Greenbrier County, West Virginia Biography of JOSEPH JARRETT. This biography was submitted by Sandy Spradling, E-mail address: This file may be freely copied by individuals and non-profit organizations for their private use. All other rights reserved. Any other use, including publication, storage in a retrieval system, or transmission by electronic, mechanical, or other means requires the written approval of the file's author. This file is part of the WVGenWeb Archives. If you arrived here inside a frame or from a link from somewhere else, our front door is at http://www.usgwarchives.net/wv/wvfiles.htm History of Greenbrier County J. R. Cole Lewisburg, WV 1917 p. 327-328 JOSEPH JARRETT. Joseph Jarrett (1811-1898) was a native of Greenbrier county, his ancestors being among the pioneer settlers, his grand-parents having settled first on Wolf creek, then Greenbrier county, prior to the Revolutionary war, where a fort, used as a place of refuge from the Indians, was called Jarrett's Fort. This fort was built in 1771-1772 and was in command of Daniel Boone during an Indian raid in 1774. The stone house, which was built soon after by the Jarretts on Muddy creek, is still standing near Alderson. The Jarretts have always been noted as people of perseverance, long life and endurance, and Polly (Griffith) Jarrett, maternal grandmother of Joseph Jarrett, is said to have frequently walked a distance of sixteen miles to Lewisburg in order to hear a favorite minister preach. She died in 1802. Joseph Jarrett was a son of James Jarrett and Ruth (Gwinn) J arrett. For many years he was an extensive stock and cattle raiser, the latter part of this time being in partnership with his son-in-law, Edwin Franklin Hill. He was a man of fine business qualities and managed his financial affairs with wisdom and pru dence. He was a Methodist and his house was the home of min- isters of that faith whenever they came to that section. He had four brothers, Samuel, Andrew, James, and Ira, and seven sisters, Betsy McClung, Deliah Warren, Ruth Leonard, Evelyn Conner, Rosanna Argabrite, Margaret Clay and Sidney Cook, all of whom lived to a ripe old age. Joseph Jarrett and his brother Samuel were taken prisoners to Camp Chase, Ohio, in 1862, as Southern sympathizers and for rendering aid to the South. Ben Morris, a relative of Kanawha county, sent them money with which to procure food during their imprisonment. Joseph Jarrett was married on August 20, 1834, to Malinda McClung, who was born December 12, i808, and died at the home of her daughter, Mrs. Hill, December 11, 1891, within one day of being 83 years of age. Mrs. Jarrett, who belonged to one of Greenbrier's oldest families, was a granddaughter of John Viney, who settled here about 1775, her grandmother being a Claypoole. The land which belonged to these two familes was about 1,500 acres, and was located between the waters of Muddy creek and Mill creek. Many descendants of this old pioneer, John Viney, are living in Greenbrier county, and some live on part of the land which was secured by him from the Government, but both the names of Viney and Claypoole are extinct. Mrs. Jarrett was a daughter of Sallie (Viney) McClung and Ned McClung. By all who knew her she was considered a woman of fine qualities and sterling character. During the terrible epidemic of camp fever among the Southern soldiers, who were in camp near her farm, she prepared food for the sick, of whom one hundred South Carolina and Georgia volunteers died and were buried in a beautiful grove on the farm of Captain Buster, at Blue Sulphur Springs.