Fayette County WV Archives History - Books .....Chapter V Period Of Early Exploration 1926
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Book Title: History Of Fayette County West Virginia

CHAPTER V
PERIOD OF EARLY EXPLORATION

FIRST WHITE MEN AT KANAWHA FALLS

  Probably the first white men to set foot on the land now included in Fayette
county were Captain Thomas Batts, Thomas Wood, and Robert Fallam who discovered
the Kanawha Falls on September 16, 1671.

  Governor Berkeley of Virginia was endeavoring to obtain information regarding
the vast Trans-Montaine Region and accordingly issued a commission to
Major-General Abram Wood "for the finding out the ebbing and flowing of ye South
Sea or of the water on the other side of ye mountains." General Wood could not
himself engage in the exploration, but in 1671 he sent out a party consisting of
Captain Thomas Batts, Thomas Wood, Robert Fallam, Jack Neasam (a servant of
General Wood), and Perecute, a chief of the Appomattox Indians, as guide. From
the journal kept by Captain Batts we can trace the course of their journey.

  The party left the Appomattox town, now Petersburg, Virginia, on the first day
of September 1671; on the 7th they were on the Blue Ridge; on the 13th they were
on Swope 's Knob, now in Monroe county, West Virginia; early in the morning of
the 14th, while on Keeney's Knob, in Summers county, they saw Sewell mountain
and the gray cliffs above New river; about noon that day they camped in
Quinnimont district of Fayette county; about noon on September 16th they
refreshed themselves with two wild turkeys shot near the present site of Ansted;
and on the evening of the same day they reached Kanawha Falls, where they "had a
sight of a curious river like the Thames at Chelsea, but had a fall that made a
great noise." Its course was nearly north and they supposed that it turned to
the west "about certain pleasant mountains which they saw to the westward."

  The party camped at the Falls of Kanawha on the night of September 16th, and
we find in the Journal a record of the next day, as follows:

  " September 17th. Early in the morning we went to seek some trees to mark, our
Indians being impatient of longer delay, by reason it was likely to be bad
weather, and that it was so difficult to get provision. We found four trees
exceeding fit for our purpose, that had been half barked by our Indians,
standing one after another (the trees). We first proclaimed the King in these
words: 'Long live Charles ye 2nd, by the grace of God, King of England,
Scotland, France, Ireland and Virginia, and of all the territories belonging
thereto; defender of the faith, &c'; then we fired some guns and went to the
first tree which we marked thus C. R. with a pair of marking irons for His
Sacred Majesty; then the next thus W. B. for the right hon'ble Governor Sir
William Berkeley; the third was marked A. W. for the hon'ble Major-General Wood;
the last was marked thus R. F. P. for Perecute, who said he would turn
Englishman. On another tree hard by we marked these letters, one under another,
E. N., T. T., N. P., V. E. R., after which we had done. We then went ourselves
down to the river side, but not without great difficulty, it being a piece of
very rich ground whereon the Mohicans had formerly lived, and which was grown up
with weeds and small prickly locusts and thistles to a great height that it was
almost impossible to pass. It cost us hard labor to get through. When we came to
the river side we found it better and broader than we expected, much like James
river at Col. Skaggs', the falls much like these falls. We imagine by the water
marks that it flows here about three feet. It was ebbing water when we were
here. We set up a stick by the water side, but found it ebb very slowly. Our
Indians kept up such a hollowing that we durst not stay away longer to make
further trial. Immediately upon our coming to quarters, we returned homeward."

  Such was the discovery of the Falls of the Great Kanawha, September 16,
1671—over two hundred and fifty years ago.

EARLY SURVEYS, EXPLORATIONS AND INCIDENTS THAT HAD AN INFLUENCE ON THE HISTORY
OF THIS SECTION

  About the year 1744, the settlements on the border of Virginia, Pennsylvania
and Maryland were rapidly extending to the westward and thus encroaching upon
the lands of the Indians which were claimed by the six nations.

  That matters might be satisfactorily adjusted the colonies named secured a
meeting of the Indian chiefs with the Commissioners, those on the part of
Virginia being Thomas Lee and William Beverly.

  The negotiations began June 22, 1744 and continued until July 4th ensuing, the
place of meeting being Lancaster, Pennsylvania.

  A peace was concluded and the region lying between the Alleghanies and the
Ohio was ceded to the English, the consideration being 400 pounds. Thus the
title of what is now West Virginia passed for the time being from the Six
Nations and vested in the English King.

  About the middle of the 18th century many cabin homes dotted the country along
the upper waters of the Potomac, but no one had yet found a habitation west of
the mountains. But about this time an effort was made to settle the region
toward the Ohio river.

