Family Histories, West Virginia    The SWOPE Family

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The History of Monroe County West Virginia, by Oren F. Morton, B. Lit.,
Originally Published: Staunton, Virginia, 1916, Reprinted, 
Regional Publishing Co., Baltimore, 1988, pgs. 494-506


THE SWOPE FAMILY

(Prepared by a Friend of the Family and Inserted in this Book by Special
Arrangement.)

The first history we have of the Swaben family dates back to Julius
Caesar sixty years B. C. When Caesar overran the Gauls he came in
contact with the Swabens under their chief Ehrfurst. This chief had been
called in to settle a dispute between two tribes of the Gauls and settled
it by conquering both. Later he was defeated by Caesar with his Roman
legions. At the time Caesar was so struck with their bravery that he coaxed
many of their young men to join his army. Here he made a mistake as he
drilled these hardy warriors in the Roman arms and methods of warfare.

In the year nine B. C., Drusus, the step son of Augustus, was sent over
to conquer these people, when one woman of the tribe of immense stature
appeared before him and said, "You greedy robber, whither woulds't thou
go? The end of thy misdeeds and life is at hand." The Romans turned
back and in thirty days Drusus was assassinated. Later, Augustus sent
over three legions under Varus to hold them in subjection. These soldiers
had recently returned from Egypt where, as Macaulay puts it, "Honor in
man and virtue in woman had for years been unknown." It was not long
until these soldiers began to insult these German women. This the Ger-
mans would not stand for. The chiefs after holding secret conferences,
decoyed the Romans into a trap where every Roman soldier but one was
killed and Varus committed suicide. When Augustus heard of it he was
driven almost insane and would bump his head against the wall and cry
out, "Varus, Varus. Give me back my legions, Varus."

But little more is known of the Swabians, except their petty quarrels
until the crusades. They were with Conradin as is proven by the crest
in their coat of arms, as no German who cannot trace his lineage back to
the crusades is allowed to wear red on his coat of arms.

This fact of the coat of arms was established by Rev. Dr. Swope, of
New York, who went to Germany and traced back the family to about
1050, A. D.

The Swopes, like their Swabian ancestors, seem to have the same mi-
gratory disposition. They are scattered from the Atlantic to the Pacific,
and from Maine to Florida. They have no disposition to settle together in
neighborhoods and communities like many other families, hence the great
trouble in trying to keep track of them.

The following history of the family (except Michael Swope's family)
was written by Judge Jas. H. Miller and published in his history of Sum-
mers county with the correction of a few typographical errors, additional
facts and changes since his history was written.

