Marshall County, WV - History of the Grandstaff Family ********************************************************************** USGENWEB NOTICE: These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit or presentation by any other organization or persons. Persons or organizations desiring to use this material, must obtain the written consent of the contributor, or the legal representative of the submitter, and contact the listed USGenWeb archivist with proof of this consent. ********************************************************************** History of the Grandstaff Family Taken from a Moundsville W.Va. newspaper dated Monday Jan. 13, 1902 By George N. Fisher, September 30th, 1923 Though sometimes difficult, it is often interesting to trace the history of the families of the pioneers, whose bravery and love of adventure resulted in placing the early settlement and civilization in the Ohio Valley, which, prior to 1770, was an unbroken wilderness. If you will turn to Kercheval's History of the Valley of Virginia, chapter 8, page 110, you will find that in 1758 a man by the name of John Stone, near what is called the White House in the Hocksville settlement, was killed by the Indians. Stone's wife with her infant child and a son about seven or eight years old, were taken off as prisoners. On the South Branch Mountain the Indians murdered Mrs. Stone and her infant, and took the boy and Grandstaff to their town. Grandstaff was about three years a prisoner and then got home. It is not positively known the exact relationship of the George Grandstaff to the ancestry of the numerous family now residing in this country but certain it is that about the year 1770, at the time the Tomilsons settled Moundsville, and the Zanes, Sheperds, Caldwells, Ogles, Wetzels, Kellers and others settled in Wheeling and on Wheeling Creek, a man by the name of Grandstaff, with his brothers, Adam Grandstaff, sister Rosie, came from the Valley of Virginia, near where the incident narrated above occurred, and settled on Wheeling Creek, in what is now Marshall County, near the mouth of Grandstaff Run, after whom the run was named. The maiden name of the wife of this Mr. Grandstaff cannot be learned and indeed his first name is unfortunately, unknown. This Mr. Grandstaff has a son Jacob who was born August 17, 1799. The father of Jacob was killed by the Indians, date unknown while burning bush in his clearing about a half mile below the mouth of Grandstaff's run. Jacob Grandstaff married, Sarah Rodefer, this Sarah Rodefer was the daughter of Barbary Bonnett, who died in 1884 at the advanced age of 102 years, at the residence of her son-in-law, Jacob Grandstaff. By reference to History and Indian War of Western Virginia, by DeHass, chapter 2, page 82, it will be seen that in 1772, Bonnet, Wetzel, Messrs, Silas Zane and many other hardy pioneers from the same region (near Fort Cumberland), men whose means influenced and contributed greatly toward breaking the power of the savages and subduing the country to the wants of civilization. This clearly shows that the Bonnets were also of the first settlers of the section. On the same page, it appears that when these settlers came to the forks of the Wheeling Creek, "the company separated, Wetzel, Bonnet and others going up Big Wheeling, while Zane and one or two brothers went down." The family of John Rodefer and Barbary (Bonnet) Rodefer were as follows: Sons- John, Jacob, Joseph, and Silas; daughters, Sarah, who married Jacob Grandstaff, Polly, who married Albert Davis; Peggie, who married Joseph Bell; and Elizabeth, who married Benjamin Aulton. All of these are now deceased. John Rodefer, the husband of Barbary Bonnet was a blacksmith, nailmaker, and distiller. He afterwards sold his place on Wheeling Creek and moved to Ohio, purchasing the land where Bellaire now stands, where he died at the age of 87 and his wife at the age of 86. The children of Jacob Grandstaff and Sarah (Rodefer) Grandstaff were: Sons-Samuel, John R. and William, Daughters; Maria, Barbara and Adaline. John R. Grandstaff, the son of Jacob and Sarah, from whom much of this information is derived was born September 12th, 1825 on Wheeling Creek, near where his grandfather settled and is hale and hearty at the advanced age of 86 years. He remembers of seeing Lewis Wetzel, Jacob Keller, Ezekiel and Alexander Caldwell and many others of the older inhabitants, and old Barbara Wetzel, the hand-loom weaver, and recalls many of the old manners and customs long forgotten and unknown to later generations. He married Joana W. Blake, daughter of Robert and Nancey Blake, and to them were born ten children, two sets of twins. His wife has been dead over 14 years. During the war he served in Company A. 7th W.Va. Regt. Inft. Vol and lost his right limb at Spottsylvania Court House on May 12, 1864, this being the same battle in which Col. J.H. Lockwood, who commanded the regiment was seriously wounded in the head. (2/25/99 transcribed from typewritten page found in the papers of Genevieve Hostutler Walton) Submitted by , Alice Walton Mason, February 1999