Robert Eeds, the First Settler
Marion co. WV

Though it is impossible to tell for sure, available history indicates that Robert Eeds and his wife
were the first permanent settlers in what is today Marion County. Adam Ice, another early
settler, spoke often of this man who lived in a cave on a hillside near the mouth of present day
East Run near Rachel as early as 1742. Ice described Eeds as "very tall and bony, with gray hair
and beard that hung to his waist, and big black eyes that burned holes right in you."

Eeds said that he had lived in a very fine cave near the Cacapon River, in what is now Hampshire
County, West Virginia, with his wife, four sons, and four daughters. They lived there several
years before being captured by Shawnees and taken to an indian town along the Ohio River. Here
his children were killed, and he and his wife were tortured. He believed the Shawnees did this
because he had killed about 15 indians by setting traps for them. The traps, called legbreakers,
would cripple the indian, then Eeds would "follow where they crawled and kill them with an
axe." After about a year, Eeds and his wife managed to escape and came to live in their Marion
County cave.

Robert Eeds died in 1772, saying that year that he was 83 years old. His wife had died about 10
years earlier, and he had lived in that cave for about 30 years. He had stayed away from other
people during most of that time, and had not traveled much, fearing another capture by the
indians.

NOTE: There was another settler by the name of Robert East. East and Eeds have sometimes
been confused. East is the person that East Run (where Eeds also lived) is named after. East
moved in in 1803, and though their names and locations are similar, they were not the same
person.