The Swope family is a German family (Schwab or Swab being the
original German name for what is now known as Swope). The Swopes
were the first settlers in Monroe county, Joseph Ulrich or John Ulrich
Swope being the ancient and original settler and ancestor of the family
in this region of the country. He was the second son of Yost (Joseph)
and was born in the town of Leiman, in the Duchy of Baden, in 1707.
His grandfather was the mayor or burgomaster of that town. His father,
Yost Swope, was born in the same town, on the 22d day of February, 1678,
and owing to the persecutions of the Lutheran Church, of which he was
an active member, he emigrated across the seas and settled in Upper Lea-
cock Township of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania.  Here he raised a
family of five children, all of whom located there except John Ulrich,
or Joseph, as he will hereafter be called. We are not positive as to
his first name, whether it is John or Joseph. The family records show
that frequently these Dutch people gave two of their children the same
name, and tradition is that he dropped the name of John, the name of
his older brother, and assumed and adopted his father's name of Joseph.
The original ancestor wrote his name Swab, and it was Americanized
into Swope. This Joseph Ulrich left Pennsylvania and emigrated with
the German colony into the Valley of Virginia, locating in Augusta, near
the site of the present Swope Depot on the Chesapeake & Ohio Railway.
It was here that his son Joseph was born, on the 7th day of August,
1751. He was of a venturesome disposition, and began explorations in
the country to the west. In 1750, 1751 or 1752, with his trusty flintlock
gun, he followed the Indian trail up Jackson's River to the mouth of
Dunlap's Creek, thence up that creek, crossing the tablelands into the
country where Union is built. There, instead of following the trail
down the waters of Indian Creek, he took a due west course and landed
on top of those knobs which bear his name to this day—Swope's Knobs—
and from there he viewed the country. He descended from this mountain
into the Wolf Creek Valley, and was detected by a party of marauding
Indians, who followed him, but whom he discovered in time to make
preparations for his escape. He headed for a large hollow poplar tree
which stood about a third of a mile west of the present site of the Wolf
Creek post-office, near the Broad Run church. He managed to crawl into
the hollow of this tree and climbed up the hollow, bracing himself against
the sides, and there remained until the Indians gave up the search.
He could hear them talking and walking around the tree, but they
evidently decided it was impossible for a man to be inside of it. Thi»
tree remained standing until 1860, when it became dangerous from de-
cay and was cut down. After the departure of the Indians he came
out of his hiding place, and there located a claim to the land round about,
and cut his name in a beech tree near the spring on the farm now owned
by Mrs. Cornelius Leach, entered his tomahawk or corn title and cut a
brush heap at the same place. He then left, and returned in a year or
two, and brought his wife and son Joseph, and built his house a few
yards north at what is known as the Conner Spring. In this house he
lived and his son, Michael, was born there on the 29th of September,
1753. This child was the first white male child born in the territory of
Monroe County, if not within the present territorial limits of Southern
West Virginia.  There is a tradition that there had been a girl born
before this date within that territory, but if so, all history thereof is lost.
This house, built by this pioneer, still remains in splendid condition, and
it was from this house that his son, Joseph, was stolen by the Shawnee
Indians in 1756, at the age of five years, and kept a prisoner with them
near Chillicothe, Ohio, for nine years. After formally settling his family
in this new home, Joseph, the settler, decided to visit his people in Pennsyl-
vania and look after his interest in his father's estate.  On this trip
his horse threw him, fractured his leg where it had once been fractured
by an Indian bullet, and from this wound he died, and where his place
of burial is no one knows.

He was a traveler and hunter, and it was Swope, Pack, and Pitman,
who were hunting down New River near the mouth of Bluestone, and
discovered the Indians, who were making for the Jackson River and the
Catawba settlements for the purpose of attacking and destroying them.
These hunters separated, one going to one settlement and one to another
to warn them of the danger, and it was this band of Indians that Cap-
tain Paul followed. An account of his fight with them at the mouth
of Indian is given elsewhere in this book. The theft of Swope's boy by
the Indians embittered him towards that people to such an extent that
he never let any opportunity pass to harrass them or to secure a scalp.
This son, Joseph, who was taken to the Indian village, was adopted
by the queen of the tribe, who was said to have been Cornstalk's mother.
He was treated with royalty and saved from death and many hardships.
An Indian boy one day located a skunk near the camp, and induced
his white comrade into making an investigation for game, the result being
that he was thoroughly fumigated. Bent on revenge, and not large enough
to whip the Indian, he waited his opportunity, and when the Indian boy
started to kindle a fire with steel and flint, Swope placed some powder
where the fire would ignite it, and when he got down to blow the smoke
into a blaze, the powder ignited and blew out both eyes of the Indian.
The Indian tribe took up the matter, and Swope was sentenced to death,
and it was here the good offices of the old queen came in. She was a
silent spectator to his sentence of death; then she quietly exercised her
authority, took charge of her adopted boy, and told the Indians they
had taught him nothing but revenge, and that this boy had a right to
resent the treatment of the Indian; so saying, she led him to her wigwam,
and the sentence was set aside and his life saved. The boy was returned
to his parents by reason of the treaty following the battle of Point Pleasant.
He was exchanged and returned to civilization, recognized by his mother
and became the ancestor of many people now living. This boy took to
civilized life after his return, learned to write, and became a prosperous
man. On April 3, 1774, he married Catharine Sullivan, a full-blooded
Irish woman. She was a woman of strong character, and led an eventful
life, many of the details of which would be interesting to her descendants.
She was a fearless pioneer, capable of defensive as well as offensive
warfare for the protection of her family against the wild beasts as well
as the savage men. On one occasion six Indians came into her house
without saying a word, and sat down at the table and ate all she had
prepared. With a grunt of thanks they walked over to the woods in
the direction of her people. In a few moments she heard the crack of a
rifle, and directly the Indians returned, and one was carrying a large
buck which they had killed, and delivered it to her. They laid it down
by the door, and indicated by signs and grunts that it was to pay for the
dinner. On one occasion she decided to go hunting at night. So getting
the trusty old flintlock rifle and calling her dogs she went entirely by
herself. She had not gone far when the dogs "treed" and as it was
too dark to see she staid with her dogs until daylight when she found
four panthers up the tree. She shot and killed three and the fourth got
away. She was the doctor for miles around and many tales used to be
told of her success in physics and surgery.

