Copyright, 1913. by J. M. Callahan Today we celebrate The ripe achievemets of our fifty years :— The mastery Of forest, field and mine, the mill which rears Its bulk o'er many a stream, the forge and factory's Incessant hum, The railways linking mart to mart and home to home, The growth of trade in each emporium, And other wealth material that has come To bless Our subjugation of a wilderness, And mien undaunted in a time of stress :— All these we proudly sum. The pride is just; hut let it not ignore Our progress in the things that count for more In strengthening a state Than wealth material won. Let it relate what we have done To further Education, and promote An understanding near of things remote. What may we claim Of those fine civic traits which earn the name Of a great commonwealth, And are the tokens of sound civic health? Respect for law, to each his equal chance, For variant opinion, tolerance; Yet in the Issues real That touch the common weal Conscience implacable, that alike defies The bribe, the threat, or coward compromise. And most of all, As we survey the decades since our birth, And count our present worth, Let us recall The hardy virtues that first cleared the ways To these abundant days; Nor, in the privilege Of statehood which has brought us where we are, Forget the pledge Implied when first we set our eager star Amid the galaxy That crowns the ensign of a Nation free: The pledge to keep the star forever pure By probity of purpose and of deed; In home and court and office to abjure The sordid aim, the cloudy arts of greed; Keep clean and straight Our private ways ; and dedicate The best that In us lies to serve the State:— So that the light symbolic of that star, By us replenished still, shall constant be, And carry far The noblest radiance of Democracy. From a poem oy Herbert Putnam. PREFACE The Semi-Centennial Commission decided that the celebration of the fiftieth anniversary of the birth of the state should be given a practical form in some enterprise of permanent value. It seized the opportunity, furnished by the occasion, to collect data and publish a historical volume the value of which will be increasingly realized and appreciated in the later years of maturity of development result- ing from the recent industrial awakening. At the close of November 1912, in response to an invitation of the Governor and the Executive Committee of the Commission, I agreed to furnish for publication in connection with the Semi-Centen- nial celebration the manuscript of a condensed historical narrative which I had prepared largely from researches conducted, during several vacation periods, incidental to the assemblage of materials for class use at the West Virginia University and coincident with various attempts to stimulate, the study of local history in the state. At the same time I agreed to take general editorial control of the preparation of a series of special articles, by different contribu- tors, to combine with the unified narrative. What at first seemed an innocent, and even an attractive, propo- sition, later assumed uglier proportions as I approached the duties of its concrete requirements. In addition to the duties inci- dent to the editorial work I have spent much additional time and labor in the further elaboration and completion of the chapters of my historical narrative. By much strenuous but quiet labor, the author obtained his materials from many sources—from old files of various newspapers, old manuscript record books and old letters, pamphlets and public documents, and reminiscences secured by interviews with the partici- pants in public affairs. Arduous investigations, requiring much correspondence with many people in all parts of the state, and necessitating visits to many points in the state, have been conducted principally in the Department of Archives and History at Charleston, in the Library of Congress at Washington, D. C., in the Library of West Virginia University, in the Wheeling Public Library and in the Carnegie Library at Pittsburg. IV PREFACE. Footnote references to authorities, which appeared in the first draft of the author's manuscript, have been omitted to meet limita- tions of space; but a carefully prepared bibliography is included in convenient form. Although no pains have been spared to secure accuracy of state- ment, the author is conscious of the imperfections of the work and does not doubt that mistakes have escaped his detection. He has made no attempt to secure uniformity in the style of special articles pre- pared by others, each of whom is responsible for his own contribution. Cordial thanks are due all who have given assistance in securing data. Among those who deserve special mention are Professor D. D. Johnson who rendered valuable service in the corrections of copy and galley proof, and my wife whose constant service entitles her to the "better half of the credit of authorship. In completing the labor involved in the preparation of the volume, I greatly appreciate the opportunity which it has afforded me to render service to the state and to extend my acquaintance among its people. J. M. CALLAHAN . West Virginia University, Morgantown, W. Va., June 30, 1913. ERRATA Page 6.—In line II, Carribean should be Caribbean. Page 18.—In line 38. Hates should be Balls. Page 48.—In line 1. omit the comma. Page 67.—At end of line 3, Insert were. Page 127.—T° complete a footnote, add a line—flrc in-res of land with a house, ui r, house and lot in town. Page 128._in line 14, the date JWH should be niS. Page 173.—Top folio line ISli should be 187S. Page 191.—In running' head. Airakeiiiff should be An'ukeninu. Page 252.—In line 2. excernifse should be exercise. Page 255.—In line 13, l/otindry should be boundary. In line 20, seperation should be separation. In line 22. embarras should be embarrass. In line 24, histroical should be historical. In line 28. preservration should be preservation. publicatione should be publications. Page 257- -In \iae 28• I01' should be or. In line 29, awaken should be awakened. In line 30, omit be. polfitiral should he political. Page 262.- -In iine 35, Younhoighent/ should be Youghiogheny. improtamce should be importance. Page 264.—In line 21, argn/mcnt should be argument. page 280.—In line 27.—fedevcy should be federacy. Page 281.—In line 1. solemnly should be solemnly. page 286.—At bottom of page, omit the last title. Page 321.—In line 5, bridgless should be bridgeless. Page 33B.--In line 0, scrirf should he frame. Page 380.—In line 22, Unoinfovn should he Untontown. Page 472.—In line 0. Clerenlanrl should he Cleveland. Page 513.--[n line 11, 6 ebrouc/ht should be bf brought. Page 514.- -After line 17. Insert sub-head. Thr Period from 1MO to 1SIO. Page 552. —In line 4 from bottom, publication should be publications. Page 582. -In line 4, nccomplshinents should be accomplishments. Page 583.- In line 51. progresire should be progressive. Page 586.—-In last line of first stanza. TS'er should be E'eii. Page 588.—In line 24, tiro should be too. Line 17 from bottom should appear as line 13 from bottom. CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE INTRODUCTION ..................................... 1 I. GEOGRAPHIC CONDITIONS ............................ 6 1. Physical Basis ...................•..•••••••••• 6 2. Old Indian Trails ............................. 9 II. THE STRUGGLE FOB POSSESSION AND EVOLUTION OF SETTLE- MENTS ................................•••••••••• 14= 1. The First Advance ......................•••••• 14: 2. The First Decade of Trans-Allegheny Advance..... 20 3. The Rear Guard of the Revolution ............... 30 4. Expansion of Settlements after Wayne's Victory... 