made settle­ment on Little Skin Creek atthe mouth of Curtis Run.Joshua Hardman, in an inter­view given the writer over35 ears ago, states thattheirnearest neighbor for fiveyears was ten miles distant.The Johnson tract is declaredby historians to be an aban­doned tomahawk claim of JohnHacker occupied for a timeby his son Alexander someyears after the close of theRevolutionary War, but thathe shortly afterward left itThis could very well have beentrue: but no local tradition hasbeen found to support such bt ­lief. If he did live there in.1787 as is claimed by the his ­torians, and then left it, itwasthrough fear of prowling indi­ans who were seen about thesettlement as late as 1795.

444024 Y‘ E/' =

/2911

. PART I1 '53. perhaps made the same errorThe Richard Johnson tract ‘°’ ‘“ W5‘ 3 “°:“’ Y°*'*!’5.“°

embraced all the land sur-’ had’ by purchasing adJ°im"girounding the mouth ofCharles l8°dS' 5° extemed his b°”“d‘Run and for some distance up ‘"3’ [0 embrace over a th°”‘and down Big skin Creek sand acres, more than doublevalley. It was a choice tract the acreage °f me ‘mgmaland by many was considered: Richard Johnson patent. Inthe most desirable in the en-I 1882' John J‘ w‘lrd' Whome“tire valley. Before the wide' owned and occulned me farm"bottoms were cleared’ ponds became so heavily involved inand Swamns were numerous debt that ‘the land was sold tobut ditching, tilling and filling Satlsfy “*5 °’ed"°’5 3”“ A­has rendered these lands the gdr(g1c;‘;l:d?tnd W‘ R‘ Jewellmost fertile to be found in the‘ ‘county. The farmwas toolarge ' Gould razed the old John"to Show any great impmVe_ son residence which was a- - large hewn log structure and$3?‘ algidtg%v}:j“e§_'7‘?_e0v%f:33 upon the old foundation erectedsucceeded Johns i W _ a modern residence nowship in 1854 “Q3113: pigs owned and occupied by_W.T.for rapid development. He Jones. The Jewell residencemade use of slave labor sup. occupied the site of the tobac­plied by his 1-athe1._m_1aw’ co warehouse and factory op­Captain William R. Roach, who erated ,by David 5- I-«CW9Untilperhaps exacted only a 1-nin_ beginningOfthe War.imum wage for the slaves_ It is interesting to know thatLowe was 3 man of big ideas a sufficient amount of framingand was not lacking in energy timbers and lumber was sal­to develop them. He planted a Vaged fmm the 91d 1053000large acreage in apples and faCtOI'y 3. barn thepeaches which he planned to 5?me “OW”‘ U59 by the 1'08d­ma iBto app1e_jaCksideoppositetheJewelldwell­and peach brandy.He had from mg‘ The bmag yellow poplarthe first kept a man employed plank °°I.np°s.mg the hull °fdistilling corn and rye liquor. the building. 15 a pr.°d”°t‘ °fHe raised tobacco in great the old Alkire sawmill of thequantities, built a three story pioneer perpendicular pat"warehouse in which to storeit tern run by water powei"and manufactured some of it These planks. “Ye” sawed 1“into plug. The remaindei‘ was the early nmes and havepacked in hogsheads and therefore weathered thehauled overland to Richmond Storms 9f over 70 yegrs andover. the newly constructed given evidence of lasting outsummon and parkersburg a full century of service withturnpike; “But the Civil War “"9” 3 d"°P °‘ Palm­came .on and Mr. Lowe like Richard Johnson died nearmany "others found his busi­ness ruined. closely followed by his wife

John J. Ward was the next and they were both buried inowner of this finefarm who the family burial plot on the.brought financial disaster crest of the hill east from theupon himself by a too liberal residence 01' -W. T. Jones.purchase of adjoining lands. His Wife WES. before herA. G. Gould,_his successor, marriage, Ij1iz_a_bgtliBennett,

93'‘?

the close of the year 1853 ­

fit!‘a member” f the pron—ii'nentfamily of B nnetts who madesettlement near Walkersvilleabout the year 1800.

Some few yearsyafter set­tlement had been made by

John I-iardma atHthe mgutho urtis Run: enr uttlocated on land since knownas the Corathers farm.

He is thought to be thesecond oldest settler onLittleSkin Creek and his patentincluded all or nearly all ofBlacklick Run and extendeddown the creek to the Hard-'man tract embracing severalhundred acres. In 1826he soldthe south portion of this tractincluding his improvements toCol. John Corathers anderected a residence on thenorth portion at the mouth ofBlacklick Run. Tradition saysthat Richard Johnson oncelived on the Corathers farmeven before the entrance ofHenry Butt. There is some‘support to this claim becauseas late as 1853 Richard John­son and wife Elizabeth con­veyed to Col. John Corathersa small strip of land adjoin­ing the Corathers tract towestward near the head ofHall's Run.

Henr Butt was the ances­tral head of all the familiesby that name living in thedistrict.

born andmLmura' se near Georgetown and aresident in the communityun­til after the close of the CivilWar but who is now a residentof Tacoma, Washington, in his90th year, gives the followinginformation relative to thefamily of Henry Butt: “HenrButt had ‘five sons whosenames were John, Adam Job

{$1 _and Jafb, and 1'mini’:a so one by the name ofHenr .utfils_I don‘t know anything abo

girls if he had any at all.Prior to their removal from

Lewis County they all spelledtheir ' name “Butt" or"Butte." They all went toIowa accept ‘Jacob who thenchanged the spelling of hisname to "Butt” and all ofhis descendants continued tospell theirs that way. Theones who went west and theirdescendants so far asis knowncontinued to spell their names“Butt."- The John Butt named above

arried a daughter of LouisB nnett and crossed the plains_to OregonTerritory from Iowain 1845 in the same emigranttrain that my uncle, Henry J:Peterson was in. John Butt’swife died before‘ the trainreached Oregon. He lived inWashington County, Oregon,and presumably has been deadmany years. His nephew,JohnJ. Butt, son of Jacob Eff,came to Kittitas County in1885 where I was then livingand where he continued toliveuntil he died some years ago.\ ouis Bgnnett althoughre­Eafiaed as one of the pioneersettlers on Little Skin Creekdid not come into the com­munity as early as maintainedby some. The records showthat one, Louis Bennett andMary, his wife, conveyed toGeorge Bush in 1819 a saw­mill and gristmill on Stone­coal _including three acres ofland for $500.00. We also findthat in l822 he exchanged 96acres on Stonecoal lying ad­jacent to lands ofGeorge Bushand Benjamin Taylor, tolacobBennett for 176 acres on Lit­‘ e in Creek; considerationin both transfers $860.00 GIN‘;at; even exchange. The JaBennett and wife Rachael.men­ione .ere in this”t?ansac>

tion and the Jacob Bennett whosettled on Leamerback Run in1800, and a memberuof theprominent family of Bennetts

.0‘.-.

who came into Collins Sottle­ment that year, is evid ntlyone and the same per n.There was no other JacobBennett in the country at that

me. e same is true inregard to Louis B? andwife, Mary. It is also knownthat a man by’ the name of

. Bennett lived on the LouisBennetf farm prior 'to thetime the latter took up his'residence there as a lone"grave, that of an infant, longknown to be one of the Ben­nett children, mute evidenceof the fact, exists on an ele­vated plot ofgroundinthe open.pasture just above the house."

Louis Bennett dug the wellwhere e ived on Little SkinCreek, which is very deep andwalled it up with flag rock.This same well furnishes wa­ter today to the inhabitantsof the place in abundance andits waters are just as cool­ing to thirst perhaps as theywere over one hundred yearsago.

Louis Bennett was born in1762 and could not have beenunder 58 years of age whenhecame to Little Skin Creek.He was a soldier during the ‘last four years of the Rev­olutionary War for whichservice he was granted apension and which proved tobe an unhappy incident forhim. The en came fromHardy County to the Hacker'sCreek settlement some timeprior to the beginning of theRevolutionary War, and oldermembers of the family werewith Eblnezer Zane at Fort

Wheeling in 1770 when zhehgjwfort was established and sub- ’sequently at intervals other

LucullusV.McWh0I‘leI‘-The‘B_¢_yg_r_i_¢Lttswillbemorefully

v "PV’3--r1?ni'i''l\i'

;dianfightersthereaderis

referredto“BorderSettlers.-JNv"‘I"‘~

Nti

. )1/‘S!’ ‘ ’

members of the faimly at this , “lufffrontier post until the finalIndian treaty of Greenvillein 1795. ' ‘ .

or a full account of theB nnetts-as pioneers and In­

w-at

PART IIIThe Marsh family came

from Culpepper County, Vir­ginia, and settled on Big SkinCreek in 1812. S enc rh/Ia)-shwas the first o)f that nameand he was 52 years old whenhe moved into the wildernesswith his family. It is highlyprobable that he brought hisfew household goods in overpack horse ' trails for atthat early date there were nowagon roads. Mutterings ofthe War of 1812 were thenrampant and many personsthought it ought to be andcould be averted. All NewEngland was against it andonly in the-south was it atall popular.

Marsh had children grownup to manhood and woman­hood when he came into thecommunity but some wereborn afterward. Whohis firstwife was is not known nor isit_known what year she died.HIS second wife was the widowof _Alexandar SinClair Wau halready the mother of sevenchildren and who also borechildren by Marsh. She was asister of John Curtis, anearlysettler on Curtis‘ Run andan aunt of Ge r W Curtis,one time member ofour coun­ty court. He had, prior to hisremoval to this community,been employed 'for years asoverseer on a large planta­tion in Culpepper County. Vir­ginia. Hiram, one ofhis eldestsons who was perhaps alreadymarried whenhis father cameto Big Skin Creek, was, ineducation, culture and refine­ment somewhat ahead of theaverage young man in thisnew pioneer settlement.

His cabin stood on thebeautiful eminence south andwest from the mouthof Raines

While living here _one ofhis sons, a stout husky boy of

iattempt to hoist upon hisshoulders a log of wood, cutready for the fireplace andwhich upon a wager he was tocarry into the house. He hadthe log upon his shoulder butsomehow slipped and fell, thelog pinning him to the hardfrozen ground. Hewas carriedinto the house where his injurywas found to be serious and hedied. He ‘was buried on thebrow of the hill east of theMain Ekin Creek Road andnorthwest some few hundredyards from_ the Round Knobschool house which was thenthe burial ground for theneighborhood. Mrs. HiramMa the unfortunate youngman's mother, is also buriedhere. Out of perhaps a dozenothers buried here in pioneerdays these are the only twowhose names are now known.Spencer Marsh the pioneer,had four other sons, namelyJohn C., Geor e l., Alexan­

_Lz', and Jonathan, two ofwhom, George I. and John C.,were lifelong residents inthe community and closelyidentified with early develop­ments. These names will bereferred to later on.

John Helmic was an earlypioneer in the Georgetownset­tlement but the date of hisentry is questionable. He ob­tained title to the land upon

ghich hef lived in 1819. Hisrst wi e was Mar R anwhom he married in 1863.He was a resident ofRandolphCounty in‘1805 whenhis oldestchild, Daniel R., was bornand Alexander was his second.These were all the childrenby his first wife. His secondwife was Mary Ann Hacker, adaughter of John Hacker, the

Runnowoccupiedbythemod-first settle er's

ern residence of Bonce\Creek, anila sister to the.1-_*aa2L- ix“ °J“)\xs&»A“T"vN,W)}'°i“'<\a,<\N»;'9 0 ‘ l‘\o 9» 3*‘ 490

first wife of Henr Hardmanof Stonecoal. There is reasonto believe that John Helmichad removed from RandolphCounty to the settlement onHacker’s Creek not later than­1808 where soon afterwardhis first wife died and in duetime he was married to MaryAnn Hack r. The ten yearss marriagemayhave been spent in theHacker’s Creek region or onLittle Skin Creek. It was veryoften the case that actual set­tlement upon land in pioneerdays was made long beforethe title was obtained. JohnHelmic had nine children by‘his second wife as follows: _John, Jacob, Ira," David, Jo- '_anna, Hannah, Margaret ahdBarbara. Daniel RyanHe1mic, ­the eldest, was for some years,a school teacher: later hebecame a prominent ministerin the Methodist Protestantchurch in which service hecontinued until the infirma­tion incident to old age ren­dered him inactive. He diedin Palatine, _Fairmont in 1886, at the ad-‘vanced age of 81.

, ,-..-_~_._..-v;;v_;.-_-:r..'_.-_.r.-- >__..t...- '_.__ ~-' _ -1.7....’~__ :_ ­

now a part of '

reared his family of elevenchildren. He was buried on alevel plot of ground some twohundred yards north of thepresent school building nowgrown up in second growthtimber but which was then theburial ground for the neigh­borhood. Two half grown sonsof Rev. John Hardman werealso burie ere. ere area ' few other graves here butthe names of those whooccupythem are no longer knownforthey are already a centuryold, and large oaks have grownup from the mound of some.

Alexander S. Helmic, thestfimtfson, was also a teach­er in the schools aboutGeorgetown andelsewhere andlater entered the VirginiaState University, completingacourse of studies. He then en­tered a medical college wherehe graduated, after which he

. sought a suitable location ineastern Virginia and settledin the practice of his chosenprofession. He later marriedinto a prominent Virginia fam­lly and his wife having in­herited a number of slaves,he went to Louisiana andbought a sugar plantationandbecame prosperous. pioneerdwe ing stood near the pres­ent location of the George­town schoolhouse and there he

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[9

PART IV

‘Felix Albert was one of theearly residents in the com­munity but what year he cameis not now known. His wifewas Abi ' , daugh­tervof William and Mary Ben­LmL£gin 1810, died near Hacker'sValley in 1862. Their firstchild, Mary C. Albert, wasborn in 1842; Rebecca A. A1­bert in 1845, and the third andlast., wasbornin 1847. The last named wasa regular itinerant ministerin the United Brethern churchfor many years, and at lastaccount (1927) was superan-­nuated, and living in Elkins,West Virginia. The late DavidH. H who was a nephewof Felix Albert says that hewas a soldier in the War of1812. If this be true, he couldnot have been under 47 yearsof age when he married, as­suming that his first child wasborn the following year there­after. In 1835 he was livingupon and owned the farm knownin later years as the MarshalClark homestead but sold ittfiarsame year tohis brother­in-law, George W. Harris. Hethen bought a farm on BigSkin Creek and moved upon itand after some years’ resi­dence sold again to George

; whorearedhisamily there. The propertyoriginally belonged to theRichard Johnson tract andwasalso at one time owned andoccupied by Ira Smith, Thepresent owner and occupantis_Levi ll

__g1;les&t_ was one ofthe early settlers of Big SkinCreek. He was a son of Alex­ander West and a grandson‘ West whocamefro ounty ontheeastern shore of Virginia andsettled near Jane Lew in 1772..

Little Betty West, .his aunt,­married 391171Reger, the bigstrong and gallant fellow who,_historians tell us, walkedfromhis home in below Buckhan­non through the unbroken for­est to Winchester, Virginia,and back to purchase calicoto make his intended bridean enviable bridal costume.

Charles West-‘slocation wasa short half mile up from themouth of Hughes Fork.Tradi­tion says that he settled uponand. attempted to hold thetomahawk claim made by hisfather, Alexander West, yearsbefore. nt 15e ortitseerns,he was not successful, as therecords show that in 1818 heobtained a deed to 150 acreson Big Skin'Creek from Dan­iel Stringer, the County Clerk

that time, and the con­

\

atsideration was $300.00. Alsothat same year _AlexanderWest his father, obtained adeed for 440 aces on Big SkinCreekfromgflfor the sum of $550.00. Itis assumed that the addition­al purchase ofAlexander Westwas made for the ultimatebenefit of his son Charles,the total boundary falling justa little short of 600 acreswhich would embrace the ma­jor portion of the land lyingon Hughe's Fork. But thereare reasons for believing thatCharles West had establisheda residence upon this landsome years prior to the dateindicated by his deed. He wasmarried to May McLaughlinabout the year , an tis believed that he came toBig Skin Creek that year. Hewas not likely to waste anyenergy in makinga homeelse­where when plans had doubt­less been made long befbrehis marriage that this oldtomahawk claim was to behis portion of his father'sestate. Charles West had a

9 9

large family of children aboutequally divided —- boys andgirls, One daughter becamethe wife of Henr D. Hard­man, one the wife of ____h-_

_t_i_n4a Protestant minister,one the wife of James Mor­rison and a fourth the wife ofMarshal Clark. James mar­rie r stine Allen, andJohnandSterSfifi§daug ters of Noah Hyrehgi;mund Alexander, Betty andMalinda were never marriedand Became bachelors andbachelor maids, respectively.Edmund was brutally mur­dered by Exra Ours in 1870for hordes of gold and silverhe was believed to have hid­den somewhere about hisbachelor premises. Aboutfouryears later John West andhis son, Ed. Jr., were shotand killed on Stonecoal nearthe Hopewell church by DickE93121; , ,.,­

David’West inheritedfor hisportion of the Charles West_estate, lands embracing theoriginal homestead and nowthe property of one of hissons. The descendants ofCharles West became theleading citizens of Skin Creekcommunity.

For a full account of the“West Massac“e” by the in­dians read “Border Settlers ofNorthwestern .Virginia” byLucullus V. McWhorter and“History of Lewis County” byEdward C. Smith. These twobooks should Be in every homein the county. It mightbewell to add that there weretwo Charles . Wests. Alexan­

had a brotherder West._ harles after whom the

H____.J5l.es1G“31’1*3Swho settled onughes Fork was named.

PART VIn 1818 P. McNemar bought

182 acres for $400.00 offDaniel Stringer upon whichthe village of Georgetown wasafterward built. This wasevi­

dentlyP}imgr as‘he was t e on y one by thatname in the county. At thisdate he was known to havebeen living on his farm ly­ing north of the present vil­lage of Gaston and his dwell­ing stood on the north of thepike close the bridge. It isknown also that he bought atract ofland adjoiningHenryHardman on the west in 1821near the forks of Stonecoalwhich he occupied soon af­terward and where he con­tinued to live until about theyear 1844 when he moved toLittle Skin Creek onto theproperty purchased in 1818.It is said that he built thelog dwelling now standing inthe meadow bottom on Stone­call near the mouth of Till­man Run nearby which dwell­ing there is a pine tree. Butin the 26 years’ interval be­tween the time of purchase ofthe Georgetown property andthe time he became a resi­dent upon it, it is not knownthat he retained ownershipwhich fact could be ascer­tained only bya careful searchof the county records whichis immaterial. It is known,however, that Henry Peter­1911.was,liv eGeorgetown property in 1840when he left the communitywith his family for the un­known regions of the west.

William Penni ar was alsoonce a resident of the George­town property and he tootrekked west in 1845. Hedied,however, on the‘trai1 some­where in southern Indiana andhis widoaL.and_tiao_hoys.cameback to Stonecoal near Gastonwhere she married again and

was knownin the early eightiesas Eatti Davis. The PhilipMcNemar farm at George­town was sold by him in 1854and although owned and oc­cupied by various partiessince, ultimately became theproperty of Levi Clark andis at present the Home ofhis two spinster daughters.Philip McNemar was ofScotch-Irisfi descent andcame to Virginia with hisparents when he was threeyears old. His father wasnamed Philip and kept aroadhouse or inn a half day'sjourney from Monticello andthe distinguished Thomas Jef­ferson always stopped at theinn for his noonday meal onhis road to the Capital whichperhaps at that time was atNew York and young Philiwas then ten years of age.Philip McNemar, the elder,later moved with his familyto Hardy County known thenas “1{nobly."

It is not known what yearthe McNe 5 came to the'Hac k andStonecoalsettlement. Some of the malemembers of the family re­mained in Hardy Countywheretheir descendants may befound today. , ,

Philip McNemar, the sub­jec o 5 etc was mar­riedto in1806.The following are the namesof his children: William,Mar , Mar aret, Joseph,P'h‘ifi,p John and Isaac, andall but two became residentsof the Skin Creek community.His second wife was BettyMeans and the following aretheir children: _S_a,11i,_e.E41:cy, and Julia. His first wifewas buried inthe familyburialground above the home on aflat overlooking the presentvillage of Gaston; the secondwife who died in 1844 wasburied in the Georgetown

WM? 2Cofl//J

cemetery where Philip.him­self was buried in 1856.

