Berkeley County WV Archives History - Books .....Berkeley County History From Historical Collections Of Virginia By Henry Howe 1845
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Alice Warner http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00015.html#0003503 April 2, 2008, 9:46 pm

Book Title: Historical Collections Of Virginia By Henry Howe, 1845

Berkeley, 190-193

Berkeley was formed in 1772 from Frederick. Its mean length is 22 1/2 miles;
mean breadth, 13 miles. The surface is much broken and mountainous. Back and
Opequan creeks run through the county and empty into the Potomac. Some of the
land bordering these streams and the Potomac River, is very fertile. Anthracite
coal is found in the western section of this county. Population: 1830, 10,528;
1840, whites 8,760, slaves 1,919, free colored 293; total 10,972. Darksville and
Gerardstown contain each from 30 to 40 dwellings. Martinsburg, the county-seat,
lies on the line of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, 169 miles NNW of Richmond,
77 from Washington, and 20 from Harper's Ferry.

[Image captioned "Central View in Martinsburg"]

It is compactly built, and contains 2 newspaper printing offices; 7 stores; a
market; 1 Presbyterian, 1 Lutheran, 1 Episcopal, 1 German Reformed, 1 Methodist,
and 1 Catholic church; and a population of about 1700. This town was laid out by
Adam Stephen, Esq., and established by law in 1778, when the following gentlemen
were appointed trustees: James McAlister, Joseph Mitchell, Anthony Noble, James
Strode, Robert Carter Willis, William Patterson, and Philip Pendleton. It
derived its name from the late Col. T.B. Martin. The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad
passes through the village.

The public building, in the centre of the view, is the court-house, which was
built a year after the formation of the county, in the reign of George III. The
jail at this place is rarely tenanted, and but one individual has been sent to
the penitentiary within the last 12 years. Traces of the road cut by Braddock's
army on their unfortunate expedition to the west, are discernible near the town.
In St. Clair's defeat, about 80 citizens of the county were killed. In the
vicinity of Leetown, (in the adjoining county of Jefferson) there lived within a
few miles of each other, after the war of the Revolution, three general officers
of the American army -- Alexander Stephens, Horatio Gates, and Charles Lee. The
will of the latter is in the clerk's office, in ths county. The accompanying
extract from it, is in keeping with its eccentric author:

"I desire most earnestly that I may not be buried in any church or church-yard,
or within a mile of any Presbyterian or Anabaptist meeting-house, for since I
have resided in this country, I have kept so much bad company while living, that
I do not choose to continue it when dead."

General Lee's unbounded ambition led him to envy the great fame of Washington,
and it was supposed his aim was to supersede him in the supreme command. He
wrote a pamphlet, filled with scurrilous imputations upon the military talents
of the commander in chief. In consequence, he was challenged by Col. Laurens,
one of Washington's aids, and was wounded in the duel which ensued. Degraded in
the opinions of the wise and virtuous, he retired to this section of country,
where, secluded from society, he lived in a rude hovel, without windows or
plastering, or even a decent article of furniture, and with but few or no
companions but his books and dogs. In 1780, Congress resolved that they had no
further occasion for his services in the army. In the autumn of 1782, wearied
with his forlorn situation and broken in spirits, he went to Philadelphia,
where, in his lodgings in an obscure public house he soon died, a martyr to
chagrin and disappointment. In his dying moments, he was, in imagination, on the
field of battle: the last words he was heard to utter were, "Stand by me, my
brave grenadiers!"

Gen. Gates, of whom the prediction of Gen. Lee was verified, "that his northern
laurels would be covered with southern willow," was, after the disastrous battle
of Camden, suspended from military command until 1782, when the great scenes of
the war were over. Gates was one of the infamous cabal who designed to supplant
Washington: but he lived to do justice to the character of that great man.

