Wood County WV Archives History - Books .....Wood County History 1889
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Alice Warner Brosey http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00015.html#0003503 April 22, 2010, 10:06 am

Book Title: History Of West Virginia In Two Parts By Virgil A. Lewis

Wood county was formed from Harrison by Act of Assembly passed December 21,
1798, by which it was declared, "that all that part of the county of Harrison,
lying westwardly of a line to begin thirty miles from the Ohio river, on the
line dividing the counties of Harrison and Kanawha; thence northeasterly to
intersect the line of Ohio county at twenty-one miles distance from the Ohio
river on a straight line from that point where the Ohio county line strikes the
said river, shall, from and after the first day of May next, form one distinct
county to be called and known by the name of Wood county."

James Wood.—The county was named in honor of James Wood, the son of Colonel
James Wood, the founder of Winchester, Virginia; he was born about the year
1750, in Frederick county, which he represented in the Virginia Convention of
1776, which framed the State Constitution. He was appointed by that body,
November 15, 1776, a colonel in the Virginia line and did valiant service in the
cause of Freedom. He was long a member of the Council of State, and by
seniority, Lieutenant-Governor of Virginia. He was elected Governor of the
State, December 1, 1796. and served until December 1, 1799. Governor Wood was
subsequently commissioned Brigadier-General in the United States Military, and
served long as President of the Order of Cincinnati. He died at Richmond, June
16, 1813.

First Courts.—August 12, 1799, the Justices of Wood county met at the house of
Hugh Phelps. They were John Bennett, Thomas Pribble, John Henderson, Caleb
Hitchcock, Abner Lord, Joseph Spencer, Thomas Lord, and Ichabod C. Griffin.
William Lowther became the first sheriff and John Stokely first clerk. The court
then fixed the location of the Court house and other public buildings at Neal's
Station. John Neal and Peter Misner were recommended to the Governor as fit
persons for coroner, and Harman Blennerhassett, John Neale, Daniel Kincheloe,
Jacob Beeson and Hezekiah Bukey for justices. John Stephenson was appointed
Commissioner for the county, at the November term, 1799.

There was some difficulty in getting a sufficient number of justices to serve,
and it was not until March 10, 1800, that there was a full bench. Then the
justices were Hugh Phelps, Thomas Pribble, John G. Henderson, Hezekiah Bukey,
John Stevenson, Daniel Kincheloe, William Hannaman, Thomas Lord, Caleb
Hitchcock, Abner Lord and Ichabod C. Griffin. Nathaniel Davison was appointed
Attorney for the State; Robert Triplett qualified as Surveyor, and Peter Misner
as Coroner. Elias Lowther was appointed to ascertain and mark the boundaries of
the county.

October 13, 1800, it was "ordered by the court that the necessary public
buildings be erected on the lands of Isaac Williams, on the Ohio, opposite the
mouth of Muskingum river, where the said Williams' barn now stands, and that the
court be held at the house of Isaac Williams. Here the court convened at the
next term, November, 10, 1800, and a vote was again taken on the location of the
county seat, when ten to six voted to return to the house of Hugh Phelps, and
the court adjourned to meet there the next morning."

The same term, "at a full court held at the house of Hugh Phelps, it was
unanimously agreed that the point above the mouth of the Little Kanawha river,
at the union of the said Kanawha and Ohio rivers, on lands owned by John
Stokely, is the proper place for the seat of justice, and it is accordingly
ordered that the necessary public buildings be erected thereon." It was further
unanimously agreed by each member of the court: "We will support the above order
and never will raise any legal objection to the same." Then the court adjourned
"to meet at the point at the upper side of the Little Kanawha where a
block-house has been built."

February 1, 1802, it was ordered that a jail, stocks and pillory be built at the
point on the Kanawha on the ground laid off for that purpose. This order was
carried into effect by the commissioners, Joseph Cook, John Stephenson and
Thomas Lord, who contracted with James G. Laidley to construct the same.

August 28, 1803. The grand jury returned into court with two indictments, to
wit: Samuel Pugh, Jr., for swearing seven profane oaths within two months past;
and Evan Pugh, for swearing nine profane oaths within two months past."

Parkersburg.—In the year 1773, Robert Thornton, of Pennsylvania, made his
settlement right—a tomahawk entry—to four hundred acres of land, including that
on which the town now stands, and in 1783, it was confirmed to him by the
Virginia Commissioners of lands.

In December, 1783, James Neale, assistant of Samuel Hannaway, surveyor of
Monongalia county, surveyed two tracts of land for Alexander Parker, of Green
county, Pennsylvania, assignee of Robert Thornton, and July 3, 1787, patents
were issued by the State. Mr. Parker died about the year 1800, and the lands
descended to his daughter Mary, who married William Robinson, Jr., of Allegheny
City, Pennsylvania. The title was as usual disputed, John Stokely, being one of
the contestants. The Parker heirs saved about seven hundred acres. At the time
the county seat was located the town was called "The Point." A half-dozen log
cabins composed it. Occupying them were the families of William Enoch, Caleb
Bailey, John Stephenson, Jesse Murdock, Edward Stephenson and John Stokely.
Stokely's patent was dated December 8, 1800, and he laid out the town of Newport
on the Parkersburg side, and it was so known until 1809; then the abovementioned
heirs of Parker gained the land from Stokely, and December 11, 1810, the town
was laid out and named Parkersburg. The plat was recorded in 1816. The present
court house was built in 1815. The first was a log house in Stokely's town of
Newport.