William Peterson in l824acquired a oun ary of landon the head of Hughes Fork ofBig SkinCreek andestablisheda residence thereon that sameyear. .

The land was a part of an\ old patent known as the Ben­

to net; survey, and as William

For a fuller account of_VLil_—liam Peterson and family thereader is cited to the pagesof the Peterson Family His­tory compiled largely by Wil­‘liam Henry Peterson_aWedited y one 0 e c an in1924. Copies of this book maybe purchased from _EarnestQ,Sgtlrin the office of the Cir­cuit Clerk. »’

Isaac Caste located on thee of HughesForkclosely following the settle­ment of William Petersonjustbelowo am.His wife's maiden name was

Peterson'swifewasformerlyE3_§_ andSheW35Mary Bgnnett, a sister toWilliam Bennett who settlednear Walkersville in 1800,thetransfer of ownership to Pe­terson is the culmination ofthat sequence. WilliamPeter­S/QB‘ moved directly fromStonecoal, where he settledin 1801 and where all histhirteen children were bornand reared. He was one of theleading citizens of his day,filling various county officesand died in 1837 shortly afterthe close of his term of of­fice as sheriff. .

He had for his deputiesJgmesthree nephews, David,

®and Jonathan M. M.’Bennettthe latter ol whom becameone of the most prominentmen in the State serving a termas State Auditor as well asvarious other offices of trustfrom time to time.

His‘ wife died in 1833 andthey both lie side by side inthe Vandalia cemetery. TheDavid H. Harri farm . onHughes Fork is a part ofthe William Peterson tractand the latter’s dwellingstoodon the identical spot now oc­cupied by the modern dwell­ing of the David H, Harrisheirs, present owners andoc­cupants.

a sister to Phillip M.Lin er'swife who settled at the headof Little Skin Creek about thesame time. Asall Caste one_of

_his sons, married a daughterof Arron D. Peterson andshortly afterward located onthe head of Wheeler Fork ofBig Skin Creek. ‘ ‘

Mary J, Caste, a daughter,became the wife of_John L.Queen who was a doctor, andthey inherited the Isaac Castehomestead which'they later"sold to a Mr. Dix and movedto Flatwoods, Braxton County.’

Another daughter of Isaac_Caste married Chris Yoke,a brother of S. C. Yoke, onetime assessor of LewisCounty.

The Isaac Caste homesteadis now grace y a splendidmodern dwelling and for al­most a half century has beenthe home and property ofP. F.Linger. Some few years agowhile plowing the garden theplowshare unearthed a mag­nificent lot of the most beau­tiful amber colored Indianar­rowheads and spurheads per-,haps ever found in a singlecache in the community. Theplace was evidently once 'afavorite Indian campingground as a never—fai1ingspring is close by on theI'Y‘l'fT|l!~'.i'H.

.' 9

Phineas Chidister, f8tl'l€l;0fthe Hon. W._V' ' ' r, wasa longtime resident onHughesFork and where nearly all hischildren were born andreared. His farm was the Vill­liam Peterson property and"

is residence dates from 1837,the year Peterson died, and­there he. Chidister, spent theremaining years of his life.His wife before her marriagewas _Susan Vincent. Therewere several children whoevidently married and left thecommunity. W. V. Chidistermarried Polly Linger, adaughter of Phillip .Linger,and their c ildren of whomthere were many nearly alllived to maturity and becamein turn heads of families.

The descendants of'PhineasChidister were prominent inall the affairs of the com­munity. _W.V. Chidister wasin early mafihood a Captain inthe militia, later a merchant,a justice of the peace, a post­master, member of the countycourt, a surveyor, and waselected to represent his dis­trict in the Legislature whichconvened in 1873. Granville M.Chidister a grandson of theelder Chidister, became aprominent lawyer at the Wes­tonbaranda brother, besides serving aterm in the State Legislatureis the present sheriff of Lew­is County and all three, fa­titer and two sons, were onceteachers in the public schools.

Peter Bonnett was a broth­er of Eouis Bonnett and bothwere soldiers in the Revo­lutionary War from 1779 to‘1783, according to sworn ’\statement made by them whenthey jointly applied for pen­sions in 1833. ‘

_Peter was born in HardyCounty- in 1764. He was per­haps married in 1805. Hiseldest child was born in 1806 .and Peter was then 42 yearsold. When we recall the-fact 'that youthfulmarriages in pio­neers days was a commonpractice indulged at a moretender age even than now, we:are led to wonder why PeterBonnett deferred marriagesuntil past middle age. Hemarried,daughter 0 ic olas and Mar-­garet MCN ' , and itis not likely that she was over25 years of age at the time ofher marriage to Bonnett, as‘their last child was born in1830. Peter Bonnett wastherefore his wiIe’s senior by ‘at least fifteen years, aratheruncommon thing in pioneerlife.‘The country was infested’by Indians for twelve years’following the close of the Rev­olution. The massacre of theBozarth family near Buck­fiannon occurred in 1795closely followed by the finaltreaty with all the Indiansthat same year.

The Revolution caused thepostponement of many mar­riages and some were post­poned indefinitely; but the con­stant dread of an attack byIndians rather acceleratedthem. A father with a housefull of children, with somealready arrived to marriage­able age rarely bulked at anaddition to his family in theperson of a son-in-law whensuch an addition meant great­er protection for his family,and less responsibility forhimself. The main questionfor solution was the worthi­ness of the young man forhis daughter's hand.

'0

NJ‘

PART VI

. AclefitThe Bonnetts were utchand their forebears were Hol­landers. But the name ispurely French. It is quite pos­sible that the Bonnetts wereoriginally Frenc ut ecauseof religious wars that ragedthere for over a hundredyearsmany sought an asylumin Hol­land the first country in con­tinental Europe to tolerateProtestantism. The Bonnetts

"were Protestants and fromtheir first inception into theHacker's Creek colony took alehding part in religious wor­ship.

Peter Bonnett perhaps set­tleElon Big Skin Creek closelyfollowing the date of hismarriage in 1805. His set­tlement was at least prior to1816 for in this year LewisCounty was separated fromHarrison and no record hasbeen found of any patent is­sued to him since that date.We are therefore, to con­clude that his patent existsin the Harrison County rec­ords. The same is true in allother similar cases. PeterBonnett’s dwelling stoodwhere Mrs. 01' tnowlives and the present logstructure was perhaps builtby him. It is positively knownthat he did build that part ofit which was torn down someyears ago. His farm extendedsouthward and may have in­cluded all or nearly all of theland lying on the small streamcoming in from the south.The meadow lying east of thecreek did not then belong tothe Peter Bonnett tract.

Peter Bonnett had elevenchildren whose names are asfollows: Mar P 1 ,Sarah,Margaret, Nicholas, Samuel,"Elizabeth, eter, William,Matilda, Catherine an avi ._.___ ,_,__

O

,.<’

")~LLI.\{The eldest was born in 1806; declared by" a prominent de­the youngest in 1830. His wife scendant of the family to bedied sometime between 1830 an error. The mystery per‘­ehd 1335- ' haps lies in the possibility of

In 1835 he 501d his farm two Nicholas Alkires."and all his livestock and farm The Bonnettbrothers shon1dUtensils he did?” Went except not have gone west when theytwo horses andawagon.Load- did; they were too ojd to be.ihg UP With 3 few heuseheld come pioneers in a new coun­800135find some farm t001s he try nor was it necessary hadleftfor Iowa territory in the they only known it as wassame Wagon train With his subsequently proved. Thecir­hfethel‘ L0‘-lis ehd famili’ ehd cumstance under which theyHenry EU“ and femhy end left the community wassome­Oihers 801118West at that t1fDe- what pathetic. To briefly stateThe oldest members of his the case ‘they’ had" in 1833family some of whom were made application for pen.already merried- remained sions for services as soldiersbehind: 8180 the W0 Yeuhgest and spies during the Revolu­aged 5 ahd 7 “me were left tionary War from 1779 towith relatives. All the mem- 1783_ They stated on oathbers of Louis Bennett's fam- before a‘ justice of the peaceily left the country with their that they were born in Hardyparents except those whowere county in 1762 and 1762 re­married. About half of both spec[1ve]y_ e one was 69families were left in the com­munity. Peter BOUHGUL age_ The pensions were a].On the trail Somewhere in lowed and they had receivedsouthern Illinois and lji;:h- some payments, A party who°_1§__s_his50h» then 22 Years Of subsequently was proven aage assumed C°htr°1ehdt1'3i1' notorious libeler and was runed the family on into Iowa out of the country went be­territory. Louis Bennett also fore a justice and made oathdied tW° Years after Iehaihg in that the Bonnetts had swornIowa and his widow shortly fa15e1y_ Their pensions,afterward returned to West therefor-e_ were revoked andVirginia where tradition says they were about to be or.she ageih married but the rested. They, like many oftheParty she married is in dis‘ pioneer settlers couldneitherPUte- read nor write andgouldhard­

He!‘ hePheW. 13-F. Linger. ly be responsible fort echir­nowan octogenarian, affirms, ogrephy of their sworn state­that she married NicholasAl­

and the other was 71 years of .

kire; and that she Brought Backfrom the west two grandchil­dren, Mar M as, and B_e_n;to s. He further statesthat Benton eventuallymarried Ruhama Lin er, _,——zdaughter of William (FilingBill) Linger moved to RggneCounty, and in course of timew'aEelected sheriff. The claimthat Louis Bonnett’s widowmarried Nicholas Alkire is

O

merits. Had they -stood trialthe case would have beencleared and their pensionsre-'instated. Even such sterling ,men as Colonel William Low­therw ­cure a pension or obtain bountylands although he made stren­uous efforts to do so. Manyworthy soldiers were deniedpensions and many were re­voked on trivial charges thathad been allowed. But the Fed­

flvv

ulufz 0>L7L­eral Government was not to he moved back by way oxblame; it was the jealous and-prejudiced citizenry. Pen­sioning soldiers was then abeneficence only in its in­fancy not clearly understoodnor judiciously applied, andanimosities over it were eas­ily provoked. The instance 0‘the Bonnett brothers was nexception and numerous sol­diers shared the same fate.

(It seems only as the bitteirony of fate that two sturdpioneersasthehers were denied the enjoyment of the fruits of their toiand labor in their efforts testablish law and order forwhich they had so often riskedboth life and limb, and after

French Creek onto the headof Big Skin Creek as alreadystated and blazed the firstwagon road over the divide.In 1834 he again sold andmoved over on Little SkinCreek. His father, William

‘Peterson, was in the mean­time living on Hughes Fork.

Henry Hammer became theowner of fhe William B. Pet­ersonfarmwwas occupied by the Har ers.Hanner’s wife was before hermarriage, Kate Wheelerdaughter of Jacob Wheeler wholived just ahove on WheelerFork. Leonard Hyge a long­time resident on Big SkinCreek also married a daugh­

havinga brother.,andsister]terof. ­with her three infant childrensT5in by savages in the early‘ln‘cli?a‘rTTv'ar§.

"Jac‘c'ib"Wheelerwas the firstto locate on Wheeler Fork andfrom whom the stream wasnamed. The date of his entrycannot here be stated but ap­proximately was about theyear 1827. Verylittle has beenlearned about him. His daugh­ter Elizabeth taught schoolabout the close of the CivilWar in a cabin which stoodnear the present location ofthe White schoolhouse known,then as Wildcat School. Short­'ly after the Civil War the ca­bin was replaced by abuildingconstructed of sawed lumberand painted white which wasthe first and onlyone for someyears so treated; hence thename, “White."

In 1824 William B. Peter­son located on Wheeler Forkjust below the location of

‘Wheeler, made some three‘years later. Petersonhad for­merly lived on StonecoalCreek and sold it and movedto what is now Upshur Coun­ty. Notliking his location there

0 O

Henr Hardman, sonofRev.Jolfi Hardman, who settlednear the mouth of Curtis Runon Little Skin Creek, locatedhis farm on Big Skin Creekjust above the present loca­tion of the White schoolhouseabout the year 1825.

His wife was Mary Westdaughter of Charles West {hefirst settler on Hughes Fork.

He is said to have taughtthe first subscription schoolon Big Skin Creek in 1822.He had three children, Eliza­beth, Matilda and Marcellus.Elizabeth married 3Mr. Grib­ble and lived near Lost Creeh;

"Matildamarried Martin Hgewhodiedshortlya tert ebirof his first child namedCharles‘ Marcellus marriedMahala Hyre and located justabove on t e creek where he‘lived and died and where hisson Lee now lives.r locatedon Big Skin Cree about theyear 18-——-on lands adjoin­ing Dayid Hall and his dwell­ing stood as it also standstoday on an elevated plot ofground just south from thepresent village of Vandalia.

' “ll:/~x‘ti £"‘:"‘.::;';+:‘.;.‘vv’-"I4%‘..‘§:7f:t..::.r..°e “ma. r

pa/er _zz_7‘

CDWKJ

He built a mill on'the'.crcek‘close by which ground corn.only; “later it was equippedto grind wheat and‘a'sash­saw was installed.-"By"-1850_this was a very -busy ‘mill.

His first‘ wife’ was ,who bore. him.no‘-children;his second wife was the widowof Ezekiel Peterson with two.

c en and whose

gong, a member ofminent family by. that namein eastern Virginia. By thisunion three ~childreu' wereborn, John, Nicholas D._andMar ‘

John married a Miss Criteswho was a sister 0. he wi eof Jacob Forinash Sr." Heloca dfromhis father's estate and reareda large family of, boys andgirls who married and-livedabout the neighborhood. ~ .

Nicholas‘ D. married. !J..'-"

tilda BraEishaw-and he?-‘fierited tfie Nicholas B. L n‘:

t:_e_i_'homestea and reare aarge family also. He con­tinued to operate‘ the millestablished-by his father andfound time to direct the af­fairs incident to the develop­ment of his farm. Heacquireda considerable boundryof landon Raines Run and some nearFlatwoods, Braxton Countyand was, _at the time'of hisdeath in 1876 one_of the,mostprosperous farmers on Big‘Skin Creek. Sometime afterthe close of .the Civil War hesold the mill to which the newproprietors in about the year1870 attached steam power.Nicholas D, Linger diedrin576 aged 56. His widow shr­

vived him 37 years and ,LJE.\jin 1913aged 79. '

«Is

the .pro -­

/’/‘f7\’7" ZLLL/My. ...‘. .

/X I 773'4.

;=*',PAnT.- '”..’’.j'-.'‘--,.+1«James-“Rains ._in‘lS23‘ob'-Vtaffied aputcnt to 699acres on‘BigSkin Creek adioining lands;of Josephiiall for $700.00. Up-,on‘actualsurvey the boundarywas lfound to contain a muchgreater--'-acreage; The tract"embraced 'nearlygall the landabout thetmouth of Rains Runwhich stream-was namedafter'the"owner.’of the boundary.‘ He"built -:his dwelling‘ east from"the3'mouth"‘off'the stream onga «igentle rise'.of.'ground atfthe,verge -'of -the hill and the pub-_Elic‘roadltrails over the old,1oundation...The cavity of the’cellar‘ is yet plainly seen atthe uppervsideof the road._Rains’ wife was the daughter.of William Clark, then a res­identoi Sfonecoal, above thepresent village of Homer, and.a sister to John and Robert;Clark. who about the same,time or'soon thereafter es-­tablished themselves inhomes ­

‘on Little Skin Creek. Afamilyby the name of Rains was about

"this same time livingonLittle.'Skin Creek above the presentvillage of Georgetown. Hishouse stood _in -the meadowbottom south of ‘the road andthe old house-site is in plain.view of the" residence of thelate John W. Harris. ,_It isthe supposition now that thisman Rains wasthe fatherof.Jam'e‘?Riffis, -who located on

ig -ree nearthemouthof Rains Run.-Thishsuppositionis ‘based largely. on the fact,_that Robert Clark married asister :to. ames‘»,Rains. TheRains left.‘the community .long_before ' the ‘ECivil ;._War;.n_Thetradition .is ‘that’ they.,-came.from New York state,-and thattheyi went »back there. . it was?while[administering to the sickin the home;.of ' James . Rains‘thatMrs..WillPeterson metdeat . e.ie tthe Rains’ home late in the

‘evening; interiding’to”p‘ass the‘tight with her ‘sister, ‘$5.Richard Johnson, who lived a.

"mif mile downthe creck.'Butfshe never arrived ,'Lh.9!’B.Shewas found the next day stiff‘in death and her body coveredwith - snow that ;had, fallen<iuring».'.’-"the night. .. This;happened in 1833 and the de--_ceased's home was on Hughes‘Fork of Big Skin Creek. 1 ,""-Jonathan Hall and Qayis,iiallgsons 0 Joseph Ha.ll,‘be­icame :residents of Big Skin in»1821-...=tThexlands upon .which-they settled .were.patented bytheir father» sometime"priorto .1800, and .the tract is said.to embrace=.the.old tomahawk

claim of«Je'sse Hugltes: it ex­tended ’ a ong e g SkinCreek valleyior almost twomiles"‘from' a line extending‘north and -south ‘a’ short. dis­tance above the forks of theroad...at Round .Knob,—-.to asimilar line east of the pres-;'ent -village. of Vandalia;. Thetract contained ;several hun- p»dred acres and ran from hillto hill. on both sides '.0f thestream. Jonathan.l-iall’s,'res­idence _gstood opposite -thepresent ~.home ‘of ~S_ar_nueL.C..Jgnem David Hall, -his bro-'ther, built his residence ontheupper part of the'Jose h Hall.tract;-'. around w c e .-‘lage ’_of,\{andalia_was built.portion i of the -residence '_OfDavid Hall .is 'sti1l._:standing -_and after a_‘service _of<"ove'r‘a century is_—t_hehome7of _l§_e_e_Bott.’ -‘ . "L-.._ ,_. ..VQavid I-lall became a prom.‘-'

. inent citizen in the commun;._fty, giving many years.oftserv-1'fceias justice ofthe peace,;andbesides beihg a life-long mer.--.."chant. _.was, ' toward ‘the’ ‘clos,--.ting years_of_'his-li.’e, a min­iister '_in__:.;the Methodist E­piscopal ‘Church, although hag.never. tookupregular itinerant

ework-“ He..esml>lis'rst1,t1"ia.11_r§t_

,“sto'x"e'‘on’ Big’ Skin ‘Creek andavastfor years postmaster, andthe name of the office was

i.Big Skin Creek.by which name‘{it was known until about the=3/ear "1883; ‘-when the ..name.was‘changed to Vandalia. '" David-Hall married Eliz­zabethForinash a daughter ofUriah Forinasfi, "and.she was. cob Forinah"­,Sr; ‘andan auntof Jacob For­inas _ "They an-eechildren, -‘but -;'none—‘~:preached-maturity.‘ ,He"%.di'ed. in 1872‘,and his . widow .in {due time‘.rnar_ried..'~_(-Abrarn-- 1‘' (major)Reger-,*~. .who by. a previous"marriage" was: the father '.-of-«six children.-one of whomwas

Rev. " John »Reger. .who ‘lived-::;r.ddied in the town‘ of Buck-3;=h'.'.nnon;- Abram (ma1o1'.)'Reg-'=ex-.’s»-m er was, e ore- her

imarriage. - ‘.'Little"="" BegyWe" -and Alexan er es wt ere orehis unclen -.

Jonathan -Hall,‘f'brdther’ of.Da d ’---ElizabethRerer. and she-was a first

Vcousin to Abram §major)Reg-IThey ad a large family­ofchildren as followszlloseph ‘v§;uL:Eme ,'~Abr ,"EIiz'­gafith.“ az_-y,‘.Mar a,andJohn.