Porterfield Boyd, when a very old man, once related to the writer one of
his experiences with her. As a boy he was started for her a distance of
eight miles. The night was dark and the road dangerous. Finally he
got there and called for her and told his business. She called for her
horse a dashing, dangerous looking stallion. A man's saddle was placed
on him. Although nearly sixty years old she mounted astride and started
in a gallop and up hollows and hills she kept that gait until she got to
her patient.

This Joseph, Sr., and his wife, Catharine, raised a family of nine
children. George, the oldest, was born August 15, 1776; Margaret, Oc-
tober 20, 1777; Ruth, December, 1778; Joseph, June 20, 1781; Jonathan,
January 5, 1783; Catharine, February 12, 1785; Eleanor, January 3, 1788;
Adam, April 23, 1791; and Mary, March 17, 1793.  He settled in the
Wolf Creek Valley and secured a patent to 600 acres of land where his
father entered his tomahawk right, and there raised his family in the
house built by his father. Of this large family of early settlers and their
descendents, but few remain in the country of their nativity.  George
moved to Kentucky; Eleanor married a Burdette and moved to Kentucky.
Her son, Joseph Thornton Burdette, was the originator of the race track
of Kentucky.  Mary married Thomas Casebolt and settled on Locust
Creek, Pocahontas County. She was the mother of Henry Casebolt, who
went to California with the forty-niners and who was the inventor of the
cable car. Joseph Swope, Sr., died March 3, 1819; Catharine, his wife,
died March 12, 1820. Joseph, his son, married a Miss Hines, a great aunt
of Dr. and the late W. H. Copeland. He went with the frontiersmen
and finally settled at Elizaville, Boone County, Ind., where he died at
the ripe old age of 93 years. The writer never knew but one of his
children, Ebenezer Swope, who lived in the same village with his father,
Ebenezer Swope raised three sons, Jonathan, Joseph and Jesse, and three
daughters. The two older boys were soldiers in the Federal army during
the entire civil war. Joe was noted for bravery. On one occasion his
command was holding an advanced position on which the Confederates
were making a vicious assault, when the word was passed along the line
that the ammunition was about exhausted and the supply some distance
back in the rear. To go after it looked like certain death, in the rain of
shot and shell. The commanding officer asked for two volunteers to go.
Joe rose up and said, "I for one, sir"; another by his side also stated
he was ready to go with him. On their return a ball took off the head
of his comrade, but Joe tugged on and delivered the ammunition and
saved the day.