Blennerhassett's Island is situated in the Ohio river two miles below
Parkersburg. Its historical associations render it an object of interest to all.
To tell the story would be to write a volume. Once the home of luxury and
refinement, it has become a "Deserted Isle." In its desolation is told the fate
of ambition.

Harman Blennerhassett was a representative of a distinguished and wealthy Irish
family, but was born in England during the temporary residence of his parents in
that country. He began his education in England, but graduated at the University
of Dublin, after which he entered the profession of law. In England, he married
Miss Adeline Agnew, who was a granddaughter of General Agnew, who was with Wolfe
at Quebec. Soon after he sold his estate in Ireland and sailed for America,
landing at New York, where he was hospitably received by the first families. In
1797, he journeyed to Philadelphia, and from there came to Marietta in 1798.
Having purchased the beautiful island which now bears his name, he began the
erection of a splendid mansion, the architect being a Mr. Greene of New Castle,
Pennsylvania, and the carpenters coming from Philadelphia.

[illustration woodcut of the Blennerhassett Mansion]

Harman Blennerhassett was an accomplished scholar, well versed in mathematics
and languages and possessed of refined tastes and manners. So perfect was his
memory, that it is said he could repeat the whole of Homer's Iliad in the
original Greek. He brought with him to his island home a library of choice and
valuable works and a complete set of chemical apparatus and philosophical
instruments, to the accommodation of which one wing of the mansion was
appropriated. Possessed of an ample fortune to supply every want, a beautiful
and accomplished wife and lovely children, he was surrounded with everything
which can make life desirable and happy. The adjacent settlements of Belpre,
Parkersburg, and the more distant one of Marietta, although buried in the heart
of the wilderness, contained many men of cultivated minds and refined manners,
with whom he held constant and familiar intercourse, so that there was lacking
none of the social advantages which his remote and insular situation would seem
to indicate. Beneath his hospitable roof were many merry gatherings of the
people of these towns, when song and dance echoed through the halls.

In 1805, Aaron Burr, the slayer of Alexander Hamilton, when descending the Ohio,
landed uninvited upon the island, but met with a cordial reception. He remained
only three days, but that was too long. In this short period he succeeded in
enticing the unsuspecting Blennerhassett into his plans. These were to settle an
armed force on the Wichita, for the purpose of colonizing that region, and, in
the event of a war between Spain and the United States — at that time threatened
— to conquer Mexico. To Burr, Blennerhassett advanced large sums of money, the
former giving as his security his son-in-law, Joseph Alston, afterward Governor
of South Carolina. The scheme progressed, and in the meantime Blennerhassett had
a flotilla of small boats, about twenty in number, built at Marietta, destined
for use in the southern expedition. The peculiar form of the boats excited
apprehension, but there was no interference, and on a December evening in 1806,
with supplies and thirty men on board, the fleet began the descent of the river.
On the same day Colonel Hugh Phelps, commandant of the Wood county militia,
received orders to arrest Blennerhassett and his associates. Late at night, with
a body of the military, he proceeded to the island; but it was too late. Colonel
Phelps at once began an overland journey to Point Pleasant, hoping to intercept
the boats at that place, but they had passed when he arrived. The troops were
met by Mrs. Blennerhassett, who forbade them touching anything not named in the
warrant. But the mob spirit ran riot, the well-stored cellars were assailed, the
mansion sacked, balls fired into the rich gilded ceilings, fences pulled down to
light the sentinel fires and the shrubbery trampled under foot. By the aid of
friends, Mrs. Blennerhassett was enabled a few days later to embark on a
flatboat with her two children and black servants, and finally joined her
husband at Louisville. Well might they look with grief in after years to the
fair Eden from which they had been driven by their own indiscretion and the
deception of Aaron Burr.

In the year 1812, the mansion was destroyed by an accidental fire; the garden
with its beautiful shrubbery and rare plants was converted into a cornfield; the
graveled avenue leading to the river was turned by the plowshare, and since that
time nothing remains of the once beautiful home of Harman Blennerhassett save
the name. More than fourscore years have passed away since the once happy
occupants left it, still the thousands of travelers who annually pass it by rail
and river, eagerly inquire after and gaze with pathetic interest upon the island.

Burr and Blennerhassett were both arrested, taken to Richmond and confined in
the penitentiary. The former was acquitted and the latter never brought to
trial. Blennerhassett and his family afterward went to Europe, where he died on
the island of Guernsey, at the age of sixty-three years. The widow afterward
returned to the United States and died in great poverty in New York, in 1842.
But one representative of the family is now known to be in this country — that
the wife of Joseph Lewis Blennerhassett, now residing at Troy, Missouri.

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