.. tranae,‘ who wasihe young’?­'_est." artha became: the -wifeof Emmet 0’Brian,: who oncetau 1;sc 1 scommun­;_ity; ; ‘Emery ‘married Jennie;'ReflQfl,{'—‘1‘SiSteI‘_«of:

.T1b ;,_lMalr'yJmarr1ied'- avida ot‘ an .--osep .mar ed‘Elizabeth “Arnold ~'and - lived

. near. Roanoke, wherefor many‘years he conducted Ev-‘store.,Two;or -perhaps three of’Jon­

>athan.Hal1's-sons married andlocated on.the Han tract ofland:-5' ' " 3' " ' - '2: V’r’“Shortly after.-the close of.'?.he'Civil War, the whole-“of‘,the_",]_Qsephl-Iall.: tract “had'-passed into to er hands’ and

none of the family or theirdescendants now live in mg;-_community, ’ T‘ 1- '_'-.>

The original" -Josep’hfll-lallsurvey once included all thelands lying on‘Halls Run, from

' *iwhence-t_he'stream,_toolr itsirname; and which seems to havebeen Segregated byapatentoi600 acres to H 3;the -mouth"of,Rains..Run in132.3.The Hall survey was thelargest ever madeinthecom.munm’-',§fl3_ WES"a=teacherprior to the; Civil ‘Wa‘r;"an'd

;I_9_*Iflfil£‘é‘nJ7<=]5was“a",liIe3Jongteacher nt e public schools;and some years after-‘thecmseof.-,the Civil War: served ,3_term as County-Super1mg_n_d;­iBiL£..0fthe public schools. ;-1.’E"4" In l8l8,'Alexander‘Hacker;sonofJomsettler‘ on HacEer.'s.sCreek:obtained atppatenttoja smalltract of ,.land jusyabove, the.present village _ofGeorgetownU.pon-- which he located,'.;and-his cabin stood near thepres­ent residence of the latealohn}i§LEi.$- ‘ 5 "4 ""‘

He was a brother-in-law towh9s_elocation;was only abo_ut.one half mile"down the creek..Who he marg­:ried. is. not‘ positivelygknowxij:but “itis. thought that his wife;was a Miss McNemar,ia sis.".ter' to Philli . McNemar,‘-'-who‘latera-became .a res dent»on‘the, creek". J-iacicer -hadgseyeg‘children,’ ,six. A-boys‘:and_._'o;';ei~Ei1‘_],some. of 'whom~wereyQt7-Quite .-young ‘when ta. ‘neighbor:’hadgiven the familyaismall»‘p&1l‘,.,Ofpants.‘_'I‘wo~of the boysgquarreled over; them “and.-cg-settle the _matter, Jietook‘ the‘pants and with a mighty heavélstore them asunder and.to_each_‘

~-the ‘gave a leg,.“which“_1t;ié,‘said they .wore,and‘we '3 g.’isfied;.‘.'.-.., _‘._ re‘-'a"3TL; Ln 1:.

- member o

§ ::lt“‘ls -‘icnovin‘ that. hehhad a­son named Thomas‘. born-in).1816 wvhurhad ‘a; son William

-_§L.-bo_rn'.in 184l';'.who7JTI8§I'~"was a. resident» oi. -Witchita,."Kansas."-= ~~ » .. " I .. 1"‘-".

Alexander; Hacker, ~ after?some few years’ residence onLittle Skin Creek. movedawaybut where heweut is notknownr’

John‘ Cfirtis‘lo‘<':ated"nea'rtheh s Run‘sometimebetween 1815 and 1820.-His‘iand- embraced all the bound­ary'lying on the head of thisstream. The tradition is thathe first located on Stonecoalnearfithe. present .village .ofGeston._ but: later. moved _t_q,Curtis Run, » . ’ A;.c..l-iis wile wasLa ,i\11_s._s';Q1t-I‘

and»a granddsugtert .s" that she was a sisterto Philli ‘M. ‘Linger’s wifeand Isaac Caste's ,*.v_ife..He‘‘had; several children. one of‘whom b-was-..the ' well-knownGeor e W. Cu is, who at onetime was ‘aprominent membero1'.our County’Court. A family_by the ‘name.of'Allen liven;.just ‘below the Curtis home­'stead, andMa1_'yAi11g1i,amern'- ,her. of‘this amily became the:wife of George W. ~Curtis.Christine Al1en',"‘also a

. _ amily, andasister. to the wife ot.George‘W. ‘-Curtis. -1married ‘ James".' est,-' son;--o{‘Char1es Westof Hughes Fork,‘of Big _Sk‘in_Creek. ...The Aliens formerlylived on Glady' Fork -of BigSkin Creek and were perhaps”the .first_ to"_lgcate on that;8LI'8aIIl... N

:~.Alexander Sihclair flung;‘was. a_so an earlvresidentggg.Curtis Run; He rnarriedsalliejCurtis; sister. to-John Curtis

‘aTiEi"a3‘r‘i aunt’ of - eor e_C_u,ris.‘Wau h was a“brotherof J§g9_b___a__g_.Wufi grandtatherotHon. ,1 R0 au h .. presentJudge of‘the..Upshur-RandolphCircuit ‘Court; The.”followingare" the.- names o(‘Alexa'nder

Shizigd SallieJ(Curtis§ i1J\VAaugh’sc ten: :3 _3g_1g§, ax-ibngMargaret. ' A513, S,a_m,Benton,Lorenzi-Dowand Beverl .deamoibK1emnderSinclair. Wau h,‘ '._-'fii?fia‘owmarrie genceraMarsh, him­‘self: 'a~-widower ‘and to. thisunion; some- children --wereborn; one -9! -whom,was::Ai_­exander; ' -~ ’

’.,"'I”n.’Ts4o. Alexander. Mai-sh".married. . .daughter of .Willi2'im B. and-:rT°t 13union t‘ ea c ildrenwereb°T“ .. EmilyJaneand.eR.';- V. -,«-«:5.= -(Continued Next Week)-.-Eur-‘

Part VII!Jacob Forinash, Sr., cametoabout 1825

or shortly thereafter.,He lo­cated on the east portion ofthe David Hall tract of landwhic ually bought.He was a brother-in-law ofDavid Hall and rendered val­uable service in erectingbuildings and in general farmwork, as Hall's time was tak­en up in tending his storewhich was the first and onlyone on the creek for years.The Halls andForinashes bothcame from the same commun­ity in below Buckhannon.Jmcob Forinash, Sr., marriedKat rites w 0 was a sis­ter to John Linger’s wife.She bore him two sons, Isaacand Jacob, Jr. Isaac was bornin what is now Upshur Countyin 1817 and his mother diedthere not long afterward.Jacob Forinash Sr.’s secondwifewasldaughter of illiam and Marm wF6'i>3Y'¥‘haps at the time of their daugh­ter's marriage to Forinashwere residents on HughesFork of Big Skin Creek.

To this union eight chil­dren were born as follows:Lorenzo and Elias, twins,Uliver, Wigiam, Afifigail, M§_­linda, Betsy and Jonas. Noffirzther account will be givenof the Jacob Forinash, Sr.,family except those who mar­ried and located in the com­munity as his family recordis so fully shown in the “Pe­terson Family History” com­piled by W. H. Peterson,copies of wh'fEh_may Be pu7'7chased in the office of ourCircuit Clerk., diedin18 8 and his wi ow married

C e To this un­ion only one child was bornnamed Peter, who married,

but left no issue. The MgCardles moved to Wood’Co‘LfiFy.Isaac Forinash mar­ried Millie Ann Plant and leftthe neigfiborfioa in_'l865, lo­cating in Braxton County. Ja­co rinash Jr., was mar­ried twice. First wife wasFisher, sister to LeviFisher.Elias Forinash marrie _a}­riet Smith, and located abouta‘mile above the Forinashhomestead and was a life­long resident in the commun­ity. To this union six chil­dren were born as follows:Vinton, Alice, Arga,rida, Egg,Myrtle, an—dTjy,four of whombecame prominent teachersinthe public schools. ..—'m

The children of Jacob For­inash, Jr., by his first wifewere: Emery, Sanford, David,M§;t_ha, Ma_i;ga_ret, Jane andLfiti. His second marriagewas to Polly Linger, daugh­terof ofStone­coal. To this union five chil­dren were born as follows:Frank Bert, Geor ia, FEEaTd‘T3L_o,r_a_'.‘Oft e_numerousdescendants of Jacob Forin­ash, Sr., who settled on BigCreek over 100 years ago,only two married grand­daughters remain in the com­munity.

Malinda Forinash, daughterof Jacob Forinash, Sr., mar­ried John G. Hardman, son ofRev. John. Hardman, the pi­oneer settler on Little SkinCreek, and after some yearsresidence in the community,moved to Braxton in 1866where they lived and died. '

Colonel John Jackie) Cor­athers in 1825 oug 0acres of land of Henry Button Little Skin Cree an toopossession shortly there­after. _

Colonel. John ers’parents came from Scotland

to America in 1786 and Johnwas born in 1788. He mar­ried Nancy Wilson and theywere Both Born and reared inMonongalia County near theDoddridge and Tyler Countyline. To this union six chil­dren were born as follows:Henr ,_ who married Eliza­

eth inzman; John,who mar­ried Eliza Marsh, daughterOfRa-‘G h; E1­len, who (1) married a Mr.‘Sims, (2) LemuelPeter­son; Sarah, who married I_s_QcSm'U1: Na_I1gy, who mar­

, ied Gideon Clark, and Man­y, ho married Isaac ' s­

man."“’C7)ncerning Colonel Cor­athers, W. H. Peterson whowas born near Georgetown in1836 has this to say: “Co1­onel John Corathers, oftencalled ‘Jackie’ Corathers,removed .from MorfongaliaCounty, Virginia, on the farmon Little Skin Creek uponwhich he continued to resideup to the time of his death.

‘‘In the war of 1812he com­manded a company in theAmerican army which wasstationed at Norfolk for thedefense of the coast of Vir­ginia. As the English fleetnever made an attack, he wasnever in any battle. At theclose of the war he returned.I think to _Mono_ngalia Countyand was afterward electedColonel of the Militia Reg­iment in that county; hence,his title of Colonel."

Mr. W. H. Peterson is ofthe impression that ColonelCorathers did not move toLittle Skin Creek before 1830.‘But the records show that hebought the farm in 1825, andhe must have taken possession‘closely following this date.‘

He was a good farmer andan excellent judge of cattle.­He frequently made trips

across the Kentucky border,bought cattle and leisurelydrove them through to hisfarm. When they were con­ditioned ready for the market,he drove them overland toBaltimore or to Richmond.He was somewhat eccentric,but,there was always wisdomin what he did. ­, Some amusing stories areyet bandied about the neigh­borhood concerning his ex­periences on these long andsomewhat perilous trips aftercattle. It was at a time whenbank checks were unknownandhe was therefore obliged tocarry currency insufficientamounts to make his pur­chases. To avoid robbery he.wore _ clothes abundantlypatched and when he had madea purchase of stock, he de­liberately sat down, drew‘.outa hunting knife, ripped off apatch under which there wasalways the desired amount ofbills. He once made a sharpbargain because of histramp­like appearance. One day hecame upon some men whowerechanging a bunch of cattle toanother pasture and the cattlewere in the road. Corathersoffered to buy them providedthe owner priced them right.The owner of the stock. be­iieving Corathers to bemerelya poor journeyman with littleor no money. named a lumpsum for the entire bunch. Af­ter some deliberation Cor­athers said he wouldbuythem.They all stopped and rivetedtheir eyes on the tramp whosat down by the roadside. andafter ripping offa fewpatéhes,counted out the desiredamount. The owner of thecattle then refused toclosethe deal. Corathers claimedthat he had bought the cattlefair and square and called upwitnesses to prove it. One

bystander said, "Bill, yousoldthose cattle and the man hastendered you the money. Youcan't go back on your word."‘Corathers got the cattle. Hedied in l872_, aged 84.

Aaron D. Peterson, son ofE ' r on, and grand­son of William and Mary Ben­nett P , ocatednear theland of Big SkinCreek approx­imately about the year 1836.He was born in 1814. Hemarried Lydia Tolbert andtheir first child was born in1835, and the last one wasborn in 1858. To this unioneleven children were born asfollows: David, Sar_n_uel,Catli­erine, Ila e, J9h_n, Mm,Ch_iist,‘u3a,‘Jo5,Nicholas, Ma­tilda andChimes. Forafulfiraccount 0 is family seePeterson Genealogy by W. H.Peterson. _

David was a Federal soldierin {he Civil War and servedthe entire four years. Afterhis return he married andlocated on Stonecoal about onemile out the pike fromwestonwhere he lived and died. Hemarried (1) a Miss Jackson,(2) a Miss. Post, (3) a MissCorathers. daughter of HenryCorathers.

Samuel Peterson was a Con­fede andashenever returned, the supposi­tion is that he died in theservice.

Job married Sarah VirginiaHyre and moved to Missouri.Nicholas married aMiss Hyreand for a time lived at theold homestead. He sold andbuilt a steam" flour and gristmill in ~Vandalia and finallywent to Kansas.

One of Aaron Peterson'sdaughters marr e . .Jones, one married ThomasEékes, one married Asail

Cast:, and onemarried James-. He was a teacher ‘in

0/at 7' 17/7;

don/Jearly life in the days of thesubscriptionschools and be­sides filling various officesof minor importance in thecounty, was prominent in themeasures taken to separatewestern Virginia from east­ern Virginia and was a mem­ber of the first Legislature toassemble at Wheeling. He_wasa strong Union sYmP3[h1Z91'and lamented sorely that oneof his boys enlisted as aConfederate soldier.

John D. Peterson was atea 'y—'life Inthepublic schools but later be­came a merchant in Van­dalia.

Some time about the year1878 he went to Texas andengaged in the sheepindustry.By an accidental discharge ofa rifle he was permanentlycrippled in the left arm andhand in 1882, whereupon hereturned again to his homecommunity and shortly there­after married AnnJones (Tal­bert), his boyhoodsweetheart.

«V­

Part ‘IXThere is a tradition current

throughout the neighborhoodthat a fort once existed nearthe mouth of Hughes Fork onBig Skin Creek. The tradi­tion is too strong to be re­garded as a myth. This in­formation is handed down bythe descendants of Peter Bon­nett and Alexander West,Wffise families were the firstto settle near the purportedlocation of this fort, whichmay have been nothing morethan a blockhouse. But no oneknows now who built it or whooccupied it. It was evidentlybuilt just prior to 1795 forthere would be no reason forits construction afterthat dateas the Greenville IndianTreaty of 1795 removed for­ever the probability of anyfurther invasion of the coun­try by the Indians east of theOhio River. Had it been builteven ten years prior to theIndian Treaty of 1795 therewould have been left as aresult of such occupancy ev­idences of cleared land aboutthis, blockhouse where cropshad been grown, which fact isnot coupled with the story now.

It is believed that the occu­pants of this fort or block­house, after learning of theIndian treaty moved on west­ward across the Ohio wherebetter lands under more fa­vorable terms were to behad,and yet secure from themolestation of the savages.West Virginia had in pioneertimes numerous temporaryresidents of this sort who, byreason of sickness or deathornews of Indian massacres onthe border, stopped for aseason only, after which theycontinued their journey onwestward.

HOW SKIN CREEKGOT ITS NAME

From the most reliable tra­

ditional information to begathered on the subject the twostreams now known as BigSkin Creek and Little SkinCreek were first knownas BigMuddy and Little Muddy.These were the names givenby John Hacker in 1772, thefirst white men to explore theregion and render an accountof it which historians have anyrecord. From the color of thewater in these streams thesenames seem most appropri­ate.

! The very interesting legendgiven by John Strange Hall,born and reared in the com­munity, relative to the originof the name "Skin Creek" andnow recorded in the pages ofBorder Settlers ofNorthwest­ern Virginia. is, with perhapssome slight modification,true. This narrative goes onto say that Jesse Hughes, Al­exander West and two othersforming the hunting partystaged a deerhunt on a wagerwith West and Hughes pittedagainst the other two, thatthe party killing the greatestnumber of deer in the day’shunt were to have the pelts.

Forty‘ deer were slaugh­tered in the vicinity of Van­dalia by the four in a singleday; but that the party com­posed of Hughes and West,two well seasoned and exper­ienced hunters should lose tothe other two might well bescouted. The local tradition asto —the origin of the name“Skin Creek" as obtainedfrom the oldest residents inthe community forty-fiveyears ago (1928) fail to dis­close anything at all concern­ing the abovenarrative. Theseold residents state that thenames now applied to the twostreams originated from find­ing a large number of skinsand pelts floating in the

streams. This incident wasexplained by stating that hunt­ers and trappers often re­sorted to the expedientof packing skins and peltsIinto a bale and sinking themby means of weights into adeep hole of water until suchtime when they could be con­veniently carried away to themarkets. But floating snagsof trees and limbs often torethese bales of skins from themoorings and scattered theremnants downthe stream foran incredible distance. It isnot unlikely that the fortydeer pelts taken in this fa-­mous deer hunt were tempo­rarily disposed ofin this man­ner and werelater foundfloat­ing in the stream. Hence thename, "‘Skin Creek.” Thisalleged hunting party ofHughes, West and their twocompanions occurred near theclose of the Revolutionary Wareight or ten years subsequentto the date of John Hacker'sexplorations in the same re­gion.

THE BOZARTH FAMILYIn the .Vandalia cemetery

there is an old-fashioned whitemarble tombstone of the slabpattern upon which is the fol­lowing inscription: "Mary Bo­zather, wife of JohnBozather,born 1763; age 100 years.”The uncommon age. of thisdeceased party is sufficientto attract more than a casualglance. I have perhaps gazedupon this tombstone manytimes in my life since earlyyouth; but it never took holdupon my mind until some fiveyears ago when I became cur­ious to know more about MayBozather. And this. is what Ilearned about her: That theclosing years of her life werepassed in the home of Rev.David Hall; that she was the

grandmother of Jacob Forin­ash, Sr., and Elizabeth (For­inash) Hall; that she was 10­cally referred to as “GrannyBozier," but never suspectedthat Mary Bozather and"Granny Bosier" were oneand the same person. _. I was at a loss to know howMary Bozather could be thegrandmother of Jacob Forin­ash, Sr. , and David Hall's wife.I sought the answer by-look­ing into the family history andgenealogy of the Forinashes.I found that Uriah Forinashmarried Elizabeth Bozarth,daughter of John and MaryBozarth; that the name “Bo­zarth” and "Bozather" wereone and the same, as all theother names as well as. localtraditions concerning the B0­zather family correspondedexactly with the tragic his­toric account of the Bozarthfamily on Finks Run in Up­shur County at the time ofthe last Indian raid and mas­sacre in 1795.

. So to know the history ofthe_Mary. Bozather who liesburied here in the Vandaliacemetery one has only to turnto the pages of history andread the account of the In­dian_massacre of the Bozarthfamily purported to have beenperpetrated near the site ofthe Jacob Lorentz old colo­nial homestead four mileswest of Buckhannon. '

Notice the difference in thespelling of the name, “Bo­zarth" and "Bozather.” Themonument to the grave ofMary Bozather was erectedby Elizabeth Hall, a niece,who could neither write norread writing, though perhapsshe could read print a little.She_ evidently procured theassistance of someone towrite the name she desiredCut Upon the slab and they

mgr IfC’and / ’o/

simply misspelled it. Veryfew persons-, if any, in thevicinity at the time knew the‘correct name or how to spellit. The name is undoubtedlyBozarth. ‘ _

Historians do not agree asto time nor place of this Bo­zarth massacre nor as to howmany of the family were takeninto captivity or were killed;but local tradition coincideswith the historic record ofthe event that Mary Bozatheror Bozarth together with fourof her children, two girls andtwo boys, were made cap­tives and taken beyond theOhio into the Indian country."Zed,” one of the boys, aweak minded fellow, returnedwith the rest of the familytaken captive at the time,shortly after the Indian treatywhich was effected the sameyear. “Zed Bosier," as hewas locally known, seemednever to have fully recoveredfrom the fright sustained atthe time of the massacre andfrom traditions handed downthrough the families since pi­oneer times he lived in con­stant dread of a similar In­dian attack. He seems to havehad no regular home late inlife and spent much time vis­iting about the country. Whenhis visits became tiresomeat any time, he could be eas­ily frightened out of the neigh­borhood by staging a mockIndian raid. A few initiativeIndian war whoops by boysfrom a nearby woods was allthat was necessary to, putZed to flight when he wouldexclaim, "Lord, God, the In­dians are coming," andbreaking away at full speed,never stopping until well outof the community. '

96Q Q.

