History of The Middle New River Settlements - Chapter IV Part B



Chapter IV Part B

This new state composed of the three counties mentioned, lived and lasted
with John Sevier as its governor four years, and then ceased to further
exist; its territory having been finally absorbed or embraced within the
limits of the state of Tennessee. This brief mention of the state of
Franklin is only made to show that if it had continued its existence with
the enlarged territory added as proposed by Colonel Campbell, the counties
of Mercer and Tazewell would have been embraced therein.

A raiding party of Indians in 1785 entered the Upper Bluestone and Wolf
Creek sections, stole horses and gave great alarm to the settlers.

The general assembly of Virginia in October, 1785, passed an act to take
effect May first, 1786, dividing the county of Washington by the creation
of the county of Russell; which Act reads as follows: "All that part of
said county lying within a line to be run along the Clinch Mountain to the
Carolina line, thence with a line to the Cumberland Mountain, and the
extent of the county between the Cumberland Mountain, Clinch Mountain and
the line of Montgomery County, shall be one distinct county, called and
known by the name of Russell. Court to meet at the house of William
Robinson in Castlewoods."

In the early morning of July 14,1786, a band of forty Shawnee Indians
attacked the family of Captain James Moore in Abb's Valley, killed Captain
Moore, two of his children, a man by the name of Simpson, captured Mrs.
Moore, and her four remaining children, and a Miss Evans who was living
with the family, plundered, and burned the house, and then made off to the
Ohio with their prisoners and booty. Two men in the harvest field just
south of the house, one by the name of Clark, the other an Irishman, fled
and gave the alarm. Clark ran directly to the Davidson-Bailey Fort at the
Beaver Pond spring, the Irishman to a settlement on upper Bluestone. A
messenger was forthwith dispatched to Major Joseph Cloyd, on Back Creek,
who with a party of men reached the scene of the tragedy the second day
after its enactment, but too late to overtake the Indians. They secured
the bodies of the dead and buried them. They found the body of Captain
Moore about two hundred yards north of the house. His body had been
horribly mutilated by the savages. It was buried where he fell and it
still reposes there. The spot where the two small children were buried,
remained unknown to the Moores until about fifteen years ago Mr. Oscar B.
Moore, the great grandson of Captain James, while plowing or having
plowing done in a field near where the cabin had stood, turned up the
bones of these children and not far away under the edge of a shelving
limestone rock the bones of a man of very large frame was plowed up,
supposed to be those of the Indian that the horse Yorick killed. The story
of the destruction of Captain Moore and his family, has been given by
several writers, and it is not deemed necessary to repeat it here in full.
The reader for further information is referred to "Abb's Valley Captives:"
Kercheval's His. Val.: Trans Alleghany Pioneers: Summers His. South-west
Virginia.

The Federal Convention, which assembled at Philadelphia on the 17th day of
September completed its work, and submitted the same to the states for
their action. The Virginia convention convened to consider the
ratification or rejection of this Federal constitution, assembled in the
city of Richmond on the 2nd day of June, 1788. The representatives from
the county of Montgomery, of which the territory of Mercer was then a
part, were Walter Crockett and Abraham Trigg. Washington County was
represented by Samuel Edmiston and James Montgomery. The opposition to the
ratification of the constitution was vigorous, being led by Patrick Henry,
while James Madison and Governor Randolph earnestly supported
ratification. It was ratified with sundry amendments, recommendations and
conditions added, by a vote of 89 to 79, the representatives from west of
the Alleghanies voting against ratification. And thus with perhaps two
exceptions, the people living west of the Alleghanies have almost
invariably opposed and voted against every constitution presented to them,
and the last heard from they were still voting along the same lines. It is
true they voted for the ratification of the Underwood constitution of 1769
but this was a matter of self-preservation, to avoid political
disabilities, disfranchisement, and negro domination, all of which had
practically been incorporated into the constitution, but several of the
obnoxious features thereof were by authority of President Grant voted on
separately and defeated. But the stronger reason that impelled them to
vote for this constitution, was the fear of carpetbag and scalawagism, as
well as negro domination.

Captain Henry Harman, who was a German, but born on the Isle of Man, first
settled in North Carolina near the Moravian town, Salem, and there married
Miss Nancy Wilburn, and from thence removed about the year of 1758 to the
New River valley, and settled on Buchanan's bottom, the Major James R.
Kent farm. Some years later Captain Harman settled on Walker's Creek, but
soon removed to the north branch thereof, known now as Kimberling Creek
(the name believed to have been given from Jacob Kimberline). This farm on
which he settled on the Kimberling, and now known as Hollybrook, remained
in his family for long years. The last Harman that owned and occupied it
was Colonel William N. Harman, a grandson of Captain Henry, a lawyer by
profession, and who commanded a battalion of confederate Calvery during
our civil war. Colonel Harman with his family recently removed to the
territory of Oklahoma.