40 III. EARLY INDUSTRIAL AND SOCIAL LIFE .................. 48 1. General Survey ............................... 48 2. Eastern Panhandle and South Branch ........... 60 3. New River and Greenbrier ..................... 6% 4. The Monongahela Valley ....................... 63 5. Along the Ohio ...... ^........................ 78 6. Along the Great Kanawha ...................... 85 7. The Interior South of the Kanawha. .............. 87 IV. HISTORIC HIGHWAYS ............................... 90 1. National (Cumberland) Road.................. 90 2. James River and Kanawha Turnpike ............. 92 3. Staunton and Parkersburg Turnpike ............. 104 4. Northwestern Turnpike ....................... .106 V. THE FIRST RAILROAD ............................... 110 1. Earlier Conception and Difficulties ..............110 2. Harpers Ferry to Cumberland ...................112 3. Selection of the Route from Cumberland to the Ohio ......................................113 4. Construction from Cumberland to Wheeling .......115 5. Facilities of Travel and Connections ............. 122 6. Grafton-Parkersburg Branch .................... 123 7. The Celebration .. ".............................124 8. Influence ..................................... 125 VI. SECTIONALISM : POLITICAL AND CONSTITUTIONAL DEVELOP- MENT ........................................... 126 1. Introduction ...................................126 2. A Half Century under the Constitution of the Revolution ................................. 126 3. The Constitutional Convention of 1829-30 ........130 4. The Constitution of 1850 ....................... 136 VII. FORMATION or THE NEW STATE ....................... 141 1. Secession Convention .......................... 141 2. First Wheeling Convention ..................... 142 3. Second Wheeling Convention ................... 143 4. The First Constitution ......................... 145 5. Final Steps to Statehood ....................... 150 VIII. THE STRATEGY OF WAR .............................. 152 1. Contest for Northwestern Virginia ............... 152 2. Contest for the Kanawha ....................... 155 3. Confederate Raids ............................. 157 4. Contest for the Eastern Panhandle ............... 158 VI CONTENTS. CHAPTER PAGE IX. POLITICAL PROBLEMS AND RECONSTRUCTION .........••• 161 1. Border Disorders of the War Period. ........••••• 161 2. Test Oaths, Disfranchisement and Disorder....... .163 3. Removal of Suffrage Restrictions. ........••••••• 163 4. Concrete Illustration from Mercer County....... .168 5. Formation of Summers County. ..........•••••• 170 X. THE CONSTITUTION OF 1873............ .. ...........11!2 1. Motives in Calling- the Convention. ............. .172 2. The Work of the Convention and Chief Provisions of the Constitution. ......................... 173 3. Amendments ................................. 180 XI. THE INDUSTRIAL AWAKENING. ....................... .183 1. General Survey ... .... ... .. ..... .. ............ 183 2. Evolution of Railroads and Industrial Progress.... 188 (1) Projected routes .................... 188 (2) Along the Kanawha via the Chesapeake and Ohio .........................191 (3) Along the Baltimore and Ohio branches in north-central West Virginia... .. .197 (4) Along the Ohio. ..... . .. .. ... ....... .206 (5) Along the north-central route from the Potomac via the Elk to the Kanawha. .210 (6) Along the southern border via, the Norfolk and Western ...................... 2-16 (7) Across the southern interior via the Vir- ginian Railway ................... 220 XII. SOCIAL AND INSTITUTIONAL HISTOBY. ................ .223 1. Population ...................................223 2. Educational Development ......................239 3. Institutions for Dependents, Defectives and Delin- quents .................................... 232 4. Inspection and Regulation .....................234 XIII. POLITICAL HISTORY ................................ 241 1. Under Early Republican Control. .............. .241 2. Under Democratic Control...................... 241 3. Later Republican Ascendency ..................246 XIV. INTERSTATE RELATIONS ............................. 249 1. Minor Questions ..............................249 2. The Boundary Dispute with Maryland. ...........249 3. The Virginia 'Debt Question. ..... .. . . . .. ... ..... 253 RETROSPECT AND PROSPECT.......................... 256 POEM ON WEST VIRGINIA By Herbert Putnam. ........ .258 APPENDIX A. WHEELING-PlTTSBUBG STRUGGLE FOE HEADSHIP ON THE OHIO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 263 APPENDIX B. ADDITIONAL SOCIAL STATISTICS. .........274 APPENDIX C. IMPORTANT STATE PAPEES. ............ .280 BIBLIOGRAPHY ..................................... 284 INDEX .. . .. .. . . . . .. . ... ...........................295 LIST OF SPECIAL ARTICLES ......................... 303 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS PAGE SKETCH MAP or WEST VIRGINIA .................. Facing Title GEOGRAPHIC RELATIONS or WEST VIRGINIA ............Facing 6 LITTLE BLACKW'ATER RIVER . . . .. . ... ..... .. . ... . :. . . " 6 A VIEW OE CHEAT RIVER ........................... " 7 SEYBERT'S FORT (1758), PENDLETON COUNTY ......... " 31 DISTRICT OF WEST AUGUSTA AND COUNTIES FORMED THEREFROM .................................... " 34 MAP OF VIRGINIA—BY SAMUEL LEWIS (1794) ........ " 40 MAP OF WEST VIRGINIA SHOWING MOTHER COUNTIES OF 1790 AND DEVELOPMENT OF PRESENT COUNTIES ...... " 48 OLD-FASHIONED WATER-POWER MILL, SUMMERS COUNTY. •'•' 51 AN OLD SUSPENSION BEIDGE ........................ '' 60 AN OLD IRON FURNACE (HARDY COUNTY) ............. •'•" 60 AN EARLY MAP OF WESTERN VIRGINIA ............... " 73 WELLSBURG-BETHANY TURNPIKE TUNNEL (WITH "MOR- GANTOWN" SANDSTONE ABOVE) .................... " 80 A MAP OF THE INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS 01-' VIRGINIA PREPARED BY C. CROZET (1848) ................... " 90 BRIDGE ON NATIONAL PIKE NEAR ELM GROVE .......... •'•' 90 FOUNDERS OF THE BALTIMORE AND OHIO RAILROAD COM- PANY .......................................... •'• no VIEW OF HARPER'S PERRY (FROM BOLIVAR HEIGHTS) ... '' 111 VIEW OF CHEAT RIVER FROM THE B. AND 0. RAILROAD (NEAR ROWLESBUBG) ............................. '' 111 FOUNDERS OF THE NEW STATE. ........... ...... .... " 140 BIRDS-EYE VIEW OF WHEELING, 1861................. " 141 MAPS ILLUSTRATING THE FORMATION OF WEST VIRGINIA.. " 150 HISTORIC BUILDINGS AT WHEELING. .................. " 151 COLTON'S MAP OF THE STATE OF WEST VIRGINIA (1865) " 161 MEMBERS OF THE CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION OF 1873.. " 172 MAP SHOWING COUNTY MAJORITIES ON CONSTITUTION OF 1872 ............................................ •'• 179 ELECTRIC WATER POWER PLANT ON THE POTOMAC, MOR- GAN COUNTY .................................... " 186 TOW BOAT SCENE ON THE KANAWHA RIVER .......... "' 187 COAL FLEET ON THE GREAT KANAWHA ElVER (NEAR CHARLESTON) ................................... '• 196 VIEW OF CHARLESTON ............................... " 197 PLANT AND TOWN OF ENTERPRISE, HARRISON COUNTY (CONSOLIDATED COAL COMPANY) ................. •'• 203 VIEW OF WEST VIRGINIA UNIVERSITY AND MORGANTOWN.. " 206 DOWN THE MONONGAHELA FROM MORGANTOWN ....... " 307 BIRDS-EYE VIEW OF WHEELING, 1913. .. . .. . . .. ...... . " 208 ( VIII LIST 01'' ILLUSTRATIONS. PAGE B. AND 0. EAILEOAD BEIDGE OVER THE KANAWHA, POINT PLEASANT ...................................... " 209 WATERFALL ALONG THE WESTERN MARYLAND EAILEOAD, NEAR DOUGLAS ................................. " 312 FALLS OF THE BLACKWATEE ......................... " 213 PULP MILL AT DAVIS, TUCKER COUNTY. ............... " 213 TANNERY AT GORMANIA ........................... " 213 COMING DOWN TUG ElVEE (N. AND W. EAILEOAD) ..... " 217 NORMAL SCHOOL, HUNTINGTON ..................... " 230 VIEW OF THE CAMPUS, W. VA. UNIVERSITY ........... " 231 OLD WOODBUEN SEMINARY AND NEW LIBRARY BUILDING " 231 PRESIDENT'S HOUSE, W. VA. UNIVERSITY ............. " 231 HOSPITAL FOE THE INSANE, WESTON. ................. " 232 STATE PENITENTIARY (MAIN ENTRANCE), MOUNDSVILLE " 233 SPECIMEN MAP OF TOPOGRAPHICAL SURVEY (REPRODUCED FROM CHARLESTON QUADRANGLE) ................ " 839 GOVERNOBS OF WEST VIRGINIA. ...................... " 240 POLITICAL MAP SHOWING PARTY MAJORITIES BY COUN- TIES IN GUBERNATORIAL ELECTIONS, 1866-88......... " 241 THE STATE CAPITOL BUILDING AND ANNEX AT CHARLES- TON ............................................ " 243 POLITICAL MAP SHOWING PARTY MAJORITIES BY COUN- TIES IN STATE ELECTIONS, 1898-1913 .............. " 246 MAP ILLUSTRATING BY COUNTIES EESULT OF PRESI- DENTIAL ELECTION OF 1912........................ " 247 HISTORICAL LABORATORY, W. VA. UNIVERSITY ......... " 294 MAPS SHOWING VIRGIN FOREST 1880, 1913. .......... " 322 SCENE ON KNAI'P'S CREEK, POCAHONTAS COUNTY (BASS STREAM) ....................................... " 328 LAUREL CREEK, POCAHONTAS COUNTY (TYPICAL TROUT STREAM) ...................................... " 328 LABORATORY AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION (W. VA. UNIVERSITY ................................. " 342 VIEW OF ST. MAEY'S ON THE OHIO ................... " 356 OHIO ElVER VALLEY NEAR EUREKA. .................. " 356 OIL WELLS ON COON'S EUN (NEAR ADAMSVILLE, HAHRI- SON COUNTY) .................................... " 357 PIPE STACKED AT TOLLGATE (FOR LARGE NATURAL GAS LINE) ........................................... " 358 THE LARGEST GAS PUMPING STATION IN THE WORLD (AT HASTINGS, WETZEL COUNTY) .................. " 35? LIVERPOOL SALT WORKS, HARTFORD. ................. " 368 TIPPLE AND FLEET OF PLYMOUTH MINING CO.,PLYMOUTH, PUTNAM COUNTY ................................ " 369 PITTSBURG COAL OUTCEOP (NEAR CONNELLSVILLE, PA.) SHOWING COLUMNAR STRUCTURE OF TYPICAL COKING COAL ........................................... " 386 LIST OF ILLL'STKATIONS. IX PAGE COKE OVENS, STEEL TIPPLE AND SLACK BINS, COALTON, EANDOLPH COUNTY ............................... " 387 THE OLD SCHOOL HOUSE AT HOLDEN, LOGAN COUNTY. . " 556 THE NEW SCHOOL BUILDING AT HOLDEN ............. " 556 NEW BUILDING FOE DISTRICT HIGH SCHOOL AT LUMBEE- POET, HAREISON COUNTY. .......................... " 560 PARKEESBUEG HIGH SCHOOL BUILDING (FROM MAEIETTA SANDSTONE) .................................... " 561 MEMORIAL ARCH ERECTED FOE THE SEMI-CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION ...............................'.•••• " 578 OFFICERS OF THE SEMI-CENTENNIAL COMMISSION ...... " 590 HISTORIAN OF THE COMMISSION .................... " 591 Introduction Undaunted by danger, unconquered, true-hearted, With ax-beaten march the brave pioneers came, And the wild tangled vine of the wilderness parted As Progress swept onward with banners of name. Lee 0. Harris. The story of the exploration, settlement and development of the trans-Appalachian region constitutes one of the most fascinating chapters of American history. The territory included in West Vir- ginia, which received a few white settlers in its eastern panhandle as early as 1726-27 but was the home of few civilized men before the middle of the eighteenth century, has a history which in many ways illustrates the larger life of the nation with which it has an intimate- connection at many points. Its plain but self-reliant pioneers were the fore-runners of a mighty tide of immigration, far greater in energy than in numbers, which, burst the barriers of the Alleghenies. They participated in the Anglo- French struggle for a continent—a struggle which began by collisions between the frontiersmen of rival nations along the upper Ohio. At the close of that struggle, from which they emerged with a new stimulus born of victory, they advanced from the ease and security of older settlements into the trans-Allegheny wilds, steadily pushed back the frontier and the Indians, and in the heart of the wilderness established their homes on many streams whose fate had recently hung in the balance. Here, they turned to the conquest and subjugation of the primeval forest which the Indians had sought to retain uncon- quered. Although a mere handful of riflemen, they served as the immovable rear guard of the Revolution, securely holding the moun- tain passes and beating back the rear assaults of savage bands which might otherwise have carried torch and tomahawk to the seaboard settlements. At the same time they served as the advance guard of western civilization hewing out paths across the mountain barrier and experimenting with the difficulties and opportunities of the wilder- ness. The story of the settlement of every early community is full of the heroic deeds of these plain, modest, uncelebrated men of the struggling common people—men who sought no praise and achieved no great 2 SEMI-CENTENNIAL HISTORY OF WEST VIRGINIA fame, who were not conscious of their own greatness, but who were always ready for any service which was needed to maintain an ad- vancing frontier. Out of many springs among the hills emerged at last the irresistable current of their strength. They toiled not in vain. While building homes in the wilderness, far from the tidewater East against which they were later forced to struggle for political and social rights, they were raising the framework of a self-govern- ing state destined to play an important part in the history of the nation. The new inducements to settlement, increasing after the battle of Point Pleasant in 1774, and receiving a new stimulus at the close of the Revolution, produced a rapid expansion movement which re- sulted by 1790 in a total trans-Allegheny population of over 50,000 people widely separated into many detached, isolated local groups, intensely individualistic in spirit, and with frontier conditions which; in the absence of transportation facilities to develop the vast resources of the region, were little fitted to develop unity of action or co- operation. Gradually, with the extension of agricultural clearings made by steady and laborious work aided by axe and fire, there emerged the larger problems of improvements in communication, transportation, and industry, accompanied by an increase of refinement and culture and a growing sectional opposition against the political domination of tidewater Virginia. An era of larger industrial development, fore- shadowed by the construction of several turnpikes from the East to the Ohio. was begun by the completion of the first railroad to the Ohio early in 1853 after a series of triumphs over the difficulties of the mountains. Considering the different elements of population, different features of territory, and different interests, the formation of the new state by separation from the mother state (suggested even in the revolutionary period under conditions which gave birth to Kentucky), was the logical and inevitable result of the half century of sectional con- troversy between East and West in regard to inequalities under the constitution of 1776. These inequalities were only partially remedied by the constitutional conventions of 1829-30 and 1850-51—although the latter made large democratic departures from the earlier dominat- ing influences of the tidewater aristocracy in the government, illus- trated by the change from appointment to election of state and county officers. The secession of Virginia from the Union only furnished INTRODUCTION 3 the occasion and the opportunity to accomplish by legal fiction and