Part XGeorgetown was perhaps

the center of greater activityin schools than any other pointin the county. To thisvgreatprogress in the schools dur­ing this period, the improve­ment over the old methods canbe largely ascribed to the en­ergies and the superior schol­arship of one man, AlbertJewell, from the state ofMaine, indirectly from Alba­marl County, Virginia. He wasable to teach branches oflearning which'up to thistime no teacher had attempt­ed, and in those commonlypursued he was more thor­ough. The effect was seen formany years following. HansonPeterson and W. H. Petersonwere two of his most aptpupils, both of whom becameprominent teachers in thecommunity.

Believing that the workaccomplished by“the_pioneerteacher should not be for­gotten, and that his nameshould be preserved to futuregenerations, the followingtranscript from the files ofthe venerable W. H. Peter­son of Tacoma,'Washington,now past 90, is given: "Thefollowing short sketches ofthe lives of teachers whotaught schools on Little SkinCreek between 1840 and 1860may be of interest to the res­idents of the creek, and serveto preserve their memoriesfrom being lost to futuregenerations. No doubt theyall did the best they couldconsidering the backward edu­cational conditions of thoseearly days. They have alllong since passed over the‘Great Divide’ except thewriter of this, who is stillliving in the city of Tacoma,in the state of Washingtonat the advanced age of 90(1927). ‘Jack’ Cpzad, as he

2 Q

was then called/, was one ofthe pioneer teachers of earlydays. He was very popu­lar as a teacher and taught inmany parts of LewisCounty.Not long after he completedhis last term of school onLittle Skin Creek he went toIowa, which at that time wasstill a territory. After goingthere he married and raiseda well educated and respectedfamily.

“Washington Summers wasa son of George Summers wholived on Stone Coal Creek. Inever heard of his teachingschool except the one he taughtin the Linger School house.Not long after that he took uphis residence in what is nowUpshur County, where, afterholding the office of sheriffa few terms, he was electedto the Legislature of Vir­ginia.

“Of John Johnson but littleis known. He was a middleaged man at the time he taught.He moved with his family in­to a vacant house onBlacklickRun just in time to open hisschool and soon after its closemoved to some other part ofthe country.

“Alexander S. Helmick wasa son of John Helmick, one ofthe old pioneer settlers ofLittle Skin Creek, and a halfbrother of Daniel R. Helmick,a noted Methodist pioneerpreacher of West Virginia.After he finished his last termof school he went to the east­ern part of the state and aftertaking a course in the Uni­versity, graduated from amedical school. After prac­ticing medicine a few yearshe met and married a r*~"""of Thomas H. and Willi.Boceek, two prominent men ofVirginia at that time. Not longafter his marriage he movedto the state of Louisiana and

‘ably born in the state

bought a sugar plantation nearNew Orleans and became oneof the leading planters of thatstate. His wife inheritedslaves_.. , .

"Ezra" ‘Hall "was a son of‘Jonathan Hall, one of the pio­neers of Big Skin Creek. Idon't know if he ever taughtmore than the one term ofschool or not. He afterwardmarried and reared a largefamily. He lived on a farmbelow his father's old homeon Big Skin Creek.

“Albert~ Jewell was prob­of

Maine. I think he was edu­cated in the public schools ofBangor City in that state.He afterward taught in theschools of that state. He latercame to the valley of Vir­ginia and after teaching theresome years he came to Lew­is County, West Virginia,where he taughtvery success­fully for a few years. He spent­the closing years of his lifeas a farmer in Lewis County.

"George I. Marsh, whotaught the first school evertaught in the old Mount Gileadlog church at Georgetown hadpreviously taught at otherpoints in the district. l-lewasa very. pleasant and popularman, and a regular ordainedminister and a good speaker,but never entered into exten­sive church work. He was ajustice of the peace for sev­eral years, _andassessor ofLewis Countya term or two.‘ “Hanson M. Peterson wasa son of William B. Peter­son,. one of the pioneers ofLewis County who lived on afarm near Georgetown forover twenty years. He never-mended school over twelvemonths, but he was a bornstudent and by dint of hard

vstudy, perseverance and nat­ural_ ability he succeeded in

mastering‘ without assistanceof ‘any one all the usualbranches taught in the "highschools and colleges oflthat_day.He taught his firstjschobl.when 17 years old and_1foft;r,1’i1efollowing fifteen ye‘z_a_"1‘._S';”.—px'€_>b'=ably taught more ‘,schools’onthe two Skin Creeksgthan anyother teacher of"his‘ ‘day;. inthe fall of 1868 he moved withhis family to Sullivan County,Missouri, where he resumedhis profession as a teacher.He taught almost continuallyin the public. schools of thatcounty. He was County Supt.of Schoolsfor severalterms;also was Superintendent of thecity schools of Milan for sev­eral terms. He was also pro.­fessor of mathematics inHumphreys College for sev­eral years. Although he owneda fine farm in Sullivan County,he spent nearly all his lifein educational work, only re­tiring when old age and itsfnfirmities madeit necessary.He spent the closing years ofhis life on "the farm with hisfamily. _

“Wellington V. Chidisterwas a son of Phineas W.Chidister on-Big Skin Creek.After teaching several termshe retired and entered themercantile business. In mid­_dle . life he was engaged infarming and stock raising. Inthe closing years of his lifehe again entered the mercan­tile trade. In the meantimehe served a term in the Leg­islature of West Virginia, andwas for many years a justiceof the peace, and served alsoas a member of the CountyCourt. l-le was postmaster atVandalia for many years. He_lived to a good old age and wasa useful and honored citizenof Lewis County. .

"There was a McDameronwho; taught a term of school

i

/ 00’7?l,O/on Curtis Run during the win­ter of 1851.Hellved onFrenchCreek and hadbeena success­ful teacher for a number ofyears. He afterward taught

moved to Yakima County inWashington ’I‘e,rritory.- Afterteaching a few years;in thatcounty he was elected CountySuperintendent-‘of Schools for

one other .term in the dis&c.na_-xterm °f't*w‘G.yem.s_ After

trim‘ ‘TL 1 “Lu “‘(““i’"‘¥‘"5l"*ic’l£’/{Wconlpléhing his term of office.of acob W. u son, an he

Yakima County was divided inwinter of 1,882-.Mn; Peter­

taught many successful termsafison resided in me newgcopmyof school in different partsof the district. He finally set-in‘tled on a farm near CentralStation in Doddridge County,West Virginia, where he con­tinued to live for some time,when on account of the fail­ing health of his wife he wentto Florida and bought a citrusfruit farm. After living thereseveral years. he was thrownfrom a buggy by a runawayhorse from the effects ofwhich he died. ‘

“Hiram Marsh was a son ofGeorge I. Marsh and wasraised on’Little Skin Creek.He entered the ConfederateArmy at the beginning of theCivil War and died before itsclose. He belonged to what wasknown as the Skin Creek Com­pany and was an intelligentand promising young man.”

William H. Peterson was abrother of Hanson M. Peter­son. He was 18 years old whenhe taught his first school inthe old log church at George­town in 1854, just 73 yearsago. (1927) The next winterhe taught on Lifes Run. Afterthe adoption of the free schoolsystem he taught two otherterms, one on-Sand Fork'ofWest Fork and the other onBig Skin Creek. In the springof 1866 he removed to ,Green­brier County and taught for~3years near the town ofFrank­ford. In the winter of 1863he removed to Sullivan County,Missouri. and taught in~thepublic schools of that countyfor several years. In 1879he

Q. ' on‘

61 Kittitas. . He lived n inKittitas County for over 20years. During that time he wasCounty Superintendent ofSchools for two years, CountyAuditor 6 years, Clerk of theDistrict Court 6 years, mem­ber of the State Legislaturefor two years, Postmaster atEllensburg for 4 years byappointment of PresidentCleveland.

For the benefit of his wife'shealth he changed his resi­dence to the Puget Sound sec­tion of the state in 1899. Hislwife died in 1906. l-le~ isstill living at the age of 90(1927) in the city of Tacomain the state of Washington.He is the author of a bookgiving the genea1ogy_and his­tory of the Peterson genera­tion in the U. S. just recentlypublished and now on sale inWeston.

.9<—»<’x--—

PART XI

Districting of Counties. Byan act passed by the Legis­lature in 1863 the countieswere laid off into magisterialdistricts. Nocounty couldhaveless than three nor more thanten districts. Lewis Countywas divided into five dis­

tricts designated then as tuggi­shi s. Skin Creek was orig ­% knownas Lincoln town­ship but later on ue to pol­itics the name was changedto Skin Creek.

The act- provided that thedistricts be divided as nearlyequal as possible. For somereason not clearly known,Skin Creek district failed toget her pro rate apportion­ment, and by lack of utilitydevelopment falls much belowany of the other districts inarea gid correspondingwealth, although agricultural­ly her lands are equal toany in the county if not inthe state.

If, by an act of the Legis­lature, her boundary was ex­tended toward the north andnorthwest by taking a smallstrip off of Hacker's Creekand a corner of Court Housethis predicament could beremedied and would work nohardship whatever to the twodistricts mentioned, whilejustice only would be attained.There is no reason why thechildren of Skin Creek dis­trict should be denied thebenefit of advanced schoolsenjoyed by other districts inthe county simply because thecommissioners in 1863failedto comply with the act of theLegislature to district thecounty equally. By theaccessions here proposedskinCreek district would yet befar behind the others in taxvaluation, not even up to Co ­lins Settlement district whichstands next above us now.

In 1796 the Legislature ofVirginia passed an act estab­lishing a system of public in­struction, but its provisionswere so abstruse nothingcameof it. Another attempt wasagain made in 1846, and byan amendment to this law twoyears later free schools mightbe established in the countiesdesi-ring it only. Due to thestiff provisions of it, it was.never popular and only a fewof the counties adopted it.

When West Virginia becamea separate state in 1863, theConstitution provided for asystem of public free schools;but it was not put into opera­tion actively until near theclose of the Civil War. Allthe schools prior to this actwere by subscription and fora period never extending be­yond three months.

WEST VIRGINIAWILD LIFE

All the game animals andfur bearing animals found inthe district at the presenttime together with many otherspecies not common todaywere found in great numbersby the first settlers of thecounty. The buffalo or bisonand the elk. though never nu­merous here. have becomeextinct. The bear, panther,wildcat and wolf have longago been driven out and killeduntil they exist only in thewildest parts of the state. Thepanthers and wildcats, thoughdangerous animals, seldomattacked man, but, like thewolf, were very destructive tolivestock.

The wolves ran in packsand when ravenously hungryattacked man as well as beastand many a hunter has beenobliged to take refuge in ‘atree where he remained allnight and far into the day,occasionally shooting into the

9 Q ,

pack. No sooner than one was pepper County, Virginia.shot or crippled than the wholePeek. lllelted by the Smell Ofcellent hue grew everywherefresh blood, pounced uponhim in great profusion and espe­

Wild flowers of most ex­

and devoured him, leavingcially, in the open spaces.

were very destructivethe descendants of

sheep, which at night were.berry fruited abundantly and retarded development of ourbrought in from the fields and the deer, bear, elk, opossum natural resources we wereput into secure pens close to and the fowls of the air took not able to hold all the nativethe dwelling.

Deer were numerous, manybands containing as high as tiful and wild grapes of ex­one hundred and over, and they cellent quality could he gem.were often shot from the cabin ereddoor of the early pioneer. The

milk,. infested

Beaver, ottermuskratstreams and trappers had in- raised

their early morning meal. .Nuts of all kinds were plen­

born who persisted in trekkingwest until herein recent yearssince factories have sprunginto existence fostering vari­

in ton lots if Wanted. ous other industries, furnish­pioneer could get his ing employmentto allwho seek

and living from the forest except it, at lucrative wages, West811 the that a little corn must be Virginia. in time, is destined

for bread and his to become the center of greatVaded 811 01' them Pel‘h8DS85 larder was then complete the manufacturing industries dueearly as 1750 to obtain bea- year roundver _pelts which found ready Great changes have beensale in all the frontier towns wrought slnce the first Set.Find Villages east Of the A1- tiers came to Skin Creek one1e8hehleS- C0hSe-fluentlythese hundred and twenty-nine yearsfur-bearing animals. whose ago. The Indiansinhabitedthispelts are so highly prized land unmolestedtoday, were soon decimated. ago_ one hundredThe Indians were the first there were scarceltrappers and sold their pelts families living upon the twoto white men who made year- creeks embracing this com­ly visits among them express- munity. We are led to wonderly to trade him articles which what will be the status ofthe Indian craved. These In- affairs a hundredyearshence.dian traders penetrated as And Yet We h3V9 deVe10Pedfar as the Ohio River as early slowly in comparison withas 1740 but left us no re- sections west of the OhioRiv­corded description of the var- er. Ohio was a thickl)’ Set’ious sections visited. .So faras we know, John Hacker wasthe first to explore this com­munity and give a descriptionof it in 1772. ,

The two Skin Creeks were,as a whole, not settled as earlyas many nowthink. JohnI-lard­man was the first permanentsettler -and Richard Jonsonwas the second; and neither ofthem had any neighbors forten years following. HenryButt, Peter Bonnett, LewisBonnett and Spencer Marshcame in some ten years afterHardman and Jonson. SpencerMarsh made settlement herein 1812, coming from Cul­

tled state when western Vir­ginia was yet practically anunbroken forest. Soon afterthe close of Indian hostilitiesin 1795 a great stream ofimmigrants came into westernVirginia from the east, butvery few of that vast numberstopped to consider the ter­ritory now embracing WestVirginia owing to the fact thatsupposedly better lands justacross the Ohio River couldbe had for less money andunder more favorable terms.Our state has had no greatinflux of immigrants datingfrom the first quarter centuryfollowing the close of the In­

. C

to its rich endowment of coal,oil. gas. salt. iron and some.­what yet of timber. It is al­readyindustry and coal. So what­ever good comes to our state

160 years as a whole our communityyears ago will profit by such develop­y a'dozen mem,

leading in the glass

/72*»! ' 7%: [’¢’\./’,’.’l;t

/7/,7//5;/Q,527;/ /:7 /' i’73/)0‘/Ce 4 /f.C

I 55. /1,

dian wars except those whocame intafter the developmentof our coal. oil. gas and lum­ber.

Our citizenry is thereforemothing but the bones. They.rendered so by forest fires. largely

to Here the blackberryandrasp- early pioneers. Due to the

M

....

a few decades the names ofthese pioneers who fill prac­

/’ro//7 7-/4’./:‘ /A/£5?’ //Qyézlz///LLO’/AL/5:717’ .23 /7/3

/0 (: —ff

PIONEER BURIAL GROUNDSWhen the country existed

only in the primeval forestwith a settler nestled hereand there striving to wrest aliving from the soil, anddeathstalked forth and entered thehumble cabin, the dead wereburied most frequently onsome suitable spot on thehomestead.

As the country became moresettled, the lone grave framedthe nucleus for a communityburial site, and not until thecreation ofchurches withtheiraccompanied burial ground didthese almost private grave­yards cease to be patronized.

- Nearly all of these communityand private burial groundsare unkempt and neglected.In many instances the groundsare not enclosed andlivestockmunch the grass growingthereon unmolested and maketheir bed there at night. Onlya flag rock marks the gravewith sometimes an illegibleinscription poorly executedupon it and just as often norock at all. or when foundlies upon the ground.

Great towering oaks andspreading trees of variouskinds have found rooting uponthese isolated graves; «andshould these trees be felledby storm as is likely- to oc­cur, the bones of the deadwill be laid bare. It is next‘to impossible to ascertain thenames of those who fill these‘isolated graves and only afew of them are rememberedby the oldest citizens, andwhen these pass away what­ever knowledge they possesswill be gried with them.én

ticaily nameless graves willbe forgotten entirely. Thesedead have been themakersof history however humbletheir station in life. No stu­dent of history can stand atthe graves of these neglectedones and not experience apang of sorrow. He feels thathe is one of them only a cen­tury behind. That he too, likethose before him, will passfrom life and in time, willalso be forgotten like the rest.Be friends or relatives areleft to shed the wanted tearor place _a flower upon histomb. So let them sleep; theirgift to posterity may be for­gotten by the living but theyare not forgotten by Him whogave His life to all alike andtheir resurrection will be asmomentous as any of ours.

The white marble andgranite tombstones were notavailable in the early historyof the country and the fewerected were done at greatcost and not infrequently ata sacrifice. When the Balti­more and Ohio Railroadreached Clarksburg in 1856,monuments were to be had ata trifle of the cost prior tothis -date which were broughtin overland frornWinchesterand Cumberland, along withregular merchandise. Goodswere also freighted in by wangons from Parkersburg,transported by steamboat up 'the Mississippi River and theOhio from New Orleans whichin turn received goods fromBaltimore, New‘ York andother points along the At­lantic coast and from foreignports of the world. After therailroad reached Clarksburg,

C 0

the prices of many of thearticles of commerce werecut in half and when it pene­trated as far inland as Wes­ton, Sutton and Buckhannon,they were still cheaper. Manyof the graves of the earlypioneers were unmarked, saveby the common flagstonewith no inscription, not somuch because of sheer in­difference but because thenear relatives themselveswere taken in death beforesuitable marble slabs couldbe obtained. And so, todaythe absence of a fitting mar­ble monument is an exception.The status of any communityis determined largely by itsadequate school buildings, its_brightly painted churches andwell-kept cemeteries. Theseare the unmistakable marks ofcivilization.

\

\ W. Hardman,

‘/AW?‘ ///

5e/o/ 519 /'?73PART XIII

NAMES OF PIONEER SET­TLERS PRIOR TO 1860

By W. H. PetersonList of the male heads of

families that lived on LittleSkin Creek from the time Ican first remember till 1860:Rev. John Hardman, IsaacBufcfier, Anthony Spaur, Sr.,I-lesekiah W. Spaur, AnthonyR. Spaur, Jr., John Curtis,George W. Curtis, Henry Cur­tis, William Curtis, SpencerMarsh, Alexander C. Marsh,Lemuel D. Peterson, John J.Bott, James Westfall, JacobBott, Marshall Clark, BaileyStalnaker, John Johnson, Col.John Corathers, Henry Cora­thers, John Corathers, AbelJohnson, George W. Harris,Nathaniel" ‘D.-APinckard, Wil‘5liam B. Peterson, Hanson H.Peterson, William H. Peter­son, Isaac McNemar, John.C.Westfall, John Clark, Joshua

John c emar,DanielR.Hel­mick, John R. Helmick, Jacob

Perry Hudson,_fie. - V1._&d§2n­figggmuflbeorgeI.Marsh,­

/"man,man, John G. Hardman, Sam­uel Summers, David H. Hard­

_ Albert Jewell, Isaac‘finger, George Linger, Wil­liam C. Linger, Phillip H.Linger, Granville R. Linger,Phelix Albert, Jesse L. Pet­erson, Tabitha Peterson Stan­ley, Robert H. Clark, WilliamB. Roach, Dr. J. R. Roagh,Jacob Westfall, Lewis Ben­ng,_John r.

List of the presidents ofthe Pittsburgh and WesternVirginia Conference districtfrom 1840 to 1865. Names:George Brown, Peter T. Lash­ley, John Clark, Gillis­pie, Daniel R. He1mick,——Dorsey.

Q 0

Isaac Clark,

/4. A

Some of the above name:parties held their offices forseveral terms, and it may b«the list is not complete.have heard all of them preaciinthe» rc*at Geor etown, to which alltheir circuit visits were madeit being the leading churclwhere it was easier to raisethe apportioned salary for th1Presidents.