Adam Swope married a lady in Kentucky and settled in Greenfield,
Indiana. He raised four sons, Joseph, James, Harvey, and Henry Alex-
ander, and several daughters. His son, Joseph, died during a scourge
of typhoid while aiding his neighbors.  He left one daughter.  Henry
was a lawyer of ability and one of the best liked men in his county. He
left two sons, Elmer and Horace, who still live in Greenfield. Several
of the descendants of Adam Swope live in Indianapolis, one of whom
is Mrs. Lida Randall. Jonathan Swope, the third son of Joseph and
Catharine, first married Frances Legg, on the 4th day of January, 1803.
They settled on a part of the 600-acre patent. He was a prominent and
useful citizen, inheriting the sturdy German traits of his father, with
active determination and push of his mother. The children of Jonathan
Swope by his first marriage were George W., Lewis C., Elizabeth, Ma-
tilda, Catharine, and Mary Jane. Lewis C. Swope settled in Madison
County, Indiana; Eliabeth married an Argabright and settled at Spen-
cer, in Roane County, West Virginia; Matilda married a Johnston and
settled in Iowa; Catharine married Griffith Ellis and died near Bluefield.
Mary Jane was twice married, her first husband being Henry Miller
and her second husband, Chesteen C. McGann. They moved to Green-
field, Indiana, where she died a few years ago. Her second daughter
married James Craig, of Nicholas County, and was a literary lady of
pronounced ability, she having published a book of poems. She died a
few years since. By her second husband Mrs. McGann has one living
son, Merritt M. McGann, who lives at Catlettsburg, Kentucky. George
W. Swope married and settled near his father at the site where his
great-grandfather cut his name on the beech tree at the Swope Springs.
He raised three children, one son and two daughters. His son Caper-
ton Swope, settled in Boone County, Indiana.  His daughter, Lizzie,
first married Robert Haynes, by whom she had one daughter. Haynes
was a brave soldier in the Confederate army, and was captured and
killed with a large number of prisoners in a railroad wreck while being
transported to prison. She afterwards married James Alderson, by whom
she had one daughter, Abbie. Her husband, James G. Alderson now
lives at Alderson. Elizabeth Alderson died in 1910 and her daughter,
Abbie, in 1915. Her daughter, Mattie Haynes, married Charles K. Thomp-
son and lived at Alderson until death. Amanda Swope married Cor-
nelius Leach, settled on the homestead of her father, where she died in
1914, and to them were born two boys and three girls. Elmer, the oldest
son, after graduating at the University of West Virginia, taught one
session as associate principal with William H. Sawyers in the Hinton
High School. He is now engaged as a draughtsman with one of the
large steel bridge concerns near Pittsburgh. Arthur, the second son, mar-
ried a daughter of J. J. H. Tracy, and is living on the farm since the
death of his father. Ada married Dr. DeVober; Irene married a Mr.
Black, and they both live in Monroe County; Lizzie is unmarried. Cor-
nelius Leach was a prominent citizen of Monroe County, a Confederate
soldier who fought through the war, and active Republican politician. He
died in 1906. He was a prosperous and enterprising citizen; four years
deputy sheriff under R. T. McNeer, and was six years a member of the
county court. He was the first man to insist and agitate a revision of the
tax system of this State, contending that all species of propery should
be assessed at its true and actual value.  George W. Swope bore the
distinction of being the best scribe in his county, and one of the best edu-
cated men of his day and time. For several years a justice of the peace,
was a careful farmer, and it was said that he was able to walk out in
the night-time and lay his hand on any tool used on his farm.

On January 3, 1850, Jonathan Swope married as his second wife,
Susanna Roach, her maiden name having been Susanna Siders.  To
this union was born on December 28, 1854, one son, Joseph Jonathan
Swope, whose father at the time of his birth was seventy-one years old
and his mother in her forty-sixth year. This Joseph Jonathan Swope
received such rudiments of an education as was afforded by the public
schools of the neighborhood until he was seventeen years of age, when
his father died on April 5, 1872, aged eighty-eight years and three months,
leaving him in charge of the farm and the care of his aged mother.
He gave up the attempt of securing an education, except what he could
secure from study at home on the farm.  On the 28th day of May,
1873, he married Lucy J., daughter of L. J. and Susan (Scott) Bur-
dette. To this union four children were born: Ida S., wife of Jacob
H. Hoover, of Hinton; Mary E., wife of John W. Cook, of Charles-
ton; Elsie W., wife of Z. A. Dickinson, of Talcott, and Locksie I., wife
of Ethelbert Baber, of Hinton. Mrs. Swope died in 1883, and on Sep-
tember 23, 1883, he married Nettie Diddle, daughter of M. P. Diddle, of
near Union, in Monroe County.