revoluntionary process an act toward which nature and experience had already indicated and prepared the way. The first steps toward separation of western Virginia from the mother state were taken by the irregular Wheeling convention of May 13 1861 (composed of 425 delegates from 35 counties), ten days before the election in which the western counties decided against secession by vote of 40,000 to 4,000. A second irregular convention, which met June 11, nullified the Virginia ordinance of secession, vacated the offices of the state government at Richmond, formed the "Reorganized" government of Virginia, elected F. H. Pierpont to act as governor; and, two months later (August 20), made provisions for a popular vote on the formation of a new state, and for a third convention to frame a constitution. Members of the legislature elected from the western counties met at Wheeling on July 1, and, calling themselves the Virginia legislature, proceeded to fill the remainder of the state offices. After organizing the state government, they selected two United States senators who were promptly recognized at Wash- ington as senators from Virginia. The popular election of October 24 resulted in a vote of 18,489 to 781 in favor of the new state. A third convention, in which forty- one counties were represented, met at Wheeling on November 26; and, on February 18, 1862, it completed a constitution which was ratified early in April by a vote of 18,162 to 514. The new state, erected by consent of the "Reorganized" govern- ment of Virginia (representing forty-eight western counties) and by the consent of Congress, revised its constitution (February, 1863) to meet the conditions of Congress requiring gradual abolition of slavery, and under the President's proclamation of April 20 was ad- mitted to the Union on June 20, 1863. In the crisis in which the state was born there were serious sectional differences. The strong sympathy for the Confederacy in the south- ern and eastern sections resulted in a sad state of disorder—illustrated in 1864 by the governor's report that in the extreme southern counties it was still impracticable to organize civil authority, and that in fourteen counties there were no sheriffs or other collectors of taxes "be- cause of the danger incident thereto." Even at the close of the war the new state was confronted by various conditions which seriously threatened its integrity and inde- pendence. In 1866, it rejected the overtures of Virginia for reunion. SEMI-CENTENNIAL HISTORY OF WEST VIRGINIA I. Geographic Conditions A favored land,— Secured against Atlantic's chilly blast By Allegheny's steadfast mountain crest, It slopes, through hill and dale and meadow vast, To where a noble river on the west Laves a low strand; Its bosom deep Garners rich store of Nature's wealth for man Sufficient for a generation yet unborn, And generations still beyond, until the span Of centuries shall reach their utmost morn And final sleep; Its shaggy hills Bear forests lavish to his further needs For warmth, for light, for shelter and for rest, And copious streams encourage its broad meads To yield obedient crops, at the behest Of him who tills. From Poem by Herbert Putnain. 1. PHYSICAL BASIS. West Virginia has an unusual topography which produces great di- versity of climate and a copious rainfall. On its highest mountains the temperature may fall to 30 degrees below zero in winter, and in other parts of the state may rise to 96 above in summer. It is the meet- ing place of two well defined systems of winds blowing in opposite di- rections. Upon its Allegheny summits and slopes, clouds from opposite seas meet and mingle their rains. Those from the Atlantic break against the eastern side of the barrier and often produce terrific rains which usually do not reach the western slopes except in case of snow storms. Those from the southern or far western seas, carried by warm winds from the Gulf and Carribean or by cold winds from British Co- lumbia, precipitate their loads of moisture throughout the remainder of the state. Local storms may come from any quarter. The amount of rain varies greatly in different years. The average yearly rainfall, including melted snow, is about four feet. It is always greater west of the Alleghenies and greatest near the summit. The chief rivers of the state have their rise in Pendleton, Pocahontas and Randolph counties, which form the highest part of a plateau region covering about one-third of the state and forming a high arm which curves around toward the southwest. The New river (geologically the oldest river in the state), which has its source in North Carolina, after GEOGRAPHIC CONDITIONS 7 flowing in a northerly direction on the eastern side of the plateau, turns toward the west, cuts transversely through the table-land and mingles its' waters with the Kanawha. It is especially designed by nature as a groat source of water-power which after long ages of wasted energy may be harnessed and utilized in the new age to turn the wheels of ex- ploitive industry at the command of the awakening life along its course- Practically every other river of the state also offers superior water-pow- er advantages which have begun to attract both private capital seeking to seize and public interest seeking to regulate and control. The entire area of the state was once tlie bed of an ancient sea into- which ancient rivers from a surrounding region of land poured layers of mud, sand, and pebbles which by the pressure of ages and other agen- cies became sandstone. In the deeper parts of this sea, far from the shore, were many marine animals whose shells and skeletons were pre- cipitated to the bottom and by long pressure were cemented into thick solid limestone. In shallow waters resembling swamps a rank growth of vegetation furnished an accumulation of fallen trunks and branches which in the course of ages beneath the water were transformed into. vast beds of coal whose later value made them an important basis of in- dustrial development. After long ages, a large part of the bed of this sea with rocks un- broken was elevated above the water and formed the plateau from the highest part of which new-born rivers began to cut their channels to- ward the ocean. Later, at different periods, the mountains were form- ed by shrinkings of the earth's crust, causing stupendous foldings and archings of the rocks into a series of parallel ranges whose remnants often appear in isolated or detached series of individual knobs, after centuries of destructive erosion accomplished by the incessant toil of wind, frost, and rivers—which also prepared soils suitable for the needs of agriculture and its allied industries. In some cases these folds of earthcrust rose directly across the channel of the earlier bed of a river which, in spite of the steady upward movement, continued to cut its way across, forming a gap such as that cut by the Potomac at Harpers Ferry, by the South Branch at Hanging Rocks, by Mill Creek at Me- chanicsburg, by Pattersons creek at Greenland, bv North Fork at Hope- well, by Tygart's river at Laurel Hill in Randolph, and by Cheat at Briery mountain in Preston. In these instances, and in many others, the long and incessant struggle of the rivers has wrought a grandness and picturesqueness of wild scenery too little appreciated in the earlier struggle for possession and the later reckless race for riches. The entire region was picturesque, and rich in vast and varied re- 8 SEMI-CENTENNIAL HISTORY OF WEST VIRGINIA sources which largely remained untouched for over a century after the Indian trails of the wild region of sombre shadows and healthy cli- mate first attracted the