Doctor George Brown live!in Pittsburgh, Pa., and wa:one of the most noted ministers of the Pittsburgh Conference District. He was a:educated man and an Englishman by birth, an able speakerwell adapted to thework of thpioneer ministry. He wrotwhat was said to be an interesting account of his experiences in which his traveland experiences in WesterVirginia composed a largpart. Could a copy of that olbook be found, I imaginewoulddisclose many interesting things unknown to thpresent generation. In it anecdotes about his experiencewhile traveling with Rev. JotHigh, a pioneerresideiand preacher ofLewis Count:was given. The last sermtI heard him preach wasshort time before the divisicof the Pittsburgh district atthe organization of tiWestern Virginia d_istrict.

Doctor Peter T. Lashlwas President of the Pittburgh Conference district Ia few years, and also severterms in the new distriHe was an able and eloque-preacher.

5/’: — "

fly! x_/,1 c‘o~*=7

All theother parties narnedi each’ in turn. 'th‘e*fir‘stvpasta:-:,-§~:=:fi.5fl_-..,-. , ..were Presidents of the West-’ ofthe-old church; but of tidalern Virginia‘. dlstrictq They: have no positive information­were" all good men, possess-‘ ' Grenberry A. Compton waslng the-ability necessary" to, one of theearly day pastors,flll their offlces'.Icouldtruth-~ He_wasa-~small"man andsafully write gmany words" in) ‘notedrevivalistn ,. [Q ‘ 'their ‘praise, but "the'_deslrel Eli Martin,“.wm1e'

constrains me to closer; -_ ‘ first.store in the village.. . l:'_ . ..‘ A '. .‘ . ~- ‘_" - .-Revzr John 'Walker.was£&

List -1of the? Pastors. of the pleasant J-man,"and.ioved. toChurch - from‘ ‘I840 to, 1865 tell .. good-2 jokes especially.

By W. H. Peterson -: about himself. He was a tallIt would not. be possible manjand. an-easy.~speake,§;-‘ff

for me to givethe dates and .think heonly filled the pul.-Iitimesvof‘ service of each of pitfor one year; ‘ ? -‘Qthe per.sons_named,but l.have! “John Hestor was a grate:a distlnctlremembrance’ of 'sort'_,of fellow; His sermonseach one of ‘ them"; and have were noted fox-"their quota­heard each of them preach; tions' from‘ the"Bible. I HeList: 2 -Daniel, R. .,Helmick.' seemed. to‘ have_ "memorizedGrenberry. A. Compton, Eli the Scriptur_e,;.and. could tenMartin. Joel ' Wallcer,John where all his quotations..couldHestor, William N..E.=tts,Wil.-. be found. He‘must have'pos#liam .Slsk. George —I‘.'l'-{larsh,‘sessed a‘marvelous memory.

Holland and Eli West-.' William. M.’ Betts. besides‘!fall. —.' ._ -4 _‘’,-‘:;;1_being. a good-_preacher, was

Daniel R. Helnuck, was:a noted for,his.energy and in-"son of JohnHelmic!:, apioneefi dustrious. habitsi To .him-be-4!resident. of.l..ittle Skin Creek; longs a‘ ‘large. -.part..of'.7theby his first_wifewhose maiden honor" for and_erection4of,the:name was Mary,Ryan.-lg‘re-1_new_church.‘;He-continued._asmemb_er‘that he was the pas=_.‘,rfpastor’ for ,the.. full.time:.a1­°f. Jshfi .Chu£Qh,,.1D;.L§‘§4.;,.'anc§lotted to niinisters.. i, ' '7.again.‘ 1851.-2. Each time‘ ha‘;___Wi_1l_lamSisk .' aszpastor of?resided. on his. own farm near‘ ‘the. church-—atT3xTeEt1me”,.-"fificfx;the church. He owned_thefarm‘. incline to-.,the.opinlon;..served~.at the time -he’ entered. the. again some years afterwards,;-:»ministry; ‘and probably was; ‘ George .I.,Marsh, one of.the1instrumental in ‘locating -the. pioneers_.:_of.-éllewis County";cemetery,and buildingthe first: lived on ,a :farm.-'.andtneverichurch. - —. 2 -£entered lnto.ger.eral.itineraht.

In this "he. was-=’no"doubt. work‘ asza _.minister;‘:'but. atiussisted',,by Rev.‘ Hardman,-}times officiatedas. a substi-C}who lived-on--a farm in‘the; tute for churches withoutpas-1same neighborhood. I am also! tors. He was a-good speaker;l_inclined to the opinion that I123;'ar.*.l«-.«at times.. filled .distric:.::and Rev. Samuel C_lawsonwage! _an;i county offi_ces.: ‘

1'0

«’-'_4 ’r-‘fr.’ -4

to be brief. and the- fact that. the: church,-: was lax‘-Jgaefiltytrmiici)-11they have been wellandfavor-‘ strumental-in layingioffithe‘ably "known ' by: the people townsite- of‘ Georgetown,-bandwamong‘ whom"-they‘ .Iabor,€d£ erected. and opened up-the. ‘time been"'"‘‘a"V"*mn€1‘ant3

. . =H'ol]‘an'd,~ t-\110.'.iti."

{ first-AnameT_I*am not.-sure, the:-.

.:.:::m:’:::“ed.;.g°°dchurchin-l860;1e,§,_-r_- Eli. Westfa1l'was,j..'m:c,{m-.§e:

gfthe churchgfil think”in1862‘--"J ‘in’neer resident-',‘who had at ongf

minister‘; but by;-'1geason.—o£3 °1d age had.retired';.for'.m'any

years: filled ‘the.-pulpit in. mgabsence of-‘theregula;-,_min;isterf. In after‘ years. George I ­_"Marsh generally substimt_gg§s

6 M73’ '<=;T::;-”__-'="PAnr XIV ~ .. - ,__

‘Georgetown. _up.to the time.of the Civil War. was ajthriwing‘ little;-village.-' It had achurch, a school,ablacksmithshop,‘a store; a boot and shoeshop;.- -a';‘; furniture;_. shop­equippeci .with . a..' “turningrlathe,"-' a carpenter shop, a‘tannery: a horsepower mill._for..grindlngcorn and a doc-—tor. ‘The Methodist Protes­tant. parsonage was also lo-.cated‘ there. Eli Martin con.­ducted the first storefolioweriin‘; succession: by -.Iesse—'R.West, the:-two last conducting­business under the.firm name«of_Marsh. and1..West..Wellingéton. V. fchidister‘ and..Robert.

... ­

‘’.H.<,Clark._followed.iater_;* Thelatterfé .was : also. P0531113-“elf:during the-«Civil-War-‘and f,_c_:,_some timeafterwardsi X

The blacksmiths.from time'­to time weregzachariah Till‘-;,,man,..Abram Crites,;" James‘‘Hicks .and,_0wen_ '1‘. Francis‘

' 9‘-1.-- .

who, ‘each’;in, turn, "lived ..'in.;'. - vi, 7%.;

t13..:e_v.i1..1.§.aeJ. :.—i-3+ ‘.i—:'-"z.

_.‘ ~

'-‘‘A. man by the name of Os­,born ‘__conducted a boot and?“Shoe:"shop: "he -was. followed’pater by;_a Mr. _Flanigan.; w,.

furniture, and David-Ruhl"was~;Ihe resi‘dent»car"penter‘.‘Joseph:R. Roach;.‘son'of Capta'in'Wil’-*;liam B,” Roa'ch,""was :the'res"-‘­ident .doctor_ :\.-and -"spent__.'his‘entire_‘fllfe.-"_practicingfinfthe

.; -. . . ."~v_:_;,,‘">

"-‘;_James '*lAlki1'e-,‘-L-"a _ _Joseph: Alkire_,..built‘ a’:watermills about...one{half_.mile; be­10W-4.-th__6mouth,.of Little SkinCreek: .about the . year. I_184&whiclv groundf. corn.. for “the;

gsettlers for miles around; "-..-.A sawmill ,was°soon- after;added ‘to the equipment of the-;early pioneer pattern, the saw{being held in a frame-or sash' and operated perpendicularly.»"NOP many_.hur_n_iij_e_dfeet could.'b'é"turned out -in a day butenough"-lumber was producgrito_ supply "the demand’ of. the“neighborhood in the construc­tion- of frame dwellings which‘up, to ‘thistime were built.out of".-logs; Oliver Alkire,a brother of James, cameintopossession of the farmiand»mill property ‘to which -he'added‘“* buhrs ‘form. grindingwheat.’ . "' '‘’."_~‘ ~ :­

Alkire continued'to‘-operatethis mill to whichsteam powerwas attached _"in jiythé early,eightles."l'he old,verticaljsawwas ‘-replacedby: a Lcirculaz“saw and n1anymillions*ofJeet'of choice poplar a_nd.oak*ium-_.her were ._manufactured_,_.—here

2:},‘and. hauled-. to .-Weston.-".This,;.mil1*‘-=ceased _to. operate ,en_­§tirely- about_., the"-.-yea,r.~‘1898.iafter, giving-'-service‘-to the:‘community for a..per-iodof 50,years, and today not a vestige'of it is_to. be’seen.;_or-a sug§'_,

~gestion-I that, a. dam. ._v-once”spanned"-~the : stream», at- this,point. Alisiges. M111was aiwellr‘

IH. ' Dadisman-‘ manufactured-‘;.

known post office which con­tinued to dispense the mailsuntil free_delivery made itnecessary, _to-.discontinue it.The office was kept in resi­,’dent-'_hous‘es- and not: infre­.-quently ‘some -~distance from-‘the . mill but ,-the name of.the ‘office was never changed.}"‘;iacob Alkiréiiwho lived atthe mouth of‘Glady Fork was_the postmaster for a number,of;-years.':«Justafter the closeof. the .Civii War- and‘beforethe existence of the office at‘“Alkires ;Mills;=ith_e‘residence"ofHeseldah Spaur, later knownas the Geo.HCorathers place,was designated as ‘a post of­fice but‘ the’ name of it isnotknownby the writer. '

INTRODUCTIONOF‘ .‘:' ‘FARM MACHINERY'-""Christopher Yoke, a res­ident‘ of Glady Fork of BigSkinCreek, andJames Morri­jsan ‘were among the first todo threshing about the neigh­borhood. The‘ machine wasof ‘a type known as the “chaffpiler“, that threshed out thegrain, the'who1e-mass ofchaffstraw- and grain falling in oneheap to be later separatedbyskillfully removing the strawwith forks\and by dipping up

' and passing the grain througha hand windmill.,..The powerwas furnished .by'four horseseach hitched . to ‘a separatelever,4;the horses pulling in acircleB;'I'his method was is­borious; slow and tedious, butit 'was,t,a great. improvement.-over.,.the;~;method"'of=;threshlngby .l’laii‘;;and.~_was._hailed with-_trium'ph.:v~'I’be "chaff P118?"rcesltinueti.-19.-«i’-1_i@:_5eF!'i¢9 ‘.99.to _about.fl1e:yea1+~1875.yvhen

'7'’

the Palatine machine, a “self- _cle:mer"_ "J--'as it _«was thentermed.'came upon the mar­ket; '.‘'A-:... f..__- . . _«: _ _ : .

to"

I

L70’?/L </William Oden was among

the first to introduce this ma-_"chine and it took eight horsesto furnish the..power, Lateron the Mathas -Brothers .op-‘ierated this and other types of‘the ' self-cleaner and these ;horsepower _threshers ' wereused until about the year 1895?when ‘traction engines pro-npelled by steam took the place‘of. the horse. altogether. Themachine. being not. only -run.by engine power “but moved!readily and promptly by thistraction .engine Afrom farm tofarm.’ ‘ . -3 -

About-'the"year. 1910, trac­tion ‘engines run by'gasoline*came into general. use and isjthe same‘ power used today. .1Wheat has _ceased .-to beuaa.‘important‘ crop. in West Vi.‘- 5ginia.- , _-. . . V - ‘;

Isaac. Butcher in 1872 par‘-.chased a Clirnaxmowing ma».chine :and this v:a:1'perhaps,the first one brought into the­community, Healso purchased,a Hagerstown sulky hay rfialabout?" the sa:nc-- year. The’.teeth were . steel; but all the.other parts were of wood,.the;wheels of which ara,still in asplendid state ofpreservation...

Nicholas‘ D., Linger andSamuel -C. Jones, both pro?gressive farmers on Big Skin.Creek, soon followed suit bypurchasing. in" 1875_mowingmachines. called the" Cham-­pion. I‘But -homemade, horse-­drawn, wooden hay rakes hadlong been .in.use‘especiallyon level - meadowlands for}many‘years prior'to the in—_.troduction.-_.. of ‘mowing ma­chines andsulky-rakes as theywere then called; Hill mead-|ows~were. still harvested bythe old method and even someof the bottom‘ lands"as lateas the year 18_§0.:{.5 ~.--­

\

(TC

-[The cutter bars of all theearly mowingfmachines were.in- the rea.r_.and.were onlyfour ‘feet'““'in length."gThosei‘machines ~were.“ dangejtousi‘especially ifthe groundwas.Steep 01‘ rough for :if "the:operator was thrown from hisseat~»bya sudden lurch or jolt?and 'landed_‘.on the sidegof thecutter 4-bar in.;front,"of" therapidly moving 4sickles 'he_‘stood. a‘fair' chance of‘beingcut to pieces ;or severelymaimed. ‘- ".3 g ",_"A'l‘he improved Buckeye-was

one»ofthe first to make itsappearance in the neighbori­hood. advertised and heraldedas a “front-cut mower" about‘­the'year‘,-1883 and it cut_~s,.five:foot,. swath. From thistime. on the: mowers of what­ever. name and make werevery efficient" and -satisfac­tory ‘and ceased ‘to’be horsekillersgas the early machineswere very-oftentermed.’;' A. ._J_.\Corathers was thefirst to-introduce the steam­power thresher..which he and.various’psrt_.ners operated for":many .years."_ ‘His thresheri‘insolar. as.-is known.was snottonly the. first of its..kind' in‘;the district, butithe. firs.‘:jinthe county.; _The Clarks ‘who?were .thorough1-goingfarrnerswere prompt.”_in?adopting all‘improved farm:.‘.machinerysuch as {mowers and rakes:-'Strange to’ relate,’)‘the*:prices'on mowing machines and-hayrakes then were very little,’if any, above the prices pre­vailing today; althoughaboutthe‘year .1910 a good mower;could be ..purchased_. ,as_.':lov&as. $45.00., _t- ’ 't’;‘.'1’u"v

‘C-_'I’he‘émodernfireaper did notmake_ its appearance onlyrwithirrthe.last decade andonlya _few far_me_rs'ha‘v,e-them inthe distr.ict.‘3.'I‘he"grain.dri1lmade its-appear‘ance' some -25‘£years. ago;..,Th_e'grain cradle‘did not‘ _come.into.great use.until about the year 1854 but“‘it was aflgreat‘ improvementqyer thetreap-‘hook_;. .‘-jji ~ 7

/%0/ AW r. . RARTXV3 _:---Tff-".

BULL'.I‘.0WN_v.-SALT WORKS.-.Salt was manufactured atBulltown‘though in restrictedquantities ascearly as ‘1795.­It ‘sooIITgrew"into' a- real in­dustry and supplied salt ‘tothe -pioneer; settlers .-.fifty­miles ,d1stant,-.which.\vassup-­plied pack horse method. At‘one period-of‘ this industrya. like ..an1cunt__o§ grain wastaken in exchange for the salt.’The salt,.: by reason of rainsand the natural perspiring ofthe horses,‘ worked as a V1,­cious' irritant and by the timethe return trip was ended.the backs of the miserable-‘beasts were often in an un­sightly condition. ‘

When -me.:'w.r..w 31¢a1.e°-t.t*?°‘­new hair:-was--‘ aly11.1Y5‘.‘~Wh5W.and. there-aw/"W319'=:,V°W".."few‘horses ‘in .pioneer:>§1§Yi5.’.'-ha.‘­did not‘ bear ti1i_S'.‘€.Vm9“c_9°-I;at least.one' U‘iP..=—l'° 'townSaltworksai‘ . .5‘ The» first. roads, of cotxrsegawere _mere bnid1e;.p&ti1§."%§1¢idetached :portionsmre .'_Y€t-1,‘be _seen;in short:- 5i_1'9t°.1“."­;1_ongsince abandor:ed.;_0T.1B 0tthese Bu11toWn.—t1'8115*?.15-Ved_quite\ plain..Wh91‘9 1f,°f°55e .;the hill.-fron1~_the‘ A, J - C917‘:,athers farm to the.-_m‘.’._‘.m?-°'Raine"s Run __wherer it 288553jemerges2-into the. main,Skin Creek-1133511’ '.r.‘.’.-...n°£‘:“.»'.

5’-..

\9\‘a.’\fi

ward it is again seen windingup the hill on the Geo. H.Corathei:s.-" gfarm':.i passingthrough the low gap at the headof'Glady Fork.o1. Skin Creek:_on..to. Stone Coal" Creek“ and‘then‘. perhaps ,on:to the Hack-1}lers CreekSettlement. "‘.: John~;Hacker,.--when"he was‘

trailing thefgbuffaloesthat ate1up*his‘ field.of-corn,~ was evi­"£'ientiy,-fol1owin‘gsn.old buffalo‘trail .‘and.f‘t.hat-.t:ra.il in-afteryears became , arsroad. .«sIt~is­in"a direct line with twopoints.her"is said to"have; made, the‘mouth of Curtis Run and themouth of Cram Carp Run."Itis. a well.-known*‘fact'—thatbuffaloes. traveled-‘V’straightfrom grazing ground to‘graz­ing ground exceptfor afewside paths made while graz­ing. But they. always workedback, to the main path againwhere theycontinued to trav­el for hours; leaving it onlyatintervals.,- again ‘to graze.There was no road down SkinCreek onto the waters of theWest Fork until long after theestablishment of..theroad over‘the old buffalo trail leadingfrom the settlements oiHack­er‘s Creek to the headwaterso_f:'the West .Fork. Many ‘ofthe- early roadswere merepack -trails and followed theridges for. miles descendinginto the valleys‘ only to cross.streams; when they took‘to_the,hills. again;:The uplandswere‘valways fmoreopen and.needecL{only-~asapiingand some brush;cut .'.awaya,here.-and there to;"render ‘the trail .fairly,_pass»-’_able.—while; along; the'“streamssWe.mas.w.ar.e;encounte:ed anti“ _

A“/t;;7" ’

the Zurgderbrushlmore dense.The early. pioneers, according‘-to, tradi_ti<_m. found forestsI*freer-from‘. underbrush than"it-.18-..toduy;.-There..is__norea­son ;..to believe this" condition’to .«have.\ "been?--general; but.largely.¥by.the destructions offorest. fires kindled on_pur­'pose._bythe Indians as a bar­_rier‘__to"--‘an enemy‘ tribe orto:-..the purpose of driving the

-’game.-intocertain boundariesJ iwhere..they might be.slaugh­

g’tered_easily and more abun­gd_antly.--. ‘' ’~_x -- ~ . ,. '7:5,William. »B. .-Peterson, _in1824, made settlement near=the.mouth of Wheeler Forkof Big.-Skin. Creek: and hemoved his household effectsin on a"wagon and made thefirst wagontrail from’FrenchCreek to Skin Creek. Thefarm he opened up was lateron known as the Henry Ham­mer. farm. Peterson. in 1834.sold, and’ bought the farmof Louis Bennett on LittleSkini r a short distancebelow..Georgetown where hecontinued to live until theclose of the Civil War. Theroad up Halls Run and cross­ing onto the Little Skin Creekside andintersecting the Little,Skin.Creek road on the Cor.­athers farm was _only a‘ bri­dle.-path in 1854. It did notbecomes public highwayuntil,-near.the-beginning ofthe Civil‘War. 4 The old BulltownHackers‘ Creek road from the‘Co:-athers farm to .‘themouthfol.’Rainels Run was annulled'som_e.ffewyears after the closebf-.thé.'Civil‘War.- .". - '

=75

P.