  In 1748 a corporation known as the "Ohio Company" was formed. It was composed
of John Hanbury, a merchant of London, Thomas Nelson, Thomas Lee, William
Thornton, William Nimms, Daniel Cresap, Michael Cresap, Lawrence Washington,
George Fairfax, Jacob Giles, Nathaniel Chapman and James Woodrop.

  This company in 1749 was granted 500,000 acres of land on the Ohio situated on
both sides of the river, principally within the present counties of Jefferson
and Columbiana in Ohio, and Brooke county in West Virginia.

  By the Ohio Valley is meant all that vast region drained by the Ohio river and
its tributaries, and within it lay all of West Virginia except that part drained
by the Potomac.

  England claimed all the great Valley, and based her claims upon the
discoveries of the Cabots on the Atlantic coast, which, she asserted, extended
her possessions from sea to sea. Besides, England had purchased a large part of
the territory from the Indians at the treaty of Lancaster.

  France occupied all Canada, and rested her claim to the Ohio Valley upon the
discoveries of La Salle who descended the Ohio river in 1669-70, and also upon
that of Marquette, who was at the mouth of the Ohio in 1680. A common law of
nations gave to the country discovering the mouth of a river all the country
drained by it France could not understand by what authority England granted
lands on the Ohio river, or why that kingdom undertook to purchase the same from
the Indians.

  France resolved to perfect her title to the Ohio Valley by formal possession,
and determined to place along that river, a number of leaden plates bearing
inscriptions asserting her claims to the lands on both sides of that stream,
even to the source of its tributaries. The command of the expedition sent out to
deposit these plates was given to Captain Bienville de Celoron. The command
consisted of 8 subaltern officers, 6 cadets, an armorer, 20 soldiers, 180
Canadians, 55 Indians, and Father Bonnecamps, who styled himself the "Jesuitte
Mathematician."

  The expedition left La Chine, near Montreal, Canada, on June 15, 1749. Celoron
was provided with at least six leaden plates, each of which was about eleven
inches long, seven and a half inches wide, and a quarter of an inch in
thickness. These plates were buried at the mouths of various tributaries of the
Ohio.

  On the morning of August 18, 1749, a rain-storm drove the canoes ashore at the
mouth of the Great Kanawha; and here on that day the fifth plate was buried. The
entry made in Celoron's journal here, translated, read as follows: "Buried at
the foot of an elm, on the south bank of the Ohio and on the east bank of the
Chinondaista, the 18th day of August 1749."

  This plate was found in 1846, and removed from the spot in which it had lain
for ninety-seven years. The following is the inscription which it bears: "In the
year 1749, reign of Louis XV., King of France, we, Celoron, commandant of a
detachment sent by Monsieur the Marquis de la Galisoniere, Commandant General of
New France, to re-establish tranquility in some Indian villages in these
cantons, have buried this plate at the mouth of the Chinodashichetha the 18th
August, near the river Ohio, otherwise 'Beautiful River,' as a monument of
renewal of possession which we have taken of the said river Ohio, and of all
those which fall into it, and of all the lands on both sides as far as the
sources of said rivers; the same as were enjoyed, or ought to have been enjoyed,
by the preceding Kings of France, and that they have maintained it by their
arms, and by treaties, especially by those of Ryswiek, Utrecht, and
Aix-la-cha-pelle."

  The English disregarded the claims of the French, and the Virginia authorities
continued to issue land grants to be located in the Ohio Valley.

  The Governor and Council, on July 12, 1749, issued a grant to John Lewis,
Thomas Walker and others, under the corporate name of the "Loyal Company" for
800,000 acres of land, the boundary of which was to begin on the line between
Virginia and North Carolina.

  Another corporation under the name of the "Greenbrier Company" was authorized
on October 29, 1751 to locate 100,000 acres on the waters of Greenbrier river.

  The Ohio Company in September 1750, employed Christopher Gist, for 150 pounds
and other considerations, to make explorations in the Ohio Valley.

  Christopher Gist was a distinguished surveyor of North Carolina. He was also
an experienced woodsman, and accompanied George Washington when he was sent
during the winter of 1753 by the Governor of Virginia to carry a letter to the
officer in charge of the French forces who were building forts on the Alleghany
river, which requested the French to withdraw from that country.

  Gist began his journey of exploration in October 1750, and returned in May
1751, having descended the Ohio river to the falls, now Louisville, Kentucky,
but he had only observed the lands north of the Ohio.

  The Ohio Company sent Gist out again November 4, 1751, this time to explore
the lands between the Monongahela and the Great Kanawha rivers. He traversed
this entire region, and it was during the latter part of the year 1751 that
Christopher Gist explored up the Kanawha and New rivers. In this year he was in
Fayette county and climbed to the top of Hawks Nest Rock, which is also known in
history as Marshall's Pillar.