advance guard of pioneer settlers. In spite of the general roughness of surface, the soil was valuable, adapted either to various purposes of agriculture or to stock raising and was capable of large returns under improved methods of cultivation. There were iron ores which formed the basis of earlier active industries, and an abundance of coal, oil and gas, fire-clays, sandstones and glass sands which formed the later basis for prosperous conditions felt by the en- tire region. There -was also a wealth of woods which, after remaining largely undisturbed for over a century, has recently been almost de- pleted in most sections by a system of exploitation which has left in its desolate path nothing more important than the problems of con- servation. Before the westward invasion of white settlers, the ancient ridges be- tween the Blue Ridge and the Allegheny plateau formed a great wilder- ness rampart which forced the medley population of tidewater Virginia into a useful unity and neighborly community life, under the ancestral tutorship of the wide sea, which proved of great value in the later strug- gle for independence from Europe and in the establishment of the nation. The explorer finding a gap was always confronted by other ridges of mountains, and following the channel cut by the Potomac he was soon confronted by a mazy wilderness and other obstacles to en- trance into the mountain belt beyond. The education of mountain and forest came later. By its physical formation the trans-Allegheny territory included in West Virginia was destined to be geographically distinct from the tide- water region of the Old Dominion. The flow of its rivers toward the Ohio largely determined its commercial connections after the abandon- ment of the earlier transportation by pack-horses. Even the eastward flow of the Potomac eventually determined its commercial relation with Baltimore instead of with points in eastern Virginia—a relation which through the influence of the Baltimore and Ohio railroad in the crisis which precipitated the formation of West Virginia determined the ex- tension of its eastern panhandle to Harpers Ferry. Even the more di- rect route of communication between the Kanawha and the James riv- ers, presented obstacles which delayed the completion of an adequate avenue of transportation until after the separation of the new state was accomplished. The second quarter of the eighteenth century marked the beginning of a longitudinal overflow movement southward and westward by ad- vance up the Shenandoah from the western edge of the fertile lands of GEOGRAPHIC CONDITIONS 9 Pennsylvania. Among these pioneers, following the earliest contin- yents of Germans, were the Scotch-Irish—Scotch in blood, Irish by adoption and Presbyterian in religion—who largely populated West Virginia and won their way into Kentucky and to the farthest West. The Appalachian barrier was finally crossed by the overflow from the East By 1773 the tides of life began to flow toward Pittsburg which, bv the strange geological changes resulting from the ice invasion of long ago (diverting the ancient river system which had its headwaters in West Virginia), was the natural gateway to the Ohio and the West it which centered various lines of migration from Virginia, Maryland and Pennsylvania. From the upper Shenandoah and the upper James there was a smaller expansion to the middle New river region. 2. OLD INDIAN TRAILS. On the eve of its settlement by white men, the territory of western Virginia was the hunting ground of tribes of Delaware, Shawnee and Mingo Indians whose permanent settlements or villages were located in Pennsylvania near the confluence of the Monongahela and the Al- legheny. Since 1713 they had occupied the region as tenants of the Iroquois of New York who claimed the ownership. From the Valley of Virginia to the Ohio river they used various trails which later served as the earliest paths of the pioneers. One of the most eastern trails was the Virginia Warriors Path which became a traders and explorers route ascending the Shenandoah valley to the head of Clinch, thence passing through Cumberland Gap via the site of "Crab Orchard" and Danville, Kentucky, to the falls of the Ohio (Louisville). Several trails connecting with the region drained by the Mononga- hela were distinctly marked. Westward from the Virginia and Mary- land routes of travel which converged on the Potomac at Wills Creek was a transmontane trail which crossed upper Youghiogheny at "Little Crossings" (Great Meadows) and the main Youghiogheny at "Stew- art's Crossing" (Connellsville) thence down the "Point" to the site of Pittsburg. Another was the old Catawba war-path between New York and the Holston river leading also through the Carolinas (not an Indian thor- oughfare after white settlements were made in Virginia). This path crossed the Cheat at tlie mouth of Grassy run near the Monongalia- Preston boundary line and farther south passed up the Tygart's valley. Another, the Warrior branch passed up Dunkard creek and via Fish creek to southern Ohio and Kentucky. Another, the Eastern trail 10 SEMI-CENTENNIAL HISTORY OF WEST VIRGINIA (Great War Path) from Ohio via Fish creek and Indian creek and White Day creek through Preston county (near the site of Masontown and Reedsville and crossing Cheat at Dunkard Bottom) to the South Branch of the Potomac—a route much used by the Ohio Indians in their attacks on the white settlements. A branch starting between Ma- sontown and Reedsville passed southward between Independence and Newburg via York's run and south of Evansville to Ice's mill on Big Sandy creek where, it met the Northwest trail from Maryland via the bridge at Deakin's on Cheat. Another trail led from Maryland via Big Sandy near Bruceton (Preston county) and via Cheat to the vicinity of Morgantown. Another important Indian route of travel was the Scioto-Monongahe- la trail which, after crossing from Lower Shawnee Town eastward to the Muskingum valley and from Big Rock (near Roxbury, Ohio) south- east via the watershed to the mouth of the Little Kanawha (Belpre, Ohio) and after a junction with another trail from the mouth of the Kanawha and the lower Scioto valley, finally crossed the Ohio and ran near the old "Neal's Station" (now Ewing's station on the Baltimore and Ohio railroad) north of the present Kanawha station and above Eaton's tunnel, thence via Dry Ridge to Doddridge county, passing though Martin's Woods, north of Greenwood to Centre Station, thence east of West Union tunnel (Gorham's), thence to the head of Middle Island creek, up Tom's Fork to the watershed in Harrison county, and down Ten Mile creek into the Monongahela valley. There was also a trail from the Ohio up the Kanawha and across the mountains to Ran- dolph county. Along the north side of the Kanawha passed the Sandusky-Richmond trail, an important branch of the Scioto trail which was the principal "war path" and trade path of the Shawanee country and the main route of the Sandusky-Yirginia fur trade ascending the Sandusky val- ley from Lake Erie and descending the Scioto to the mouth at Lower Shawnee Town, thence passing southward as "Warriors Path" through Kentucky to Cumberland Gap and the Cherokee country. This branch trail reached the mouth of the Kanawha over the highland watershed between the Scioto and the Hockhocking rivers by a southeast route from a point on the Scioto above Chillicothe, at the intersection of the Scioto-Beaver trail and a trail to Fort Miami from which the Miami trail continued southward. The trails leading from the Ohio east were well known to the early settlers who often posted scouts on them near the Ohio to report the approach