‘ I

.-;/‘ .:aA}773

Q I :'’‘£_':'3}‘.1-vicinityIsaac‘ Butcher was a.'so'n lands he °WT19dthere-'--”

wfValentine Butcher andwns‘gem in 1816 and reared son".-ei-ew miles below Westoa"inthe vicinityvof the -famous‘Jackson's Mill. 'I'hos. J_.'.Iack-_son. who in after years be­came a noted Confederate gen­eral. ‘was his-schoolmate andDlaytnate. Mr; Butcher statesthat Jackson was a great de­votes of athletics, very skill­iui on. ice‘ skates and fromearly manhood exhibited mili‘­tary traits of character thatin after years made him'anational character. anda worldrenowned"military. tacticiamIn his decliningyears,‘,'Butcher. loved to talk about‘Pom Jackson,- and often en-.'ertafned , the -writer when a.‘toy discussing him. He re-'rnembereda how .proud Jack- 5son was ‘upon being,commis­sioned constable when yet’ inhis teens .and how dignifiedhe bore arms that dangledin the scabbarsi at hisbelt and‘how fearless-he was lama}:­ing arrests. 7' 1 g - ‘ '

Isaac Butcher‘-marriedChristiannag.-Life, a daughter‘3f John ‘Life-‘and a brother of\!oah Life. He made settle­rnent -"shortly after. marriage"near the‘ mouth for Little SkinCreek in l839‘ when the vi->=sinity aboutthe mouth‘of the;-reek was an unbrokenforest.i‘here"was an improved farmiust above him-.on Little SkinZlreek known in-late years ashe Geo.. l-li_Corathers farmipon which Rev.AnthonySpaur''ived and upon. which Rev..Iohn Hardnian-«had settledorty years e ore and reared’llS family but who had somecars prior.to Butcher's en-"rance into the neighborhood,:|

thlel B. I-'iardman.~~

sold to Spaur and moved to the‘of «Georgetown on

. ,.lIsaac- Butcher‘after clear?

ing a house-site proceeded tr;build thereon a two-story o3‘dwelling * containing V.' four’?rooms,-‘two ‘in each story;The’ major parts of the logs.­were huge black walnut which"he- later weatherboarded and‘celled. The lumber to.do-this‘!was all whipsawed anddrawrron a'_"blocksled" "in the win-­terwover the snow from thehead of ~:Stone ,Coal.’.Creek.~This=was:before the AlkireMill was equipped for sawing­The .house todayafter 88yearsof.service (1927) is still some-r~what above the average in thecommunity. and int: splendid.state of preservation. ~1 - ‘ »­

Isaac. Butcher had ten chil­dren, five sons and five daugh­ters,. as- follows? Milton whomarried ;‘Virginia' v. Spaur,daughter Jot Anthony Spaur;Adeli whomarriedwebsterGibson; figg:1;,who-married‘Abel:Spaur; a son‘ of Anthony.Spaur; Sila .who married(l)'Melissa hiflet,“ daughter ofHenry Shiflet, (2)Jamima Sny­der; ' Martha who,’ marriedWorthy, trader; ‘a son.of

Abram Strader ‘of -UpshurgzjAnnie. who'ma.rried Lon. H.’

whb~married Mar.ci1ia­art, =daughter .—...:ofr‘ Benjamin’Stewart; J n 17.,‘ ‘who,married Ettie Morris, daugh‘-"ter -of. William Morris; andSarah who married EdgarBruce l-lardman sonof. Sala­

‘ an, theeldest; was never marr e . Hewas a-soldier inithe Confed­erate Army and :was‘ takenprisoner and died in CampChase: Milton was a1soaCon_-Ifederate -soldier and served!‘tbeentirefour years.‘ .~_L-'

Hall,‘son of Ezral-fall; Isaagltew-ff

Isaac '-Butcher‘was a manwith an education somewhatabove "the-‘rank and’ file of‘the 'men‘ of his day: Late in.life he‘ and -otb.ers--conceived«tho?‘-idea‘ _of. drilling for“ -‘oil'on .-'.’land which jflhe‘-.own_ed in­Webster. County.'and 'although«'oil was‘ found -‘offa'='s'uperiorJv_quality‘it_.was;' not-fin.’paying’quantity "n'or ‘could.’ theyfimar.-*1.fketi .-it..~'The =expense~‘ ob.-this;venture“through unfairnessofhis -associates.-«‘fell .on Mr‘:Butcher andhis estate“ was.so heavily? involved that he.was financiallyalmost mined.Due to.-advanced age and dis-Iease incident thereto, he surrvived- only: welfemyears butdidrinot live‘ long enough to"extricate himself from debt-.l~ie‘-had, however. Years be­fore, provided a homefor eachof his children except twowholived on the involved estateand fared badly. Isaac Butcherand‘his estimable wife wereburied ‘in the ~cemetery:-.FzrLouisa Janevchapelis ‘- _"~.- -;

The Skin Creek and . ‘Georgetown Military Company

By Will. PetersonThe boundary- line of the

original Skin. Creek Companywas- neat'.ly.. if not exactly,the, same as that of thepres-'-ent‘municipal district ofthe‘same ‘name. in Lewis County;I;‘hag_nq L.-informationas .to

“the, date .'the- military com­‘pany was first organized» W11»liam E. Peterson was electedCaptain of the.company in1835 or; 1836, succeeding-.a.man by, the‘ name .of McDan-­iels ‘who’had -removed tolowa.Territory..,After holding theoffice three‘ or i’our.years,_heresigned;,and Jacob -W-.l-ludrson was. elected to succeedhim. ,_He-held the. office’ fora‘ short time '-and resiflledéand Washington Sum_meI‘3..W8U=f

elected to succeed him, whosoon afterwards removedfrom the district, and AbramR. AHall. wasplace. .. -"' -.__ . .. _­;- Not long after he was elect-­_ed,-the, district was divided’.so._-that Little Skin Creek and

:_jupper _Stone".Coa1 were in onecompany district and BigskinCreek in the other. . - -» ‘Captaini Hall, .being a‘-resi -5dent-‘of Big ‘Skin Creek, re’­tainedrhfs office in that com­Deny. andl-lanson M. Peter­son was elected captain of theotherzcompany which was gen-’erally_ known‘ thereafter asthe-Georgetown Company.‘-‘Notlong after this, the Leg­islature ot the state of Vir­ginia amended the militia lawby dispensing with all com­pany and regimental muster,and ;also.the general trainingof commissioned officers; Theamendment, however, pro-'vided that the countyassessor‘should list _everyone of mili­tary age in the company dis­trict in gghich _h_eIjesidad.For a number of years afterthis change. was. made, thelaw continued in-effect, butnear. the close of the termof Gov. Henry A. Wise, andat his insistence, the statelegislature in 1858-59passedan act restoring company and:‘regimental musters and train.-...ing of"officers, and providing,for, the general re-organizer.tion to carry- the law into ef­fects. Of. course by ..reasonof .death,~=~remova1-'and.othexucauses there -were many varcancies tofi1l:‘-.;, . . ‘Mf;..Jol1n "TW-..,Ramse9‘.::- beinaeelected'.:.to.- :;SLlCCe€d’:iCaptainHall;. in1:.the'-=Big -Skin ..Creekcompany;-. and '*William...H.Peterson‘ elected. to fill: the.'vacancy..—.caused .by the‘-pro-I.Tmotion of its captain to theco1onelcy.oL_thB 12531. R981?’

elected to" his

ment of Militia, these 135:named’ parties were in of­ficeeat the beginning of the

;Civil-‘War, and like most ofthe officers in the country,both civil and military, per­mitted. their terms of officeto__lapse._. ‘ _

_FirstPost OfficeOn' " ‘ Little Skin Creek_ By W. H. Peterson­

Sometime between the in­auguration of President Polkandthe beginning of the Mexi­can-»-War. Probably in 1345,#1‘new mail route was estab­lishedfmck toBennett Mills in the vicinityo a ersv e on the West.fork and thence back to Westonby the way of Hall's Store onBig Skin" Creek and fromthence to and down Little SkinCreek.

The mail was delivered oncea week and carried on horse'­back.. The last two officesserved before reachingWeston were named Big SkinCreek and Little Skin Creek.'D.8.vid Hall was appointedpostmaster at Big Skin Creekand the office was located athis store. . ,_ William B. Peterson wasappointedpostmaster at LittleSkin Creek. and the officewas located at his farmhouse.His; t_:ommis_sionwas signedby C. Jonson who ’wasPostmaster General duringthe- administration of Presi­dent Pelk.' Afterholding the­office for. sev'eral:years_, héresigned,.'and Hanson _M.Pe-‘Tterson was appointed to sue­ceed_-,liim.' He, continuedito_holdthe office for some time,and-following his resignationWilliani H. Peterson was ap­pointed and continued to holdthegoffice up to the time of»thefsecession of the state of

Vlrginia,_when the 'mail,serv- .ice on.,the route,.was-sus-_e 'pended:.- »-.. —

Soonalter the_organizationof the new state of West Vir-'_~ginia, mail.. service -on -the“route was resumed;_and the­Little- Skin Creek. post. officerernoved4 to-Georgetown arc!located. in’,the store of Rol.-..ert H. Clark. who.had beenappointed postmaster where I.think it remained tillafter ti 2.end of the Civil War. _ v

.“I, know’ nothing about tisubsequent history of the Li _tle Skin Creek post oificeitsoon after the closed!" ti ­Civil War I removed. fro."Lewis County and remembei - .ing the sad fate of Lot’s wif-3;}never; looked back. In. con-'-=eluding this. shorthistory, Ican truly say that the fifteen‘:years that the office was kept‘at the farmhouse in whicirl’was born.‘ it was oi morevalue to me than all"of the.schools I ever attend-ed..Fig-uuratively -speaking; ..it threwopen the ‘window shutters ofour pioneer, ,log. house“ andenabled me to look out -intothis big. world ' and, glimpsethe shining.._-possibilities. oi‘.the future.'.’.._, ‘ V _. .‘ .. ,

The rnail».route'_:as.alreadydescribed above _byMr. Pe­terson continued in operationfor some years after theCivilWar when the route down Lit-':tie Skin Creek was..discon.­timed and passed up anddownBig Skin Creek. from ._Weston"1to some. ._.point_in. Webster.­County. It was at the:same=time disconnected with the‘route .from-Weston‘ to Suttonand‘remained so until‘super-­seded by rural free delivery_;_:­

(0 _

. J ,7, V/"'.' ’7’,\

.1/‘er’.2 7 /973

L raarxvn i‘ 3The GeorgetownChurch‘

' ' . And.Cemetery { ._ -Ki-5' .v By W.'H. Peterson ."'..—_'.‘rj-;The original plot oi ground,

selected for the purpose above;named‘ was probably markedout prior. to" 1837, perhaps in1835 .or. I_836., It .was-»under-2?stood -at: the : time :that.‘ thechurch, would ,.be-built on ‘the.southjside, and thatthe higher‘ground north .oi_—itwould be‘used fora cemetery ‘andhadbeen so -.used—‘for a_ year.g.or­two ~beforelthe church waserected. The church was prob‘-._.—ably_built in..l838. it was a"large hewed._.log-buildinghighenoughfor a gallery, and a.large hewed log beam.extend­1ng.._throus11.~.it. was .50 ,-1°.-s.cated .-that ’--it‘could - be"“1i§edjto support. the-_gallery when.­constructed,‘ but it was never;utilizedfor that.{purp_ose.'. .­- The: door was.-‘located on’the north side and the pulpit?was of .the.~,'old'~"style,"very:high with»:».an‘.ent1'ance_ "from;the, south'and~-by means_ of twoor three‘ steps’. It was‘seatedwith the”:old -kind of pioneerbenches, supported by two»legs .1at each end, the benches;being so-.placed -as to leavean aisle ‘extending, from the.door’ to" the ‘pulpit; '-For one‘:or -two’-3’winters.'.fafte1_.‘ _;?“.thebuilding :was constructed‘,"’it2'was . heated "bynan '7open ‘-fire.in "a large iirehoxpaftet‘ the‘:manner of bunk houses; but;was later heated byttwo old-1fashioned -"Bee-gumifl. coal!stoves. The building was cov--'‘­ered withhand-made shingles;and lighted- by“ tallow,can-.'|dles set.’-“insockets: fastenedion the walls around the room;«Besides these_there were two;copper candlesticks on“ the,“Dulpit for the special usefof

-several, years.“ ‘

the’-expoiinder‘or the Gospel.It, also had.-five‘-or six- old­fashioned windows.’ , ,.

This ‘~ol¢_i__church_w_as'chgsjgtened the‘Mount?Gilead Meth,-T‘odist’ Protestant Church ,;-ganrl‘was the“ leadingpone‘ on"-the.ministerial" ‘circuit to which

~- nl-0 ~-_

1 it_,belongcd;".VIn*-.-it was; or--ganized the first Sundayschool.ever»"organ'ihed I_on"Little SkinCreek. It._,,was"organized byRobert .l-i:e«Cla'rk,' I think,‘ in18.49‘or"-1850. Mr. Clark wase ec ed uperintendent -6 andHanson’ ~M.~‘Peterson, Secre­m. --..'.:-4.‘,"_'.'‘«I,Not long aiter‘its organiza­tion, the Freys Bros., drug­glsts in Baltimore, donateda .ten.-dollar‘. library to ‘theschoolgl was present whenthe school was organized". Ai­ten ‘serving 3as.»$upe1*‘l_ntend­ent for "several Fyears, Mr.‘Clark declinedr re-election,and‘ n was‘electe to succeed h m -andcontinued to -holdtheoffice for

William H:Peterson ..and'-Perry Hudsonalso served ass secretaries­for several years.__,,-. , - ‘I .A In the latter years of..itsexistence, the churchwasalsoused for school purposes, andschools'I;were taught in .it byGeorge.__' I. ;Marsh,~ .-AlbertJewell, Hanson M. l?.eterson,_William H, Petersonand Per-.ry Hudson. After having E511.u’s?a'<_T'f'cT£:about~»18,3rears. . the-‘old" churchj.having._been re­placed by ‘a new.-one, as her._e.-,,after- ‘described, waspgiismanv;tied; and ;sold [and , .hau1ecL.down ’ into;-‘Georgetown and.used for other purposes. ilté.‘would ‘-be ‘hard to overesti.-,2mate the; usefulness -of that;dear__oldchurch, as a civilizingilcenter for the‘ surrounding-c_ountry_."All honor to theplo-Jneers whose‘hearts, ..brains»’a_rid,brawncontributed to build;

up“and maintain the dear oldlog tchurch upon. that little hill.-—Doubtless most of, them as­well, as , many, members oftheir .families are'.nowsleep:ing..ln _the-silenticernetery on‘that consecrated. little’ hi1l.'1

er ''.\.E,..‘ p,

1*-.'v ' '

still in u_se,._was,_builtip.l856._The trustees very wiselylo--,cated _it,_on.the south end part.ofnthe.‘ plat, _the old. churchh’aving.gbeenfi too” hear ,»-thecemetary.—' David 'S_.'Lowe hadthe contract gfor ._the build-;',ing. He furnished. themater-­ial "and hired_..David Rule, to.buildit..-,_ - 5;-‘- .l» was. ‘p_resent"and ,.helpedraise the frame.‘ When com­pleted , it. was formally ded­icated, the dedication sermonbeing _very properly preachedby Rev.: William N. Bette,pastor of_the..church..at whose;ins'tance,‘.and largely through-whose energy and persever­ance it was completed. ..-.l

I---.was present .and heardhim ‘preach an- able and‘ ap­propriate sermon. The churchwas packed: by’-_alarge con­gregation. With such. repairsas therravages of time“have,made necessary; it‘is still.in - * the good ..old ‘ageoi seventy, years.-'_I wonderhow many ‘of '-that-vlarge-iconsgregation. who -were,-.present*at the dedicatovrysarvicesarenow livingi~‘.‘-s"‘.;‘, 3'.W 9',’ "' ;.- some -,of.‘the2pioneer-1"eSf<»

dents=in--thtzdistrict sent theirchildren to .,the3schools early,in-.’existence;-hon Hacker's.Cn,ee,k,._.,They,_boarded eitherWith-::.S°|?.1$.< 1‘-.°1aI4.V€+‘4th91'94-9_3'asornex, family -r.esiding gneagr. 'the._'s‘cho0J.rliiany of the pi,­one'er.. teachers listed’ ois:.:-.­where. in th1s';1.1t_,t_lsa-.1:,i.st<.>.r‘.Itt,3,;;l;

_Q

teachers on Little SkinCreekalso -taught at various timeson Big Skin Creek. Prior to?l863 not more than two cabins‘were’ built,... expressly for_-schools;r.they, were generallyconducted in some untenanted

"cabin"-.‘:-'.. ' .Shortly after-the close of

the.‘ Civil War,-. live schoolhouses -were built, two onLittle" Skin Creek. and threeon Big Skin Creek and thesewerezethe Ifirst built out ofsawed lumber. They were built“Yankee fashion," ‘the boardsstanding upright~in the walls,tongued and grooved, planed onboth sides and a strip overthe joint on the outside. Thesebuildings were painted--whiteand were neat in appearanceand were agreat improvementover the old log cabin. Theywere heated by-stoves burn­ing coal... In .time, these werereplaced. by modern build­ings and, three others addedBy the year 1885as many as6_0pupils were often enrolledin ‘a school and all were full.Bin year‘ by year. the enroll‘­nient is gradually growinglessand at the present time (1927)is not above fifteenpupils perschool, due wholly to asmail­er population. . ' _ .' Th'e' -Bonnetts' emigrated

from Holland but at what dateis‘:unknown.. They came intothe Hacker's Creeksettlement

dlrectly‘_‘fr_-gm,}ig% County,8_L_,a *veryearly date osely fol­lowing-, ‘:7Johxr ‘I‘l-lac_ker . __andothers. . _'.' " 2

.‘of’~the.‘am y were assoc ate’w'i'th‘;fhe _s_ettlement-_m_agefiatWheelin" b _ ene' ,

- 770' but never: becameperman t there and-dropped

ack_to'the newly made set­tlement wherethe family hadlntthe meantime located. The

~"Bennett". is distinctly

Mm'2_?.l7_.,7T'­col?/cfi ‘V

.lc.i.ne into the country as Hol..landers andProtestant intheir‘rg-'l‘1tzion.‘lt_'is“not unlikely

tint ‘they were ‘originally,-,'.l~_=E€—‘_h.:_8_n_<.1..‘7l’_<_3I'9_€1I‘lV€n,out;

of France ‘alongwith thdus-~“ands of others to Holland dur.-.ing the religious wars thatwaged‘ there almost inces—‘.santly for twocenturies wher Ithey.found. an asylum. Holland being the: first in con

tinental _Eurocpe to . toleratrreli ions free om. . . ' :

2 ,l1§ ‘3nd Leas-Bennettm W"M,\ daughters of Nicho as Lin89T~'

x‘, the pioneer. They ha rev­.-,obrothers. John, Samuel Ellf‘

“Y”,Jacob.John'me’“X./.»1nd1ans'lfiT'773 and his com;5.6.34”ra es uried his body in 1i . '

&\,3g&\cave_near the mouth mgTan‘!ner Creek, Gilmer ount_,9* c\where'.a half centu1'Y M19?!Afiq ward. some children at plaldiscovered his remains. Ex

hurnation was completed an­the. body given a decent bur;ial. His widow continued tlive pin the Hacker's Creesettlement .and perhaps die

K there. .

17The,§ommt 0f§ml““ moi Shewastewieo o aggoner,tE€m ostam1ry_1T__T_9g2'”iis‘t’1aru1ingitolilwby AleJ;£ll1d§L.W_fl1J9F5 ihis ‘:‘Border:.._Vi§1_',I.aL<:'' and 5Lucullus V. McWhoFtE’r i.."Border Settlers of North­western Virginia." ElizabethWaggoner. aged l2. taken cap­tive at the time became hewife ofJohnHardman, the ft. 5:permanent settler in the SkinCreel: community. ;.