Nettie Diddle Swope, second wife of J. J. Swope, was the third daugh-
ter of Michael P. and Ann Bolinger Diddle. She was born near Union,
September 6, 1850. She is a granddaughter of William Bolinger, a sol-
dier in the war of 1812. He danced a jig in the town of Union at the
age of 102; while Peter Eades played the fiddle at the age of 98. Peter
Eades was the grandfather of N. J. Keadle, of Williamson, W. Va.

M. P. Diddle was quartermaster for Stonewall Jackson until Jackson
was killed at the battle of Chancelorsville. Mr. Diddle served one term
as deputy sheriff under William Pence and was perhaps the most loved
man by the people in the county.

Mrs. Swope began her career as a teacher in tn the public schools
of the county in the year 1873 and taught every year but one until her
marriage in 1883. After her marriage she taught a session or two in
Hinton, and three years, from 1909 to 1912, in the High School in Pine-
ville, covering a period of 39 years.

To them four children were born:  Nina L., who married C. B.
Stewart, and is now residing at Charleston; Nellie H. married Frank
A. Bane and resides at Narrows, Va.; Joseph Buell Swope, after grad-
uating at the Hinton High School, took a course at the Capital City
Commercial College in Charleston and served for a short time as a
deputy under W. R. Mathews, clerk of the Supreme Court, when he
gave up the job and entered the law class at the Valparaiso University.
After spending a year, he decided the law was not to his liking and
came to Welch as assistant editor and manager with his father,, of the
"McDowell Recorder."  On May 27, 1914, he married Elsie Harvey,
daughter of Mr. and Mrs. L. C. Harvey, of Sun Hill, in Wyoming County.
Their son, Joseph B., Jr., was born May 3, 1915. Stella J., the youngest
daughter, now resides with her parents in Welch, Susannah Swope, wife
of Jonathan Swope, was born November 8, 1908, and died September
2, 1874.

The history of the Michael Swope branch of the family is very meager,
as it is back so far and the records so brief, and all the older inhabitants
dead. As shown before in this work, Michael Swope was born on Wolf
Creek on September 29, 1753, and was the first white child born in the
county, if not in the southern part of West Virginia. His older brother
kept the territory entered by their father and Michael went across to
the head of Han's Creek and entered himself 640 acres of land. Why
he went there to locate at that early date is merely a surmise, but the
most likely reason was that it was an excellent hunting ground.

Whom and when he married is now not known. His old family Bible
is now in the possession of Bernard O. Swope, cashier of the First National
Bank of Welch, and has this notation on a fly-leaf in front:

"Michael Swope, his book, Date 1816, March. This book is transferred
to John Swope at the death of Michael Swope, to John Swope and from
John Swope, 1876, to Wm. L. Swope, youngest son of John Swope, and
desires to go down to his youngest son living at his death, should one sur-
vive." Bernard being the youngest son inherited the Bible.

The record in this old book only shows the following: Michael Swope
was born September 29, 1753. Mary Swope, who seems to be his oldest
child, born September 21, 1775; Margaret, born 1777; Elizabeth, born
1778; Joseph, born 1781; James, born 1783; Hannah, born 1785; Arthur,
born 1786; Sarah, born 1787; Jane, born 1788; Rachel, born 1790; Anna,
born 1791; Susannah, born 1793; Nancy, born 1795; John, born 1797;
Michael, born 1799; Leah, born 1802.

Unfortunately, of this large family there is but little history at com-
mand of whom they married or where they settled. One of the daugh-
ters married a Harvey and settled in Monroe, where they raised a
family. Another daughter, Anne, married a man by the name of Wise-
man. From the records in the Wiseman family, which the writer got
through the courtesy of Mr. L. A. Wiseman, a grandson, it would seem
they were married in the year 1814 or 1816, as their first child was born
in 1817. They moved to Gallia County, Ohio, in the year 1830. They
raised a large family. From Ohio they moved to Nodaway County, Mis-
souri, in 1836, and died of smallpox about the year 1861. Their eldest
son, Allen, married and settled in Lawrence County, Ohio, also their son,
Lewis F., who married Mary Carter, and they raised a family of eight
children. Although he only got to school eight months he was a great
historian and could spell and define nearly any word in the English lan-
guage. He spent three years as a soldier in the Federal army in the
civil war and was noted for his bravery. His son, L. A., of Sherritts,
Ohio, writes: "My father must have had much of the Swope traits, as
I have heard him say if the devil came to his house hungry he would
feed him."