  Gist made his report to the company in October 1752, and the company hastened
to petition the king to grant to it all the territory south of the Ohio river
bounded as follows: "Beginning at the mouth of the Kiskiminetas Creek, a
tributary of the Alleghany in Pennsylvania; thence down the Ohio to the mouth of
the Great Kanawha river; thence with that stream and New river to the mouth of
Greenbrier river; thence a straight line along the mountains to the southeast
spring on the Monongahela; and thence northward, until a line from the mountains
reaches the place of the beginning." In consideration of this grant the company
was speedily to erect two forts, one at the mouth of Chartier's creek on the
Alleghany, and the other at the mouth of the Great Kanawha, and to settle three
hundred families within the limits of the grant. But war put an end to this
project.

  Early in 1765, shortly after the close of the French and Indian War, the first
English expedition descended the Ohio river. It was commanded by Colonel George
Crogan, of Pennsylvania, and was sent out for the purpose of exploring the
country adjacent to the Ohio river, and for the purpose of conciliating the
Indian nations which had hitherto taken part with the French.

  On May 15, 1765 the expedition left Fort Pitt with two batteaux; on the 22nd
of the same month, they were at the mouth of the Great Kanawha; the voyage
continued to the Falls of the Ohio, and Crogan having accomplished the object of
his mission returned by way of the Great Lakes to Niagara.

  A definite boundary line was now sought by both the Indians and the
Virginians. Governor Blair in his message to the House of Burgesses of Virginia,
May 31, 1768, said: "A set of men regardless of the laws of natural justice, and
in contempt of royal proclamation, have dared to settle themselves upon the
lands near the Cheat river, which are the property of the Indians." The same
year the Six Nations, in an address to Colonel Crogan, said of these lands, "It
is time enough to settle them when you have purchased them and the country
becomes yours."

  A request went overseas, and the British government ordered Sir William
Johnson, its Superintendent of Indian Affairs, to at once complete the purchase
of the land from the Alleghanies to the Ohio river. Upon receipt of these
instructions, Colonel Johnson gave notice of a Congress to be held at Fort
Stanwix, now Rome, New York.

  The governments of Virginia, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey, and also the Six
Nations, were requested to send representatives. This was done and the delegates
assembled on October 24, 1768.

  Sir William Johnson presided at this Congress which was held at Fort Stanwix.
The right and title of the Indians to the territory in question was maintained
with all the eloquence of forest orators. The Colonial Commission admitted the
same, and tendered the sum of money and goods aggregating in value the sum of
ten thousand four hundred and sixty pounds, seven shillings and three pence, in
payment therefor. The offer was accepted and the deed of cession was signed and
delivered.

  The territory thus ceded, of which West Virginia was a part, was bounded on
the west by a line beginning at the mouth of the Tennessee river and running
thence with the south bank of the Ohio river to the Kittanning, above Fort Pitt.

  The cession of what is now West Virginia to the English by the treaty of Fort
Stanwix, led to a renewed effort to settle the wilderness west of the mountains.

  The Virginia land office records show how rapidly these West Virginia lands
were being appropriated at this time.

  In 1768 a great corporation known as the "Mississippi Company" made an effort
to secure a grant of land in which all of West Virginia west of the mountains
was included.

  In December 1768, Arthur Lee, late Commissioner to the Court of France from
the United Colonies, presented a petition to the King of England on behalf of
himself and 49 others, asking that a grant be made to them for 2,500,000 acres
of land, to be located between the 38th and 47th degrees of north latitude, the
Alleghany mountains on the east and the Ohio river on the west.

  This petition, which is still preserved in England, was referred to the Board
of Trade, which body appears never to have made a report thereon.

  Under the provisions of Governor Dinwiddie's Proclamation of 1754, Virginians
serving in the French and Indian War were entitled to patents for western lands.

  George Washington and his soldiers were among those entitled to be benefited
by this provision. In 1770 Washington made a journey to the Ohio for the purpose
of locating some of the lands. He left Mount Vernon on October 5th, and on the
last day of October, the party encamped on the site of the present town of Point
Pleasant, and the next day proceeded up the Great Kanawha for the purpose of
examining the lands along that river. Several days were spent in locating lands,
and during the entire time of this journey more than one hundred thousand acres
were marked out on the south bank of the Ohio river and in the valley of the
Great Kanawha. When his work was completed, Washington returned home, reaching
Mount Vernon on the first day of December.

  We are indebted to Virgil A. Lewis' "History of West Virginia" for much of the
data included in this chapter.


Additional Comments:

Extracted from:

HISTORY OF FAYETTE COUNTY
WEST VIRGINIA
BY
J. T. PETERS AND H. B. CARDEN

1926
JARRETT PRINTING COMPANY
CHARLESTON, W. VA.


Copyright, 1926. 
BY THE FAYETTE COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY, INC.
All Rights Reserved.


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