~ =‘..=.-ncn:";a'nc_xalthoughgtbey-. I

7 .';;_:;ranrxvm ‘ _._.» ~ .'3.,-,;I-_ ‘ . .t,,

:5.-Peter‘ Bennett’ had" 'elev%flchildren allofwhotnwere born,‘and raised_ on the old Bonnett;hom‘estead'"near the -prese Vvillage of Vandalia, andtheirnames together with date ofbirth, are all on record. Thegirls married and settled inthe" vicinity as did some ofthe sons but some of the malemembers went west withtheirfather in 1845. Lewis Bennettalso had a large family butno record of them can be;found.The girlswereailmnr-i.ried and settled before their;father tracked west where it;appears that all the. male:members of the family wentalso, including John Butt'sxife. «Lewis Bonnett, prior;tq the time he purchased lands"on Little Skin Creek owneda farm on Stone Coal whichwas a part of the Petersontract. He evidently built thefirst mill in what is nowthevillage of Gaston as the coun­ty records show that he and;his wife, Mary, conveyed toGeorge Bush 3-1/2 acres of,land and the mill in 1819for the sum of $500. Thisdoes not tally of course with,Edward C. Smith's "History.of Lewis County", but Lew­is Bonnett had no son ornephew of marriageable ageat that date and it would bea strange coincidence even ifthere was another Lewis Bon­nett of pioneer days whosewife bore the same name. We.therefore, are to concludethathe is the same party, thesubject of this sketch, andwho, after sale of his prop­

twnb“was a,-life long resident}9f—th°Ge°1'E8F0yncommunity.*~_i'__I_t1is‘not definitely known‘what. year the ,C1arks'Eame to’Little SkinCreek. The records;would show of course the date"they became possessors of;real-estatebut we have longago learned thatthe twoevents‘do not always coincide. Butthey doubtless each made set-2',tlement shortly I after mar­riage which could bc approx­imately fixed at from 1825 to1835. Four brothers, John,Robert, Isaac Fauntleroyor-“Fe1ton" were the sons ofWilliam Clark a pioneer set­tler on Stonecoal Creek abovethe.present village of Homer.There is good reason to be­lieve that William Clark, theproprietor of that family,came from Randolph Countyas he was a brother-in-law ofJohn Helmick who it is known:also came from that county.!It is quite likely that John!Helmick and William Clark‘.became residents in Lewis;

rieci‘-"Matilda. West,’ 'daugiiten..of- Charles West; Gideon.whomarried Nancy: Corathers,“daughter of- Colonel Johnjcorathers: Levi, whomarriedElizabeth Leggit; Emily, whom:_t_r1;igd_Bivin, Wetzel: Lu­cinda,‘ who married George._Warner; Lucetta, who mar­ried David Wetzel, Jr.; Mar­garet, who married. NathanMarsh; Harriet who marriedJarret Hull: and Nathan, whomarried Margar_etMolar. .

Robert Clark, son .'of_Wil-«liam Clark, was a lifelongresident on Little SkinCreek,and his wife was a sister toJames Rains whoin 1823madesettlement on Big Skin Creeknear the mouth of the streamwhich has- since borne hisname._Robert Clark conducteda store in Ergetown duringthe Civil War and afterward.and was postmaster there.One of his daughters marriedJ ommers w ose father,Ge ers, wasanear­

zly pioneer on Stonecoal. An­at or ‘about the same year. other dau mep became me

John and Robert Clarkwere. wi e of avid an. broth­lifelong residents. on Little' FE‘ of quire Thomas d­Skin Creek. John Clark was 5man, son 0born in

enry ardman,early pioneer onStonecqai_.

179% and his wife, anMargaret Be ett, daughter ._ V _of Lou s ennett the pioneer _,(conunuea um ween) .'an it an scoutand soldier.of the Revolution, was born,in 1805. They were marriedin 1824 and settled on landsadjoining that of his father­in-law on the south and up asmall stream where they bothlived and died after rearing afamily of some ten or morechildren who in turn marriedand became residents in the

erty on Stone Coal took uphis residence on Little SkinCreek. His eldest child wasnot born till 1805, and sheeventually married JohnClark

..O_-LL_.1L.Cmé/.1.

community. Marshal, the old­est child, was born in 1825.The following are the namesof, some of the children ofJohn and Margaret BexmettClark: Marshal, who mar­

7%

flr¢;€7' L7X- /U01//a./77.3

xx " PARTXIX -- -24..-4 - ' ­

Jacob Bott was a son 0 'Henry Bott and he lived atthe mouth of Blacklick Run.His wife was a Miss Rohr­baugh.‘ They had four chil­dren, two sons and two daugh­ters, as follows: John, whomarried «RulinaStauts; Wash­ington. who married MargaretMarsh. daughter of John C.Marsh; Matilda, who marriedLuther Casto, a son of IsaacCasto and Amy who married(1) Yoke; (2) JohnSomers. All the Botts nowliv­ing in this community aredescendants of Jacob Bott, hisbrothers, together with theirfather having gone west in1835. Jacob Bott once con­ducted a store located just’above the_road some two hun­dred yards below the*jBot1schoolhouse. He died aboutthe year 1879 and his wifefpassed away some few years{prior to this date,'and both‘were buried in the Corathers-burial plot. .

John Bott, son ofJacob Bott,taught the second term ofschool conducted in the Bottschoolhouse erected some few[years after the close of the:Civil War.1 There were never but two‘slave owners in the commu­lnity. Captain William B. Roachon Little Skin Creek. and Wil­liam Ramsey on Big SkinCreek. They were slave own­ers by inheritance and notfrom choice. Neither of themowned above ten in numberand never sold any of themalthough Ramsey did trade ayoung colored woman to Eliz­abeth Hall for atract ofmead­ow bottom land. Ramsey ownedand lived in the house nowowned and occupied by Mrs.Porter West. The tract oflandreceived in exchange for the

472.ea? ' ­

-$7

Xg§$ an, onlydaughter\T: E

abeth I-lardman Hud on:d.Frank

;.i.l\‘e woman was the meadowz.‘£‘..Jtof the creek. His reasonfor the exchange was that she‘.\'.lShard to control. Ramseyr-.:.‘.nefrom Albemarl__County,Virtrinia, in the early forties1121was an uncle of the late‘fiilliam R. Jewell. Near theclose of the Civil War, andafter he had lost his slaves,he moved to Kentucky. Cap­tain William B. Roach afterthe close of the Civil Warwent to Missouri. Two of hisfaithful slaves begged to betaken along which the author­ities would not allow. Theywere instructed to follow the.telegraph line to Parkersburgwhere they oyertook theRoaches and were taken along.

Jacob W. Hudson, stepson ofDav: ie ze , r., was bornin

ienan o ounty, Virvinia,ainIBM.Flem ­of John and Elizabeth (Wag­goner) ar an. It will beremembered that ElizabethWaggoner and her sister Maryand brother Peter were cap­tured by lndians in 1792, anaccount of which is given inall the. histories of borderwarfare. -_ ~

Some years prior to theCivil War Jacob W. Hudsonserved a term as sheriff.'He:was a strong unionsympathiz-.er and took_an active part in‘the measures taken to severwestern .‘Virginia from the‘mother state, for whichhe was;bitterly denounced by neigh­borsand relatives who weresympathizers ofthe south. Thefollowing are the names ofthechildren of Jacob W.andEliz­

ar­

McCue: Almina, who marriedAndrew Lunsford; Matilda,who married Lee Smith; Per­rv, Marion, Washington andWorth, the last two beingtuins. '

Hudson's wife died in 1856.Some years later he mar­ried Mrs. Permella WatsonJackson. He died in 1901 atthe advanced age of 90. :

The first church construct-!ed of sawed lumber on BigSkin Creek was erected ini558. Its location was uponground nownccupied bygravesin the Vandalia cemetery. andin denomination was MethodistEpiscopal. Prior to this timereligious worship was con-_ducted in a hewn log church"that stood upon ground now’occupied by G. B. Marsh'sresidence. In pioneer times.religious services were held,in groves and in privatehomes. Some few years ago a.new M. E. Church was built.do\vn in the village and the’old one‘ upon the hill wasrazed and removed. In 1867the M. P. Church was erect­ed at the upper end of the.­village. After the lapse of Eli‘years it is in a splendidstate of preservation and willperhaps give -service foryears yet. "

Five murdered menlie bur­.ied in the Vandalia cemeteryand only one of the assassins.ever paid for. his rash deed,;and the penalty. was life im.-.prisonment. . - - ‘­

The following are the names'of the victims: Edmund.West,l-'John West, brother of Ed-'­mund, Ed West, Jr., son ofJohn West, Abel Cutright andLloyd Spaur. All these crimesoccurred within. a period of42 years — from 1870 -toI912. The criminals were all.apprehended, but one and all;these acts were committed in­this district butone whichhap-,pened in Cheyenne, Wyoming,the summer of 1912. Ezra‘Ours was sentenced to thepenitentiary for life for kill­ing John West and his s_on,i,

1

Ed Junior, but escaped prisonthe night before the executionand fled the country and wasnever apprehended. GeorgeHall, in an altercation, shotand killed Abel Cutright, gave 'bond for his appearance atcourt,‘ but the day and hour inwhich he was delivered by hisbondsman,- escaped, and wasnever- heard of. afterwards.Lloyd Spaur""was shot and.killed in the railroad yards at,Cheyenne . by an unknownassassin. _ ­

Rev. Anthony Spaur becameidentified with the future his­tory of the Skin Creek com­munity whenxhepurchased thefarm and mill; of Rev. JohnHardman near ‘the mouth ofCurtis Run. on Little. SkinCreek about the~year 1836,‘and moved his family there­on. If he ever lived at anyother place in the communi­ty prior to this time it is notknown as to where he livedbefore coming to .Little SkinCreek, nor can any of hisdescendants give anyinforma­tion of value. The only clue sofar, is that the Lewis Countyrecords show that in ,l8l7one Anthony Spaur transfersa small tract of land by deedlying on the-east bank of theBuckhannon River to a Mr.Black. As. there never hasbeen _any other family ofSpaurs in the county but thisone, and none in'the adjoin­ing counties except those whotrace their origin to'AnthonySpaur, early pioneer of Lit-_tle Skin Creek, it is quitelikely that the Anthony Spaur­who made this transfer oflands on the Buckhannon Riv­er in 1817 and the Anthony"Spaur who purchased the farmand mill of Rev. John Hard­man on Little Skin Creel<'in11:’-S5are one and the same.His wife was, before her rnar_­

*l3S0 are well known

riage. a Miss Rohrbaugh. Thewife of Jacob Bott who liveda short distance up the creek‘.from Spaurs was also aRhorbaugh before her mar-jriage, but it is not known ifjthey were related. ‘ . j

Rev. Anthony Spaur hadthree sons, Hesekiah,AnthonyR., and Alpens. It is said.that there was-one daughter;whose name was Malinda. W.A. Spaur of Grafton, now de-5ceased, was born and reared.in this community and‘ who;perhaps was as well informed­as any member of his family;concerning his ancestors, up­on inquiry has this to say?

“The Spaurs came fromHolland, they are not Dutch"but German.-Hesekiah had ason named Anthony, a pioneer.preacher. He in turnhad threesons, Anthony, Hesekiali and»Alphens..The last named wentto Iowa and settled, and, oneof his sons is a ministerofthe Gospel, now quite old,located in Pittsburgh, Paul-ieis filling a station in the oldM. P. Church in that citynow.Rev. Wayne Morrison, rearedon Hacker's Creek, met himat one of our general confer­ences a few years ago; Hetold me that he resembled theSpaurs in~Lewis County and.that heheld a degree of doctor_':of divinity.".' V' '. y.

Rev.‘ Anthony ‘ Spaur, by.some historians, is said tohave been a teacher in" earlylife. This may be true. but ifso it must have been before hemoved to Little. Skin.CreelLfcr,no one n_ow_living has__any_l:r.o'wledge of his ever hav­ing‘ been a teacher in this‘community. The teachers inthis community from 1840 to

andS_oaur’s‘name does not appearon this list. There is no re­cord of any_schoolbeing taught

in the community prior to1815. The two creeks up tothis time had but few settlersand a sufficient number ofichildren could " not‘ beassembled at any one pointto warrant a school. Begin­ning with the year 1822schools were taught and by1835 a. deep. interest. in ed­ucation was manifested andrapid progress was made.'

Father Spaur, as he —wascalled, was a plain pioneer‘teacher with strong convic­tions,_deeply seated religiouspractices,somewhat eccentric andoftenamusing. Once when prayingfor a penitent at the altar whowas notorious for his back­sliding tendency and who ateach annual protracted meet—_'ing came forward to the altarto profess anew, Father Spaursaid: "O, Lord, convert thisman and kill him and take himup to heaven, for Thou know-­est.he is a slippery dog."

Another eccentric incidentis related that whencalled up­on to perform a marriageceremony late in the eveningafter‘ he had retired,.he or­dered the bashful young coupleto stand atghis bedside and‘with his feet and naked legsdangling over the bedrail andthe covers thrownloosely overhislap heperformed the cere­mony that made them.man andwife. He then ordered themto-“clear out. home". as ‘he­wanted to sleep, whereuponhepromptly‘slid back againun-.der the covers_.-and‘was_soon_fast asleep. '..__ ‘ ~.* ­

Though a ‘regularfordained:minister such as was commonin his day, he was not an itin­erant preacher. He died somefew years pl‘lOl".tO the Civilwar and was buried beside hiswife in the Georgetown ce..1e­tery. __ _ , '­

4 s

....... '- ..41­

very earnest butt

PART XIX

Albert and Clinton Hardmanwere the only sons of David­Hardman by his first wife’and the former now lives nearJane Lew. Isaac Clark, broth­er of John and Robert Clark,and sons of William Clark thepioneer on Stonecoal. aftersome years of residence onLittle Skin Creek finally lo­cated on Spruce Fork ofStone­coal where he lived and died.The Rev. Doctor Hyre_ D.Clark of Buckhannon is agrandson of Isaac Clark and ason of Jacob Clark. JohnClark was a, prosperousfarmer and a big land owner.liis home farm was not so;l.-wge. but he manipulated hisai'.:*.irs so as to be able topurchase a farm upon whichhe settled each and every oneof his children as they mar­ried. At the time of his death,he, together, with his foursons and a son-in-law, ownedlands from the mouth of Cur­tis Run to within'a stone’sthrow of Vandalia, all join­ing. He bought a tract ofland on Round Knob Run whichextended over onto the watersof Sand Fork of West Fork asfar. as the Duncan school-­house, a stretch of some 3miles, upon which he settledthree of his sons-in-law, andall descend nts of John andtt Clark.

0 ark died in 1884,aged 85; his wife died theyear previous, aged 78, andboth were buried at George­town. ~ A

“Felt" Clark,’a son ofWiI­!iam Clark of Stonecoal, asilready stated, was a pioneercacher in the Georgetown:<...:nunity and was also a

;-._-.ier of vocal music. He

left the neighborhood beforethe Civil War and nothingfurther is known of him.

David Wetzel, Sr., locatedupon a tract of land lying upa small stream emptying intoLittle Skin Creek nearGeorgetown. The exact dateof his entrance into the com­munity is not known but itwas some years after the­first settlers had locatedalong the Little Skin Creekvalley. His farm was a partof the Adams survey and em­braced all the land" lying on‘that stream. He was a nativeof‘ Shenandoah County; Vir-­ginia; and was married therelong before he came to Lewis

County.Hemarr ’ginia Hudson, a young w ow‘with one child whose namewas Jacob, who in after years­became prominent in the at’­fairs oi the community. Mrs.Hudson's maiden name was"-'Fultz and she was an elderhalf-sister "to the wife “ofJoshua Hardman: The follow­ing are the children of DavidWetzel, Sr., and his wife,Regina Fultz Hudson WetzelsfgGeorge, David H., ElizabethAnna; William, Aaron- andRebecca. David H’. marriedLucetta Clark, daughter- ofJohn Clark; Elizabeth mar­ried John Stalnaker; Annamarried William Hinzman.who lived on Glady Forlt- ofBig Skin Creek, and WebsterHinzman and Jacob Hinzmanwere their sons: Rebeccamarried William Curtis,brother of George W. Cur-.tis, one-time member of our.county court. ' ~

The David Wetzel who lived‘on Stonecoal and who married­

Ta daughter of Henry Hardmanwas a nephew of the DavidWetzel, Sr., who lived near­

Georgetown. David Wetzel,Sr., died shortly after theclose of the Civil War, andhis wife died during the clos­ing years of that war. ’

Jacob Bott was a son ofHenry Bott and he lived at

-the mouth of Blacklick Run.His wife was a Miss Rohr­baugh.‘ ' They "had four chil­dren, two sons and twodaugh­ters, as follows: John. whomarried Rulina Stauts; Wash­ington, who married MargaretMarsh, daughter of John C.Marsh; Matilda, who marriedLuther Casto, a son of IsaacCasto and "Amy who married(1) Yoke; (2) JohnSomers.- All the Botts nowliv­ing in this community aredescendants of Jacob Bott, hisbrothers, together with theirfather having gone west in‘1.535. Jacob Bott once con-_dudted a store located justabove the road some two hun- $9dred yards below the Bottschoolhouse. He died aboutthe year 1879 and his -wifepassed away some few yearsprior to this date, and bothwere buried in the Corathersburial plot. , ' ‘

John Bott, son ofJacob Bott,taught‘ the second ,term— ofschool conducted in. the Bottschoolhouse erected some fewyears after the close’ of theCivil War. . , 7*’

-There were never but twoslave owners in the commu­nity. Captain William B. Roach­on Little Skin Creek, and Wil­liam Ramsey on Big SkinCreek. They were slave own­ers by "inheritance.and- notfrom choice. Neither of themowned above ten in numberand never sold any of themalthough Ramsey did trade ayoung colored woman to Eliz­aL‘.-thHall for _atract of meatl- .

ow bottom land. Ramseyownedtand lived in the house nowowned and occupied by Mrs.Porter West. The tract oflandreceived in exchange for theslave woman was the meadoweast of the creek. His reasonfor the exchange was that shewas hard to control.,Ramseycame from Albemarle County,Virginia, in the early fortiesand was an uncle of the late"William R. Jewell.~ Near theclose of the Civil War, and­after he had 1ost'his—slaves.he moved to:Kentucky... Cap‘-7tain William B. Roachafterthe close of ‘the Civil War"­went to Missouri. Twoof his­faithful slaves . begged to: be‘taken along which-the author-.ities would not allow.‘ They­were instructed to follow the­telegraph line to Parkersburgwhere they overtook theRoaches and were taken along.

Jacob W.-Hudson;stepson ofDavid Wetzel, Sr.,‘ was borninShenandoah County"; Virginia,in 1811. He married Eliza­beth Hardman, only daughterof John and Elizabeth (Wag­goner) Hardman. It will‘beremembered‘ that’ ElizabethWaggoner and her sister Maryand brother Peter were cap~jtured- by Indians in 1792, anaccount of which is given inall the histories of border’warfare. ' i

. $.C°n.li.m=_9d_Next lVeel5>';=-.

/4//-‘, I

//C. 1.’ /' ',’ I) -.

PART XX

‘Some years prior to theCivil War Jacob W. Hudsonserved a term as sheriff. Hewas a strong unionsympathiz­er and took an active part inthe measures taken to severwestern -.Vlrginia from themother state, for whichhewasbitterly‘ denounced by neigh­bors and relatives who weresympathizers of the south. Thefollowingarethe-names of thechildren of Jacob W.and Eliz­abeth Hardman Hudson: Par­U‘-CD18.who married FrankMCCUE5Almina. who married.Andrew Lunsford; Matilda,

‘Whomarried Lee Smith; Per­ry, Marion, -Washington andWorth, the last two being,twins. ' "' ‘ "

Hudson's ‘wife died in 1856.Some years later he. mar-­ried Mrs. Permelia WatsonJackson. He died in'l90l at.the advanced age of 90.' The first ‘church construct-‘ed of sawed lumber on BigSkin Creek was erected ‘in1858. Its location was uponground nowoccupied by gravesin the Vandalia cemetery, andin denomination was MethodistEpiscopal. Prior to this timereligious worship was con­ducted in‘aliewn log churchthat stood upon ground nowoccupied by G. B. Marsh's’residence; ,In pioneer times.religious services were heldin groves. and-fin ' privatehomes. .Some few "years ago anew M. _E. Churchwas builtdown m":ne nrillagei and theold one" upon, the._ hill wasrazed and removed.‘ In 1867the M. P.’Church was erect-_

;ed at the upper end of the"village. After the_lapse 02 61years" it is in a splendidstate of preservation and willperhaps give>”~=‘”'.5.¥.e‘-.:..-'. '5' - - ­at

service for_'

. E‘/emurdered menlie bur­it ;i .n the Vandalia cemeteryand only one of the assassinsever paid for his rash deed,and the penalty was life im­prisonment.