of Indian war parties. GEOGRAPHIC CONDITIONS 11 Indian trail and buffalo trace pointed the easiest way for fur trader and pioneer settler across mountain barrier into the unbroken wilder- ness drained by the Monongahela. The country gradually became known by reports of hunters and traders who crossed from very early times. Nemacolin's path, following in part an old buffalo trail across the mountains; furnished a pack horse route for traders who had al- ready reached the Ohio before 1750. The blazing of this old Indian trail by Nemocolin and other Indians under direction of Cresap, acting for the Virginia gentlemen, who had received 100,000 acres of land drained by the Ohio, precipitated a decisive war to settle the master- ship of the western forests. This little westward path, marked by In- dian's axe, became a path for Saxon commerce and consequently a path for Saxon conquest leading to the realization of the earliest dreams of the youthful Virginian who while traveling over it in 1752 was already planning a highway to bind the East and the West. It was later widen- ed into a wagon road by Washington and Braddock and became an im- portant highway to the lower Monongahela—although the first wagon load of merchandise over it did not reach the Monongahela until 1789. Farther south, crossing a wilderness mountain region over which no roads were constructed for a century after the early era of settlement of the region drained by the upper Monongahela, were four other trails of no less importance for settlers of the region drained by the upper tributaries of the Monongahela. The McCullough traders' trail led from Moorefield via Patterson's creek and Greenland gap across a spur of the Alleghenies to the North Branch thence to the upper Youhiogh- eny (west of Oakland) thence (via Bruceton mills) to the Cheat near the Pennsylvania line. A branch of it led down Horse Shoe run to tlie mouth of Lead Mine run. The other three were more obscure. The North Branch trail, over which came the larger number of the early settlers on upper Cheat and many on the Buckhannon river and which probably was the route of the Indians who conducted raids in Hamp- shire county in 1754 to 1759, continued from Fairfax stone across Backbone mountain and down Lead Mine run and Horse Shoe run to Cheat river—connecting here with an up-river branch to the vicinity of Parsons and via the head of Leading creek to the Seneca trail at Elkins and to the settlements of the Tygart Valley, at the head of which it connected with trails to the Little Kanawha, the Elk and the Green- brier. The trail to Greenbrier passed through Mingo Flats and west of the present Marlinton pike crossed the mountain—dividing at the top of Middle mountain into two branches, one of which continued to Old Field Fork and the other to Clover Lick. The Shawnee (or Sen- 13 SEMI-CENTENNIAL HISTORY OF WEST VIRGINIA eca) trail, although the chief highway between the South Branch and Tygart's valley, travelled westward yearly by pack horses laden with salt, iron and other merchandise and later by many droves of cattle driven to the eastern market, ascended the South Branch (passing the McCullough trail at Moorefield) followed the North Fork and Seneca creek, crossed the Alleghenies twenty miles south of the North Branch trail, and the branches of Cheat above the mouth of Horse Camp creek, and passed near Elkins and Beverly to the vicinity of Huttonsville in Randolph. Another path, connecting with the old Shawnee trail from Pennsyl- vania and Maryland from the head of North Pork and following the general course of the later Staunton and Parkersburg turnpike, passed up the South Branch to the mouth of North Pork (in Grant county) which it followed to the mouth of Dry run (in Pendleton county), then followed Laurel creek to the site of the later crossing of the Staunton and Parkersburg pike, then turned westward, crossed the Alleghenies thirty miles south of the Seneca trail, followed the East Pork of the Greenbrier to the main river, crossed Shaver's mountain to the Shav- er's Pork of Cheat, thence crossing Cheat mountain to Tygart's Valley, intersecting the Shawnee trail near Huttonsville and crossing to the head of the Little Kanawha which it followed to the Ohio. Two other trails may be noticed. One led from the headwaters of the South Branch via the Sinks of Gandy, to Shaver's Fork of Cheat river at the mouth of Fishing-Hawk, and across Cheat mountain via the heads of Files creek to Valley Bend (above Beverly). Another led from the Great Ka- nawha up the Elk and Valley Fork and down Elk Water to Tygart's Valley—a meeting place of many trails and probably a favorite hunt- ing ground of the Indians. An old well-known Indian trail, originally a buffalo trail and later used by settlers till 1786, passed from the Kanawha up Kelley's creek, thence down Bell creek and down Twenty Mile to its mouth (now Belva), up Gualey to a point over a mile north of Rich creek up which it meandered and thence passed over Gauley mountain through the site of Ansted and across the branches of Meadow creek to the upper wa- ters of Muddy, an affluent of the Greenbrier. Over this serpentine trail the earliest settlers twisted their way. It was used for the outward trip of Lewis' army in 1774 and was followed by the Indian invaders who attacked Donnally's fort in 1778. The Gauley river route farther northeast also lead to the heads of the Greenbrier. The chief old trail of the Indians and early settlers from Lewisburg to the Ohio ran along the ridges at the heads of the tributaries of the Great Kanawha, cross- GEOGRAPHIC CONDITIONS 13 ing Faint creek near its source. It was a mere passage way for foot travel through the wilderness—although over much of it one could ride horseback. It was used considerably for early travel. The western Indian trail around the narrows of the Great Kanawha led from the Kanawha up Paint creek, thence via the site of Beckley, over the northeast extension of Flat Top mountain, and across the New river above the mouth of the Bluestone. Among other trails was one via Horse Pen creek to the head of C'lear Fork, down Tug, to the mouth of Four Pole, thence across the ridge be- tween the Sandy and the Guyandotte. An early hunters' trail from the Greenbrier-New river section to Kentucky passed up East river via Bluefield, the Bluestone-Clinch divide, and the Clinch and Powell riv- ers. 14 SEMI-CENTENNIAL HISTORY OF WEST VIRGINIA II. Struggle for Possession, and Evolution of Settlements I. THE FIRST ADVANCE. Nearly two hundred years ago the cosmopolitan Lieutenant-Governor Alexander Spotswood of Virginia led an expedition which, by penetrat- ing the fifty miles intervening between the frontier and the peaks of the Blue Ridge, and descending beyond the Valley of the Shenandoah, broke down the barrier which had checked the westward expansion of the English in America and began a conquest which made Virginia the mother of an empire. Born in 1676, at Tangier in Morocco, of an illustrious Scottish fam- ily, and distinguished as a soldier who had fought with Marlborough at Blenheim, Spotswood became the first great expansionist and one of the first true -republicans of the Old Dominion. Coming to Virginia in 1710, he soon took an active interest in plans to break through the mountain blockade beyond which the traditional enemies of England and their Indian allies were already actively en- gaged in trade. He was confident that the colonists with proper en- couragement would soon extend their settlements to the source of the James. Riding at the head of a gay and merry body of thirty cavalier adven- turers, marshalled and guided by the sound of the hunter's