Wilbur W., another son, also settled in Lawrence county. He was
for 18 years county commissioner and also served one term in the Ohio
legislature.

L. A., son of Lewis F. Wiseman, married Julia Stewart in the year
1882. They have four children. Their daughter, Dovie, married a Mr.
Phillips and lives in Gallipolis, Ohio. Anna is a teacher in Ironton,
Ohio, Orlyn, their son, is a M. D., located at Arabia, Ohio, and Flo, the
youngest, is with her parents.

John, his son, located on his father's homestead, where he lived to the
ripe old age of 79. He was a splendid citizen, beloved by his neighbors
and all who knew him. He was one of the prominent farmers of his
time in the county. A sketch of his family will follow:

John Swope, son of Michael Swope, married Nancy Riffe (date of
marriage not given) and to this union twelve children were born—
Rachel, born 1819; Rebecca P., 1821; Anna L., 1822; Virginia C., 1824;
Michel D., 1825; David R., 1827; Adaline, 1829; John, 1831; Martha J.,
1833, Anna Virginia B., 1835; Mary M., 1838, and Wm. L., 1842.

The record of this family is very meager. David R. moved to Iowa and
died there. John went to Iowa and married a Miss Elvira Myers in
that state. Mary M. married a Shumate and they moved to Kansas.
Rachel married a man by the name of Sturgill. Adaline married Robert
Cummons.  She had three sons. She died August 22, 1870. True to
the inherent traits of the family, they followed the frontier until stopped
by the Pacific Ocean.

Wm. L. Swope, youngest son of John and Nancy Swope, married Re-
becca W. Alderson, March 22, 1866. She was the youngest daughter of
Col. George Alderson, of Fayette county, and was one of a family of
twenty-eight children, he having been married twice and had a family
of fourteen children by each wife. Col. Alderson was a man of great
prominence in his day. While serving in the Virginia legislature and
with the aid and co-operation of General Beckley, the county of Raleigh
was cut off from Fayette. Beckley named the county Raleigh, after Lord
Raleigh, and the county seat after himself or his father. Mrs. Swope
was also the aunt of the late John D. Alderson, who represented the Third
district in Congress for two or more terms. Mrs. Swope was a woman
of most amiable disposition and great force of character. She died at their
home on Han's Creek, November 8, 1890.

The family of Wm. L. and Rebecca Swope are as follows:

Anne E., born May 23, 1867. She married C. L. Boone, of Monroe
County, and they now reside at Davy, in McDowell County

John M., born February 2, 1870; married Myrtie O. Wilson, of Bote-
tourt, Va.; they now reside at Lexington, Va.

Charles C., born August 9, 1871, and died in infancy.
Mary A., born April 1, 1873; married G. H. Arnott, of Monroe; they
reside in Tacoma, Washington.

L. Walter Swope, born August 29, 1874; he married Miss Florence
Miller, of Louisville, Ky. He is an eminent minister of the Missionary
Baptist Church and is now located at Shelby, N. C.

George A., born February 9, 1876, and married Miss Sue D. Rector,
of Lynchburg, Va., June 24, 1908. They have two children, Sue D., and
George A., Jr. They live in Welch, McDowell County, where they have
a beautiful residence. He is a traveling salesman for the Graham Gro-
cery Company.

Otho, born November 6, 1877; died in infancy.

Marcella, born June 24, 1880; married W. S. Wray, of Martinsville,
Va. They live in Northfork, McDowell county, and he is at present
postmaster there.

Opie W., born April 19, 1881; married Miss Emma Kleikamp, of St.
Louis, Mo. He is a medical doctor and is located at Wichita, Kansas.