The following are the namesof the victims: Edmund West,John West, brother._of Ed­mtmti, Ed West. Jr., son ofJohn West, Abel Cutright andLloyd Spaur All these crimesoccurretl within a period of42 years — from 1870 to19122.The criminals were allil[i[1r&il\:li(ied, but one and allvi‘.-2"-:acts were committed in.this districtbutone whichhap-_[‘i'ili'.'(i in Ch-eyenne, Wyomiiig,‘the summer .of 1912. EzraOurs was _sentenced to thepenitentiary for life for kill­ing John West and his son,Ed Junior, but escaped prison"the night before the executionand fled the country and was.never apprehended. GeorgeHall, in an altercation, shotand killed Abel Cutright, gavebond for his ‘appearance atcourt, but the day and hour inwhich he was delivered by hisbondsman, escaped, and wasnever heard of afterwards.Lloyd Spaur was shot and"killed in the railroad yards atCheyenne - by- an unknownassassin. ‘“ -­‘ Rev. Anthony Spaur became

id.-nlified with the future his­tort.’ of the’ Skin Creek com­innnlty \vhen he purchased thefarm and mill of Rev. JohnHardrnan near the mouth ofCurtis Run on Little SkinCreek about the year l836,land moved his family there-jon. if he.ever lived at any]other place in the communi-'11' prior to this time it is notl.no'.vn as to where he livedbefore coming to Little kin

Creek.descenriants give any informa-_tion of value. The only [clueso.far, is that the Lewis County;

nor can any of his

records show that in 1817one Anthony Spaur transfersa small tract of land by deedlying on the east bank of the_Buckhannon River to a Mr,

As there never has.Black.been any other family ofSpaurs in the county but this:one, and none in the‘adjoin­ing counties except those whotrace their origin to AnthonySpaur, early pioneer of Lit­tle Skin Creek, it is quitelikely that the Anthony Spaurwho made this transfer oflands on the Buckhannon Riv­er in l8l7_ and the AnthonySpaur-who purchased the farmand mill of Rev. John Hard­man on Little Skin Creek in‘1835 are one and the same.His wife was, before her mar-;riage, a Miss Rohrbaugh. Thewife of ‘Jacob Bott who liveda short distance up the creekfrom Spaurs- was also atRhorbaugh before her mar­riage, but it is not known if:they were related. J A‘ ­

Rev. Anthony Spaur hadthree sons, Hesekiah,_Anthon_yR., -and Alpens, It Vis said.that‘ there was one daughter‘whose name was Malinda. W..A. Spaur of Grafton, now de-iceased, was born and reared}in this community and who’perhaps was as well informed.as any member of his family.concerning.his ancestors, up­on inquiry hasthis to say:

“The Spaurs came fromlHolland, they. are not Dutch‘but German. Hesekiah. had a.son named Anthony, a pioneer»preacher. He in turn hadthreeisons, Anthony, Hesekiali-andiAlphens. The last named wentto Iowa and settled, and one

of his sons is a minister ofthe Gospel, now quite old,located in Pittsburgh, Pa. Heis filling a station in the oldM. P. Church in that city now.Rev. Wayne Morrison, reared‘on Hacker's Creek, met himat one of our general confer­ences a few years ago. Hetold me that he resembled theSpaurs ‘in Lewis County andthat he held a degree of doctor‘.of divinity." - i

Rev? _Anthony Spaur,’ by‘,§9_r_nehistorians, is said to;have been a teacher in early,‘life. This may be true, but if‘so it must have been before he­moved to Little Skin Creek‘for no one now living has any:knowledge of his ever hav-:ing been a teacher in‘ this?community: The teachers -inthis community from 1840 to.1860 are well known and.Spaur's name does not appear,on this list. There is no re­cord of anyschool being taughtin the community prior to.1815. The two ‘creeks up tothis time had but few settlersand a sufficient number" ofchildren could ' not beassembled at any one pointto warrant a school. Begin­ning with the» year 1822schools were taught‘and by1835 a deep interest in-ed­ucation was manifested andrapid progress was made. .

Father Spaur, as he .was.called, was a plain -pioneerteacher with strong convic­tions, deeply seated religiouspractices, very. earnest but.somewhat eccentric and oftenamusing. Once when praying­for a penitentat the altar who;was notorious for his back--isliding tendency and who at,each annual protracted meet­ing. came forward to the altarto profess anew, Fatherspaursaid: "O, Lord, convert this

man and kill him and take him-'up to heaven, for Thou know-est he is a slippery dog."­‘ Another eccentric incident.is related that whencalled up-.on to perform a marriage_ceremony late in the eveningafter he had -retired, heor-Idered the bashful youngcouple.to stand at his bedside and’with his feet and naked legsdangling over the bedrail andthe covers thrownloosely overhis lap heperformed the cere­many that made them man andwife. He then ordered them to“clear out’ home"" as ' hewanted to sleep, whereuponhepromptly slid backiagain un-'der the covers and was-soon‘fast asleep.- - _‘

' '1‘fioiigh a 'regula’r‘3ordainedminister such as was commonin his day, he.was not an itin­erant preacher.‘He died somefew years prior to the CivilWar and was buried beside hiswife in the Georgetown ceme­tery. .

--'-7*-7‘-2'“

«gtflmr 227bar. —/~ /773

PARTXXIOn the dividing ridge be­

tween Big Skin Creek andWolf. Fork and on lands of-the late W.‘ R. Jewell thereis an. interesting curiosity,a huge rock, hundreds of tonsin weight resting high upona stern. insignificant. in sizeas regards- strength, knownlocally as the "‘tea-table.rock." This curiosity is theresult of erosion and althoughirregular in shape is well­balanced uponlts frail’ stemsomewhat resembling a gob-'let. ‘ . . . ­

To mount the rock one mustclimb a sapling close by from"which one can. easily step tothe summit- For more than acentury the .“tea-table".rockhas been‘the “Mecca” of pic­nic.parties and.visitors ingeneral which fact is fullyattested by the scores -ofnames chiseled upon its sum­,mit. In time. perhaps soon,its weightwill crushits wasp­like stem because of the cut­ting winds, freezing andthaw­ing, and the rock will then gothundering downthe mountainside through the timber to thevalley below.

James Morrison marriedMrs. Uriah Forinash, ayoungwidow with two children whosenames were Elizabeth andJacob. Her maiden name wasElizabeth Bozarth, and. shewas a,member of the Bozarthfamily so cruelly massacredat or near Buckhannon by the

.Indians the; summer of 1795.‘Elizabeth and her- mother,sister Mary andtwo broth­ers were also taken in cap­tivity at the same time, but‘all returned home again thejsame year after the Green­'_vi_l1eTreaty. The two chil­

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David Morrison, the fifth;on of James and ElizabethBozarth Forlnash) Mor­'i5on, married for his firstrrife Helen Shreves, whosenether was the daughter ofJacob Brake, who when a;mail boy was taken into cap­Livity from his home on theSouth Branch by the Indiansind was not restored to hisfamily until after he hadgrown.o manhood. His mother wasizilled by the Indians at thetime of/his capture. He mar­ried and settled on land nowincluded in north Buckhannon.vhere he lived and died.David Morrison's second wifewas the widow of Eli Morris-.vhosemaiden name was Han-‘nah Powers; and together withthe fourteen children by hisfirst wife and the three bynis second wife and the fourchildren brought into the fam­ily by her, the whole numberof children of David Mor­rison including step-chil-2tlr:-n was twenty-one. Hetherefore had thelargest ram­113'. and reared the greatestnumber of children than anyman on Big Skin Creek. Hishome was just a short dis­tance above Vandalia. Manyif the eldest children wereharried and settled in homesif their own long before henarried his second wife, andiiscntire family was there­ore perhaps never at anyme time domiciled under the;ame roof. The names of the-hildren of David and HelenShreves) Morrison are as

Jerome, Homer,Ellen, Melvina, La­

Jyette (Dock), William, Co­unibus. Martha Ann, Leon­.I;:;, Verdelia, Viola, Cor­eiia, and Dow Fulton." '

Jerome married SusanHeck, and the lived in ahouse that stood just acrossthe road from the M.P. Churchin Vandalia. Here. in a shopthat stood east from his resi­dence he plied his trade "asblacksmith during the CivilWar and for some years af­terward. He later moved toBuckhannon where he con­tinued his trade and was ac­counted the most skilledsmith in all the country. He,was a large man, of uncom­tnon strength, possessing nosurplus flesh, and no horse­however wild could get away:from him after he had oncegotten a firm hold of its foot.‘He was exceedingly quick andto show his skill often wonwagers in effectually weld­ing broken caseknife blades.He finally retired, purchaseda farm on Sand Run east fromBuckhannon where he con­tinued to live until he diedwell advanced in years. '

Munroe —Morrison marriedMartha Hardman, daughter ofJohn G. Hardmanof BraxtonCoun . 1iunroe was also ablacksmith and plied his tradeat various pointsabout theneighborhood, but when aboutmiddle age he engaged in themercantile business at Craw­ford, ‘Lewis County, where hecontinued to live until he died.

Homer and Mary EllenMorrison‘ were twins. Homermarried Mary David. MaryEllen-married Robert Johns,who_ for many years lived‘on Glady. Fork of 'Stone~‘coal. Melvina Morrison mar­ried James Martin, who once;lived in Vandalia.. ;

Lafayette Morrison. betterknownas Loc, married RhodaMalone, sister of Zachariahand Benjamin F-.'Malone, thelatter of whom died at his;home in Buckhannon ,not long.since. The Maiones camefrom Kanawha,County to Up­shur County in 1839.

William -Morrison married(1) Marcella l-lsrdman (2) IdaWard.y tra1t,._William was a blacksmith. Co--Tlumbus married (1) _RachelDean of UpShUI‘; (2) SusanSharp. He. lived in -Vandaliauntllgbout the year 1886, andlike his brothers, was ablack-~smith. He moved to West.Milford and became a mer­chant in whichbusiness he wasprosperous. He finallyretiredand moved to Clarksburgwhere he died.

Martha"Ann Morrison-married Walter Powers. a son ofBenoni Powers, and after a

-residence .in the communityfor some years moved hisfamily to.Fort Collins, Col­orado.

Leonidas, better known asLon, married Alice Curry.Lon was also a blacksmith,but soon abandoned that tradeand engaged in merchandisingat-.Centerville. After someyears in this business he sold’his store and moved to Buck­hannon_ where he became aheavy stockholder inwholesale grocery locatedthere and also in a wholesalegrocery at Burnsville,,B_rax-’ton County, and at Clarksburg. :Having prospered'in all these’ventures he finallyretiredandmoved with his family to Cal­ifornia.

the wife of Arvinza Warner,

formerly lived on- Big Skin‘

the '

Verdelia Morrison became Dates of issue of theWest Va. BILLBILLYcont'gparts of The People ofVANDALIA COMMUNITY.

better known as Vinton. Hewas a son of Adamiwarner who’

Creek but moved to WebsterCounty, wherehe passed the Date Part No,greater part of his life.Vin- '—'—" "——ton Warner was a blacksmith? 1973-07-07 1and for years-was the only -14 2one in Vandalia. " ‘ ‘ _ _21 3Viola Morrison “marriedWebster .Strother of, .whom_ -28 4nothing can be said because -03-04 5unintentionally no inquiries -11 ‘5were made."Cordella Mor- _13 7rison married David West,‘ 2a son .of David West‘, Sr.,.. " 5 8Shortly after. marriage he; -09-01 9moved to Colorado. ; -03 10

Dow Fulton Morrison, the‘ _15 11youngest sonlyof David and‘ *Helen (Shreves)‘ Morrison.‘ ’22married. (1) Carrie Sharpsy -29 13-(2) a.Miss Reed. . ' ‘ -10-o6 14

This J completes. the»ac'- _13 15count of‘ David-.. Morrison's 2 6children by. his.-first . wife. '- 0 1His second wife was the wid-— -27 17ow of Eli Morris as has al- -11_Q3 isready been stated,:and whose _10 19maiden. name was‘ Hannah 1 1 **Powers. The -children - by ' 7 9this second wife .,are: . John, -24 20Camdena and Ora. The names -12-Q1 21of the Morris children,,step- _o8 Lastchildren of David.Morrison,are: Lestie, _Dora, Florenceand Mollie. -' J: "» Dora was for many yearsa member oi__._.Jacobv,Mor­rison's family in whose_home_she died. :.some »years, ‘afterreaching womanhood; - ' .’ ** The Parts published on

*‘This part was un-numbered,but was titled "Pioneerburial Grounds".

g y _‘;..-‘.._4-_.-1~};}_:,,1.;_1\1_Q;,~,_.l;_;;;;_' consecutive weeks Nov 10w ' and Nov 17, were numbered

"19" as listed.

Q, Q , .0».(1

""73

M

up

41%

//at x e,~//”<‘/' “ ' ~ u is"

lndnx to

The PEOPLE of the VANDALIA

COMMUNITY

W Sam Rardman

This work is a gold mine ofgenealogical information foranyone having interests inLewis County, WV. During thepreparation of the index errorand inconsistency were notedto which the comments beloware addressed:

1) Several names appear to bequestionable:

Name as Correctpublished spellingBennett Bonnett '*Bott mu *'Caste GastoBslmic Helmickflsthas ‘MathewsOden OdomReach RoachStauts StaatsSummers Summers

' References to Bennett asfollows maybe correct:

Elizabeth BennettBennettJacob J: Rachel BennettWary Bennett PetersonBennett SurveyMary BennettWilliam FennettDavid, James and

Jonathan BennettThe indexer believes otherwiseBennett should be Bgnnett.

*' Note the discussion atB4 regs:-ding"Butt" and "Bott".Note also, the name "mtt" inline 6 appears to be an error.Jacob Bott, who remained inWV., appears to be the one whochanged his name to "Bott".

2)'I‘he distinction between somecommonnames is difficult, asCharles West Sr. and Jr.

3) Females are indexed undertheir maiden name and married"surname, given name"; but notas "Doe, John Mrs."

4) Original page "T" containedall of original page "S", plusa fifth column- the beginningof Part XIX. Original page "S"is deleted, page "T" is re­labelled "S". The result 15that the page sequence runs'3", "U", etc. '5) Certain material appears tohave been published in dupli­cate. Delete from page "Y" col} line 6, thro the remainderat page Y and page W, cols 1to 4 inclusive. This materialappears from page 5 col 5 thropage H.

3150?‘: Abifinil Mrs D1 Butcher, Jnmimn MrsAlbert, Felix D1 N4 Jefferson 1)Albert. Mary C In Hnrcilia Prs

Rehecca A D] Lynch,77- H. D1 Melissa Mrs

Alkire. B2 MiltonJacob 05 NancyJames 04 SarahJoseph 04 SilasNicholas F2 F3 ValentineOliver 04 Virginia Mrs

Allen, Christine Butt, Abs,-1Mary Adam

Arnold, Elizabeth Henry 33 F2 12Beal, Jennie Mrs Henry J,5959191: 59”} Jacob B3Bennett, Job ­

David John B} B4Elizabeth John .1Jacob ' Butte,James 37 Caste, Amy E2Jonathon M M A3311 E2Louis B4 B5 N4 ‘ Dow .' Issac E2 E1

Mary Mrs LutherRachael Mary JWilliam Matilda Mrs

Betta, William Mn?) Rev mean Mrs01 02 R4 Chideater, Granville M

Black: U3 X2 Phineas W E}Boceek, Thomas E K} Polly Mrs

Willis P K} R. V.Bennett, F1 R5 S1 Susan ltrs

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Page 5

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.' 111/‘Con/Jll of Uriah Forinash, Eliz­

! -:h and Jacob, grewto man­..t. id and womanhood in theLianne of James Morrison.‘their step-father, who livedin below Bucklianncn, andbothvi.-re__m~a4rriedthere beforethey moved to Big SkinCreek.Elizabeth became the wife ofDavid Hull, longtime mer­chant in Vandalia. Jacobmar­ried a Miss Cutright,who borehim two children, Isaac andJacob Forinash, Junior. AsJacob Forinash, ’Sr., Eliza­beth Hall and Jacob Forinash.Jr., have already been dis­cussed on previous pages,nothing further need be saidhere concerning them. '.

The children ofJames Mor­rison and his wife who as al-‘ready stated was the widowofUriah Forinash and whosemaiden name was ElizabethBozarth are as follows:James, Isaac, Jacob, John and.David. There seems to havebeen no daughter. James hadtwo sons who lived nearRock Cave in Upshur Coun­ty, named David and Alvey,the latter living on the homefarm; [sage married Harriet~———-———.The following arethe names of their children:Henry, who married Lucy— ; Hester who mar­ried ‘Ailen Skidmore; Jennie\vho married Bea];Elizabetii who marriedReed and Christine who wasnever married. .

Jacob, the third son ofJames and Elizzabeth Mor­rison, married Margaret Mc­Nemar, daughter of Phillipi‘.ici\’emar. he - names of}their children are as fol­lows: Riley, Gideon, Haniey,

harles Granville, Dr. Frank,Jane and Leonidas, commonlyrailed Lee. John. the fourthson of James and Elizabeth

Morrison, married (1) a MissBlack: (2) Sarah . Bonnett,daughter of Peter Bonnett,early pioneer on Big SkinCreek. The children by thefirst wife were: James; Sam,John. Morgan, Jacob. Alvin,Lucy, Susan and David. Jamesmarried Rachael West, daugh­ter of Charles West, earlypioneer on Hughes Fork ofBig Skin Creek, and they hadtwo children, Charles andJane. Charles married Moi-'lie Curtis, daughter ofGeorge

' W. Curtis of. Curtis Run.Jane met a tragic death in.an attempt to shoot a hawkthat had caught a chicken and 'was devouring it near thehouse. In her excitement,sh.esnatched the gun. from .‘the.rack above the doorand with,the butt of the gun resting up­on the floor, and her footupon the hammer, was in theact of blowing throughit tosee if it was loaded, when her”foot slippedfrom the hammerand the gun was discharged,killing her instantly., Hermother at the time lay sick.in bed and unable to summon­the neighbors for assistanceand the rest of the familywas absent from home.

The family of.James Mor-'rison lived on Glady Fork ofBig »Skin _Creek when 3 thistragedy ‘occurred. Sam Mor­rison married a MissGraves.Very little isknown of him."John Morrison went west andmarried there. Morganmar­ried a Miss Cutright andlived.-on Glady Fork oi StonecoaldHe wasrnarried 'a -second:time to a Miss Snyder. JacobMorrison also married a‘Miss . Cutright and lived;there in the neighborhood. Al- »

,vin Morrison married a Miss’Graves, a sister. to his._broth- A

er Sam's wife. LucyMorrisonmarried Jonatl_1:1_tLMarsh.son0! Spencer Marsh, Sr., anearly pioneer 'on Big SkinCreek. A daughter of Jon­athan Marsh became the wifeof William Marsh, youngestson of Rev. Geo. I. Marsh,of Big _Skin Creek. .SusanMorrison married ' DowCaste. David Morrison mar­ried Roxie Vandevender. Hewas killed by a falling limb.He left a son named Edward,who -lives at ‘Lost.Creek,Harrison County:-This com­p]e[es‘g the -list of-_the, chil­dren '01"John Morrison, Sr.-,by his first Wl.f€.‘?-T'.lQ1‘e«W8l‘9­no issue by the second Wife.-,who as already stated was­before. her marriage SarahBennett. .. *

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