After the war, Gates lived about seven year on his plantation in Virginia, the
remainder of his life he passed near New York city. In 1800, he was elected to
the legislature of that state by the anti-federal party. He died in 1806, aged
78 years. "A few years before his death, he generously gave freedom to his
slaves, making provision for the old and infirm, while several testified their
attachment to him by remaining in his family. In the characteristic virtue of a
planter's hospitality, Gates had no competitor, and his reputation may well be
supposed to put this virtue to a hard test. He had a handsome person, and was
gentlemanly in his manners, remarkably courteous to all, and carrying good humor
sometimes beyond the nice limit of dignity." Both Lee and Gates were natives of
England, and all three, Lee, Gates, and Stephens, had command of Virginia troops.

Many of the early settlers of the county were Scotch-Irish, who were
Presbyterians. "It is said that the spot where Tuscarora meeting-house now
stands, is the first place where the gospel was preached and divine service
performed, west of the Blue Ridge, This was, and still remains, a Presbyterian
edifice. Mr. Semple, in his history of the Virginia Baptists, states that in the
year 1754, Mr. Stearns, a preacher of this denomination, with several others,
removed from New England. 'They halted first at Opequon, in Berkeley county,
Va., where he formed a Baptist church, under the care of the Rev. John Gerard.'
This was probably the first Baptist church founded west of the Blue Ridge."

There is an interesting anecdote, related by Kercheval, in his account of Indian
incursions and massacres in this region, of a young and beautiful girl, named
Isabella Stockton, who was taken prisoner in the attack on Neally's fort, and
carried and sold to a Canadian in Canada. A young Frenchman, named Plata,
becoming enamored with her, made proposals of matrimony. This she declined,
unless her parents' consent could be obtained -- a strong proof of her filial
affection and good sense. The Frenchman conducted her home, readily believing
that his generous devotion and attachment to the daughter would win their
consent. But the prejudices then existing against the French, made her parents
and friends peremptorily reject his overtures. Isabella then agreed to elope
with him, and mounting two of her father's horses, they fled, but were overtaken
by her two brothers in pursuit, by whom she was forcibly torn from her lover and
protector and carried back to her parents, while the poor Frenchman was warned
that his life should be forfeit of any farther attempts.

---

The Hon. Felix Grundy was born on the 11th of Sept., 1777, in a log house on
Sleepy Creek in this county. His father was a native of England. When Felix was
but two years of age, his family removed to what is now Brownsville, Penn., and
in 1780 to Kentucky, where he lived from childhood to maturity, and in 1807 or
1808, removed to Tennessee.

Mr. Grundy was one of the most distinguished lawyers and statesmen of the
western states. When in the councils of the nation, he had but few superiors. He
was always a zealous and most efficient supporter of the democratic party. "His
manners were amiable, his conversation instructive, abounding in humor and
occasionally sarcastic. His cheerful disposition gained him friends among his
political opponents, and rendered him the delight of the domestic circle. His
morals were drawn from the pure fountain of Christianity, and, while severe with
himself, he was charitable to others. Integrity and justice controlled his
transactions with his fellow-men."

---

"Col. Crawford emigrated from Berkeley county in 1768, with his family, to
Pennsylvania. He was a captain in Forbes' expedition, in 1758. He was the
intimate friend of Washington, who was frequently an inmate of his humble
dwelling, during his visits to the then west, for the purpose of locating lands
and attending to public business. Col. Crawford was one of the bravest men on
the frontier, and often took the lead in parties against the Indians across the
Ohio. His records and papers were never preserved, and very little else than a
few brief anecdotes remain to perpetuate his fame. At the commencement of the
Revolution, he raised a regiment by his own exertions, with great reluctance,
the command of an expedition to ravage the Wyandott and Moravian Indian towns on
the Muskingum. On this expedition, at the age of 50, he was taken prisoner, and
put to death by the most excruciating tortures."

Additional Comments:
This entire book is available in the USGenweb Archives. The section for each
county of the book is in each county's directory, where the current county lies,
in WV, VA and DC archives. The outline history of Virginia is in the VA
statewide directory.

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