Eugene D., born August 6, 1883; married Miss Carrie Jones, daughter
of A. J. Jones, of Alderson. He is a dentist and is now located in Hunt-
ington, W. Va.

Bernard O., born December 3, 1886. He married Miss Imo McClaren,
daughter of Col. W. J. McClaren, of Welch. They have one baby son
Wm. Bernard. Bernard O. is cashier of the First National Bank of Welch,
a position he has held for years and is very popular with the people.

William L. Swope bought out the interests of his brothers and sis-
ters, and being the youngest son, became the owner of the large estate
settled by his grandfather. He was a remarkably active business man
and one of the large farmers and grazers of the county, and always
noted for his strict and stern integrity and square dealing. He was also
noted as the man who talked louder and whose voice could be heard
farther than any other man in the county. About the year 1894 he mar-
ried as his second wife Mrs. Mattie Koontz, of Sommerville, Nicholas
County, but to this union no children were born. He died February 9,
1897, in his 55th year. His sister, Martha J., the last of the large family
of John Swope, died unmarried at the old home place, March 21, 1914.

She was a full-blooded German woman, her father and mother speak-
ing only the German language until their death. She was well skilled
in materia medica and knew the medical properties of all the weeds and
herbs that grew in her vicinity and compounded them into medicines.
During the civil war when nearly every able-bodied man was in the
army, she ministered to the wants of the families for miles around. Fully
fifty baby girls were named for her, many of whom are still living.
At her home hundreds of hungry soldiers were fed. One time when
General Crook's army was returning from a raid and almost famished,
they were held up on the south side of the river at Alderson on account
of a flood in the river. His soldiers were so nearly starved they ate the
setting hens and eggs under them. Two of them taking their guns took
around the mountain through the woods until they spied a farm house in
the valley below. They ventured down and found her alone. The sight
of the two bluejackets excited her for a moment, when they assured her
that they were starving and only wanted something to eat that she could
get quickly. One suggested, if she had it, he would like to have one more
mess of ham and scrambled eggs such as he used to get at home. These
were soon prepared and one stood guard while the other ate. When
through they offered to pay in greenbacks but she declined. They then
told her that if she or any of hers ever came over into yankeedom
they would gladly repay and thanking her most heartily, they slipped
back to the mountain and to camp.

Nellie, the daughter of Jacob and Ida S. Hoover, married Robert R.
Keller, son of R. A. Keller, cashier of the Citizens National Bank of
Pineville. To this union was born in the fall of 1915, R. R., Jr., who
is the first great-grandchild of J. J. Swope. Robert R. and his wife re-
side in Hinton, where he has charge as manager of the Hinton Water
and Light Company.

Ollie J. Hoover, the son of Jacob H. and Ida Hoover, is also mar-
ried and is a machinist in the employ of the C. & O. railway, and also
resides in Hinton.