horn, and followed by a long retinue of negro slave's and Indian guides, spare horses, and sumpter-mules laden with provisions and casks of native Virginia wine, ho left Williamsburg on June 20, 1716, traveled via King William and Middlesex counties and via Mountain Run to the Rappahannock, thence up the Rapid an to his own estates at Germanna, (colonized by Germans 1714) where all their horses were shod, thence to Peyton's Ford and via the present site of Stannardsville (in Green County) and over the rugged road through the Blue Ridge by Swift Run gap to the Shenandoah about ten miles below the site of Port Re- public, and some writer has said that he continued westward through mountain defiles to a lofty peak of the Appalachian range (perhaps in Pocahontas county). EVOLUTION OF SETTLEMENTS 15 According to John Fontaine's journal of the expedition, each day's march was enlivened by the chase and each night's rest, after the meal nf arouse and pheasants shot in forest glades, was enlivened by laugh- ter song and story which were stimulated by stores of various liquid mixtures from the vineyards of Virginia lowlands. Looking westward from a peak of the mountains, Spotswood was fascinated by the sug- gestion awakened by the view of a more distant mountain peak, to the west and north, from which Indian guides said one could see the .sparkle of the fresh-water sea now called Lake Erie. On the Shenandoah, which Spotswood at first named the Euphrates, "with ceremonious sa- lute and appeal to the store of creature comforts" the adventurers took formal possession of the "Valley of Virginia" in the name of tlie Han- overian monarch of England and buried the record in an empty bottle near the camp which they had pitched. Returning to Williamsburg he gave a glowing description of the healtliful region visited; and, perhaps in order to commemorate the recent jovial invasion of a wilderness, previously unbroken by the white man, he established the "Transmontane Order" of the "Knights of the Golden Horseshoe" and gave to each of the members of his expedition (and to others who would accept them with a purpose of crossing the mountains) miniature horseshoes bearing the inscription "Sic jurat transcendere montes." Howe in his Historical Collections of Virginia states that in commemoration of the event the king conferred tlie hon- or of knighthood upon Spotswood and presented to him a miniature golden horseshoe on which was inscribed the above motto. From his excursion and hunting picnic among the hills he obtained visions which expanded his views as an expansionist and induced him to propose ambitious and aggressive imperial plans for control from the mountains to the Lakes—plans which although held in abeyance at the time and for many years after his removal from office in 1722, and after his death in 1740, were finally revived under a later expan- sionist governor, also a Scotchman (Dinwiddie)—and pressed to exe- cution at a fearful cost. Spotswood gave the stimulus which soon attracted to the passes of the mountains the pioneers who were later gradually awakened to the possibilities of a great movement which resulted in the winning of the West. The short journey from Germanna to the Shenandoah was the lirst march in the winning of the territory now included in West Vir- ginia. The leader of the expedition continued to encourage western settlement by treaties protecting the frontier from Indians and by leg- islation for exemption of the inhabitants of newly formed counties from 16 SEMI-CENTENNIAL HISTOEY OF WEST VIEGINIA quit rents. Some of his followers led in the westward movement along the Potomac and in the Northern Neck. The earliest permanent settlers in the eastern panhandle, however entered from Pennsylvania by the "Old Pack-horse Ford" (at Shep- herdstown). By 1787 Morgan Morgan settled on Mill creek (in Berke- ley county) and Germans began a settlement which later grew into a village called New Mechlenberg (now Shepherdstown). In 1730 and within a few years thereafter, other daring pioneers settled upon the Opequon, Back creek, Tuscarora creek, Cacapon, and farther west on the South Branch. Among those who founded homes along the Po- tomac in what is now Jefferson and Berkeley counties were the Shep- herds, Robert Harper (at Harper's Ferry), William Stroop, Thomas and William Forester, Van Swearinger, James Forman, Edward Lu- cas, Jacob Hite, Jacob Lemon, Richard and Edward Mercer, Jacob Van Meter, Robert Stockton, Robert Buckles, John and Samuel Taylor and John Wright. In 1736 an exploring party traced the Potomac to its source. In 1762 Thomas Shepherd secured an act of the assembly es- tablishing Mecklenberg. In 1732 Joist Hite and fifteen other families cut their way through the wilderness from York, Pennsylvania, and crossing the Potomac two miles above Harpers Ferry proceeded to the vicinity of Winchester and made settlements which exerted a great influence upon the early neigh- boring settlements in the territory now included in West Virginia. He also became involved in a famous land dispute of interest to settlers in the eastern panhandle—a dispute with Lord Fairfax who had inherited under a grant of 1691 a large estate south of the Potomac including the present counties of Mineral, Hampshire, Hardy, Morgan, Berkeley and Jefferson and one-eighth of Tucker and three-fourths of Grant. This lawsuit, which Fairfax began against Hite in 1736 and which was not settled until all the original parties were resting in their graves, a half century later, arrested development of the lower valley and stim- ulated settlement farther west. Several German immigrants, induced by insecurity of titles in the lower Shenandoah, crossed the Alleghenies and built cabins in the New, the Greenbrier and the Kanawha valleys. Farther up the Shenandoah at "Bellefont," one mile from the site of Staunton, John Lewis in 1732 established a first location in Augusta county which at that time comprised all the undefined territory of Virginia west of the Blue Bidge mountains. The issue of patents in 1736 brought to Augusta and Rockbridge from the lower Shenandoah and from England a stream of Scotch-Irish Presbyterians, some of whom pushed their way with their descendants into the adjoining country know as Bath, Allegheny and Craig counties. EVOLUTION OF SETTLEMENTS I7 The descendants of these first settlers of the Shenandoah were among the pioneers who later crossed the Alleghenies and established homes in the valleys of the Monongahela, the Kanawha and the Ohio. From the Shenandoah to the South Branch the advance was rapid— mobstructed by difficult mountains. Adventurers and homeseekers pmild either ascend the Potomac or take the shorter route across North Mountain. As early as 1725, John Van Meter, an Indian trader from the Hudson river, traversed the upper Potomac and South Branch valleys. In 1735 the first settlement in the valley of the South Branch was made in what is now Hampshire county by four families named Cobun Howard, Walker and Rutledge. A year afterwards Isaac Van Meter Peter Casey, the Pancakes, Foremans and others reared homes further up the South Branch—some of them located within what is now Hardy county.