Kanawha-Greenbrier County WV Archives Biographies.....Kelly, Walter  
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Alice Warner Brosey http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00015.html#0003503 September 4, 2009, 9:53 am

Source: History of West Virginia, 1889
Author: Virgil A. Lewis

The first attempt at a settlement within the present limits of the county, or on
the lower course of the New River —- Kanawha, was that of Walter Kelly in 1774.
It appears that he came from North Carolina to the Virginia frontier, and not
content to remain in Greenbrier, then the most western outpost of civilization,
pushed out into the wilderness, and at the mouth of what has ever since been
known as Kelly's creek —- a stream falling into the Kanawha twenty miles above
Charleston -— reared his cabin. Sadly was he made to pay for his temerity.
Shortly after his settlement the scouts sent out from Greenbrier learned that
the savages were preparing for hostilities. A messenger was at once sent to warn
Kelly of his danger. The following, subjoined from Wither's "Chronicles of
Border Warfare," tells the story of his fate.

"When the express arrived at the cabin of Walter Kelly, twenty miles below the
falls, Captain John Field, of Culpeper, who had been in active service during
the French and Indian War, and was then engaged in making surveys, was there
with a young Scotchman and a negro woman. Kelly, with great prudence, directly
sent his family to Greenbrier, under the care of a younger brother. But Captain
Field, considering the apprehension as groundless, determined on remaining with
Kelly, who from prudential motives did not wish to subject himself to
observation by mingling with others. Left with no persons but the Scot and the
negro, they were not long permitted to doubt the reality of those dangers of
which they had been forewarned by Captain Stuart.

"Very soon after Kelly's family had left the cabin, and while yet within hearing
of it, a party of Indians approached, unperceived, near to Kelly and Field, who
were engaged in drawing leather from a tan-trough in the yard. The first
intimation which Field had of their approach, was the discharge of several guns
and the fall of Kelly. He then ran briskly toward the house to get possession of
a gun, but recollecting that it was unloaded, he changed his course and sprang
into a cornfield, which screened him from the observation of the Indians ; they
supposing that he had taken refuge in the cabin, rushed immediately into it.
Here they found the Scotchman and the negro woman, the latter of whom they
killed, and making a prisoner of the young man, returned and scalped Kelly.

"When Kelly's family reached the Greenbrier settlement, they mentioned their
fears for the fate of those whom they had left on the Kanawha, not doubting but
that the guns which they had heard soon after leaving the cabin, had been
discharged at them by Indians. Captain Stuart, with a promptitude which must
ever command admiration, exerted himself effectually to raise a volunteer corps,
and proceed to the scene of action, with a view of ascertaining whether the
Indians had been there; and if they had, and he could meet with them, to
endeavor to punish them for the outrage, and thus prevent the repetition of
similar deeds of violence.

"They had not, however, gone far before they were met by Captain Field, whose
appearance of itself fully told the tale of woe. He had run upwards of eighty
miles, naked, except his shirt, and without food; his body nearly exhausted with
fatigue, anxiety and hunger, and his limbs grievously lacerated with briers and
brush. Captain Stuart, fearing lest the success of the Indians might induce them
to push immediately for the settlements, thought proper to return and prepare
for that event."

Additional Comments:
From the Kanawha County Section

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