Mr. J. J. Swope is the most prominent of the present generation of the
long line of the Swope ancestry now residing in this section of the country.
After thirty years of life on the farm of his father in the Wolf Creek
Valley, he abandoned it and went into the timber business. In 1887 he
built a portable steam sawmill at Ronceverte, on which was placed one
of his own inventions, a variable friction with only one wheel to use
in either feeding and gigging the carriage. In 1888, he moved his family
and located in Hinton, where he continued until 1889, when his mill and
entire property was destroyed by fire, after which he recuperated and
again embarked in the mill business with Robert H. Maxwell for a short
time, but the business proving unsuccessful, it was abandoned. He then
entered the law office of Judge James H. Miller, and while firing the
engine for the Hinton Water Company, began the study of law, and
after six months of close application was admitted to the bar in 1892. He
is a gentleman of great mental activity. In 1894, through his advice and
efforts and in his office, a company was organized which established the
"Hinton Republican," now the "Hinton Leader." He was for three years
local attorney for the C. O. Railway. In 1902 a fight grew up over the
leadership of the Republican party in Summers County, and during that
campaign he published and distributed the "Yellow Jacket" newspaper,
which was intended only as a campaign publication. It was independent
of the Republican organization and opposed the ring rule of the bosses.
In 1903, he abandoned Summers County for more attractive opportunities,
and located at Oceana, in Wyoming County. He and his son, J. B.,
constructed the first telephone line in that territory, which was from his
office to the county clerk's office. On September 1, 1903, he took charge
of the "Wyoming Herald," under lease, which he published until Feb-
ruary, 1905, when he founded the "Wyoming Mountaineer," a Republican
newspaper, of which he took entire charge as manager and editor, and
which was a successful county paper, its circulation having arisen to
1,400 copies each week. In the contest over the removal of the county
seat from Oceana to Pineville, which was voted on at the election of
1904, he espoused the side of Pineville with his paper, and that town
won by a majority of fifty votes over the necessary three-fifths required
by law for the removal of a county seat. This election was declared void
for technical irregularities on the part of commissioners holding the elec-
tion. A second election was called in 1905, Mr. Swope again espousing
the cause of Pineville, and again that town won over Oceana, and the
courthouse was removed to the latter place in the year 1907. He re-
moved his newspaper office to Pineville, and his first issue from that
town was March 6, 1906. He brought the first cylinder press and the
first gasoline engine into that county. In 1911, Mr. Swope sold out the
"Mountaineer" in Pineville and moved to Welch and with Governor H.
D. Hatfield, Judge I. C. Herndon, Judge Jas. F. Strother, Senator Jas.
A. Strother, Senator W. W. Whyte, Col. W. J. McClaren, R. B.
Bernheim, then clerk of the county court, W. Burbridge Payne, clerk of
the circuit court, Sam G. Walker, a prominent business man of the town,
and Mrs. Swope, organized the Welch Publishing Company, which pub-
lishes the "McDowell Recorder," and does a general printing business. In
1915, he was unanimously elected president of the West Virginia Publishers'
Association, of which nearly every newspaper of the state is a member.

Mr. Swope still practices law, but his law is secondary to his interests
and energies devoted to his newspaper. During his residence in Summers
county, he was an active Republican politician, and had much to do with
the policies and management of that party. It was through his efforts
that a city charter for the city of Hinton was passed by the legislature in
1897, consolidating the two towns of Hinton and Upper Hinton under one
administration. He prepared in his own handwriting that legislative act.
That consolidation not proving satisfactory, he prepared a bill and aided
in securing its passage, known as the "Divorce Bill," by which the two
towns were separated and again became two separate municipalities. His
practice of law extended to the adjoining counties and in the Supreme Court
of Appeals.

He is a gentleman of intelligence and of enterprise, and his energies
are always for the interest of his community at large. He exercised all
of his influnce towards the securing of the construction of a new courthouse
and fireproof clerks' offices and modern jail for Wyoming County.

There are few of the Swope descendants now residing within our
territory. Jacob H. Hoover, the tinner of Avis, married his daughter, and
they reside in Hinton. Another daughter, Mrs. Baber, and her husband
live in the same town. Another daughter, Mrs. Dickinson, and her hus-
band reside at Talcott. They are intelligent, law-abiding people.

There are a few things of which the Swope family may justly feel
proud. They are descendants of the original pioneers who first settled
in this county. From 1678 to 1916 there is no record of any of the
Swope generation who was ever in prison except as prisoners of war.
Not one has ever been tried or convicted of a felony in all the long line.
Not one, so far as I have ever known or heard of, has signed his name
with a mark, and no hungry person has ever gone unfed from their doors.

The old house built by the original settler on Wolf Creek still stands,
well preserved. The site on which the hollow poplar tree stood in which
Joseph Swope hid from the Indians is still marked and preserved. A large
tombstone stands on a flat top circular knoll near the Board Run Bap-
tist church, where Joseph Swope, Sr., laid out a cemetery or graveyard
over a hundred years ago, and there lie side by side his body and that
of his wife, and on his tombstone is the following inscription: "Joseph
Swope departed this life March 2, 1819, in his sixty-eighth year.  He
was one of the first settlers of this country, after having been nine years
a prisoner with the Shawnee Indians."