* By 1748 there were about 200 people along the entire course of the stream. The expansion of settlements was influenced by conditions resulting from the great land grants owned by Lord Fairfax. In 1736 hearing glowing accounts of the South Branch (from John Howard who had gone via South Branch, crossed the Alleghenies and gone down the Ohio) Fairfax ordered a survey of his boundary and soon began to issue 99-year leases to tenants at the rate of $3.33 for each hundred acres, and to sell land outright on a basis of an annual quit rent of 33 cents. In 1747-48, after the erection of the Fairfax stone at the head of the Potomac in 1746, much of the land within the Fairfax grant in the South Branch country was surveyed by Washington and laid off in quantities to suit purchasers. Nearly 300 tracts were surveyed in the two years. At the same time, many frontiersmen—not approving the English practice but wanting full title in fee—pushed higher up the Shenan- doah and South Branch valleys. New settlements crept up the South Branch into regions now included in Pendleton county, whose triple valleys had already been visited by hunters and prospectors—one of *All these settlements were at that time in Orange county (formed from- Spottsylvania in 1734 which extended to the "utmost limits of Virginia" includ- ing in its boundaries all of what is now West Virginia, Kentucky, Ohio, Indiana and Illinois. 1r At the close of the Revolution the Fairfax lands were confiscated by Virginia H "lrown "P™ to settlement under the regulations for other state lands, and in time they became the property of many farmers. The proiect tor large manors on .M'litli Kranch and I'atterson creek was never realized. In 1782 the Assembly conliscatpd the claims of the Fairfax heirs, having previously declared invalid the iiaims of the Vandalia and Indiana companies. In 1789 David Hunter received a patent for lands which had formally belonged to Fairfax, but being refused posses- sion lie brought suit in the court of Shenandoah county, which^ decided against rim in a decision which was later reversed hv the Supreme Court of the state. L-aior, David Martin, to whom Fairfax hod bequeathed the right to the disputed property, appealed to the United States Supreme Court which in 1816 sustained Ih0 T.S" court "f Shenandoah, causing many to fear that the confiscation of HH» ? Daand '^andalia claims might not prove a permanent settlement of their title to western lands. 18 SEMI-CENTENNIAL HISTORY OF WEST VIRGINIA whom had built a cabin about 1745 a half mile below the site of Braudv- wine. In 1746-47 Robert Green of Culpepper entered several tracts giving him a monopoly of nearly 30 square miles of the best soil. In 1747 he gave deeds of purchase to six families who were probably the first bona-fide settlers of Pendleton. In 1753 there was a sudden wave of new immigration and four years later the territory now included in Pendleton had a population of 200—equally divided between tlie South Branch and the South Fork. and most numerous toward the fpper Tract and Dyer settlement. The earlier settlers in the region now oc- cupied by Hampshire and Hardy counties included Dutch and Germans and Irish and Scotch and English. The territory included in Pendle- ton was largely settled by Germans from the Shenandoah. Considering the needs of the South Branch region, the Assembly in 1754 made provision for the formation of the new county of Hampshire from the territory of Frederick and Augusta with boundaries extending westward to the "utmost parts of Virginia." The county was organ- ized in 1757. The presiding justice of the first county court was Thomas Bryan Martin, a nephew of Lord Fairfax. Eomney was es- tablished by law in 1762 (by Fairfax). In the meantime, to meet the exigencies of the expansion of western settlers, commissioners of Virginia, Pennsylvania and Maryland in 1744 negotiated with the Six Nations (at Lancaster, Pennsylvania) a treaty by which for 400 pounds they ceded to the English all the re- gion between the Alleghenies and the Ohio. Settlements were delayed, however, first by the barrier of the Alleghenies, and later by the unin- viting character of narrow defiles and dense wilderness, and of the un- cleared valleys beyond, which furnished ample cover for treacherous Indians opposed to the adventurous pioneers seeking to penetrate the wild hunting grounds. The first direct stimulus to settlement farther west came from the earlier settlements established about 1732 on grants including the site of Winchester and the site of Staunton. Following the expansion of settlements up the Shenandoah and the James, tlie most adventurous settlers, following the hunters, began to push their way across the di- vide to tlie New river and then farther west to lands now included in West Virginia. A century before the establishment of permanent set- tlements, the New river region of West Virginia westward to Kanawha Falls was visited by a party of Virginians under Captain Thomas Bates with a commission from the General Assembly "for the finding out tlie ebbing and flowing of ye South Sea." The earliest settlements in the New river region of West Virginia 1ini1 their 1);i?i? in tho earlier settle- EVOLUTION OF SETTLEMENTS 19 . ,^ [)y tlie Ingles, Drapers and others at Draper's Meadows "^ j^yii as Smithfield, near Blacksburg, Virginia) and were pos- \1' also influenced by the settlement of 1749 by Adam Harman near ^hc^niouth of Sinking creek (EgglesWs Spring, Giles county) and the neighboring settlement made by Philip Lybrook in 1750. They K ,• • d their direct incentive from the report of Christopher Gist, who ,. -p+uming from his Ohio exploring expedition of 1750) passed 1 vn the Bluestone valley and crossed the New river a short distance 1 low the mouth of Indian creek at Crump's Bottom (in Summers mtv). Ii11753 Andrew Culbertson, induced by fear of tlie Indians to leave his home near Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, journeyed via the settlements in 'Montgomery and Giles county to Crump's Bottom. A year later Thomas Parley obtained the Culbertson tract and erected a fort at Warford farther west. Around tlie scattered settlements sev- eral others were begun in the same year. Pioneers from Pennsylvania came both by the James and by the South Branch and Greenbricr riv- ers. The discovery of the Greenbrier in 1749, by a lunatic citizen of Fred- erick county, excited the enterprise of two men from New England (Ja- cob Marlin and Stephen Sewell ) who took up residence upon the Green- brier and were found there in 1751 by General Andrew Lewis, agent of the Greenbrier Land Company. Tills company obtained a grant of 100,000 acres of land, of which about 50,000 acres was surveyed by ^755—when operations stopped until about the close of the French and Indian war (after which they were renewed in spite of tlie Icing's proclamation). Tlie earliest incentive to actual occupation in tlie Monongaliela and Ohio region was furnished in 1748 by the formation of the Ohio com- pany which received from George II a grant of 500,000 acres along the Ohio between the Monongahela and the Kanawha and which planned settlements by which to divert the Indian trade from Pennsyl- vania. Plans for settlement by Germans from Pennsylvania were pre- vented by Virginia's law against dissenters.* Four years later, trans- montane settlements were encouraged by the house of burgesses through ;m offer of tax exemption for ten years. Many of the first settlers, west of the mountains considered the soils *In 1751 the Ohio company desiring to obtain an additional grant for the region netween the- Great Kanawh.-i' and the Monongahela sent Christopher Gist to makp "{""rations along the Ohio. After Gist made his report in 1752. the company petitioned the King for the grant and for permission to form a separate govern- ment In the region between the Alleghenies and the Ohio. After years of waiting ""n negotiation, the Ohio and ^Valpole companies were merged Into. the Grand Uhio company, which continued the efforts, to 'secure the formation of the proposed province of Vandalia with its capital at the mouth of the Great Kanawha.