Captain Henry Harman very early in the morning of November 12th, 1788,
started out on his usual fall hunt, taking with him two of his sons,
George and Matthias, and a man by the name of George Draper. They had with
them their bear dogs and pack horses, with the latter to transport their
game. Starting early and traveling the mountain trails by the shortest
route, they reached a point on the Tug Fork of the Sandy below the
junction of the North and South forks thereof a little more than two miles
below said junction on the right bank of the main Tug fork, where they
selected their camp, the construction of which was left to the Captain,
who desired it arranged to suit his taste. George and Matthias had started
to the woods to look for game, while Mr. Draper was looking after the
horses. A short distance from the stopping place George Harman found a
camp in which a fire was still burning and a pair of leggins, which
Captain Harman decided from the odor had been with the Indians, and had
formerly belonged to Captain James Moore, who had been killed and his
house plundered by the Indians a little more than two years before.
Captain Harman satisfied that he was in near proximity to the Indians, and
night rapidly approaching, decided to retrace his steps, knowing if he
remained he would be attacked, and to get out was safer, and would also
enable him to give notice to the settlers; he thereupon called in
Matthias, caught up the horses and moved out; he and Mr. Draper in front,
the horses next, and George and Matthias to bring up the rear. They had
proceeded but short distance, when they were fired upon by the Indians,
some six or seven in number. Draper retired at the fire of the first gun,
and hid himself in the branches of a fallen tree, a little to the rear of
the scene of conflict, so that the Harmans were left alone to contend with
at least, if not more than double their own number. The fight was close
and bloody, Captain Harman receiving one severe, and other slight wounds
from arrows. George had a hand to hand conflict with one of the savages,
whom with the help of Matthias, he succeeded in dispatching. Two of the
Indians being killed, and two wounded, those still unhurt with the wounded
ones, beat a retreat, and the Harmans pursued their way safely homeward.
Draper from his hiding place had observed the retreat of the Indians,
crept out, hurried into the settlement, and reported the Harmans killed.
This brief account of the affair taken from a copy of the "Harman Ms", in
possession of the author. A much fuller account of this fight will be
found in Bickley's History of Tazewell, and in Summers' History of
Southwestern Virginia, to which the reader is referred, and attention is
called to the correct date upon which the fight took place, the other
publications having the dates wrong by four years. About twenty years ago
some gentlemen in McDowell County, West Virginia, (this fight took place
in what is now the territory of McDowell County), on a hunting tour over
the side of a mountain nearby the battle ground and under a cliff of rock,
found the skeleton of a human being, and brought away the skull, and
presented the same to Mr. Hiram Christian, of McDowell. It was very
peculiarly shaped, and all who saw it pronounced it the skull of an Indian.

Capt. Henry Harman wrote some verses on this battle which are herein
inserted, which are as follows:

HARMAN'S BATTLE SONG.

"Come all ye bold heroes whose hearts flow with courage,
With respect pay attention to a bloody fray
Fought by Captain Harman and valiant sons,
With the murdering Shawnees they met on the way.

This battle was fought on the twelfth of November,
Seventeen hundred and eighty and eight,
Where God of his mercy stood by those brave heroes,
Or they must have yielded to a dismal fate.

Oh! nothing would do this bold Henry Harman
But down to Tug River without more delay,
With valiant sons and their noble rifles,
Intending a number of bears for to slay.

They camped on Tug River with pleasing contentment,
Till the sign of bloodthirsty Shawnees appears,
Then with brave resolution they quickly embark,
To cross the high mountains and warn the frontiers.

Brave Harman rode foremost with undaunted courage
Nor left his old trail those heathen to shun;
His firm resolution was to save Bluestone,
Though he knew by their sign there were near three to one.

The first salutation the Shawnees did give them,
They saw the smoke rise from behind some old logs;
Brave Harman to fight them then quickly dismounted,
Saying, "Do you lie there you savage, murdering dogs?"

He says "My dear sons stand by me with courage,
And like heroes fight on till you die on the ground;"
Without hesitation they swiftly rushed forward;
They'd have the great honor of taking their hair.

At first by the host of the Redskins surrounded,
His well pointed gun made them jump behind trees;
At last all are slain, but two, and they wounded,
Cherokee in the shoulder, and Wolf in the knees.

Great thanks to Almighty for the strength and the courage,
By which the brave Harmans triumphed o'er the foe;
Not the women and children, they intended to slaughter,
But the bloody invaders themselves are laid low.

May their generation on the frontiers be stationed,
To confound and defeat all their murdering schemes,
And put a flustration to every invasion,
And drive the Shawnees from Montgomery's fair streams."

In the early spring of 1789, James Roark and family lived at the gap of
the ridge, dividing the waters of Clinch and Sandy Rivers, and near the
head spring of the Dry fork of Sandy, and on and near the line dividing
the counties of Russell and Montgomery. A raiding party of Indians had
come up the Dry fork of the Sandy, and unexpectedly to them, quite a snow
had fallen and they took shelter or camped under a large overhanging rock
opposite the mouth of Dick's Creek, of Dry fork. It was while under this
rock, waiting for the snow to disappear, that they discovered William
Wheatley, who lived in Baptist Valley, in search of his lost dog, killed
him, mutilated his body, tore out his bowels, stretched them upon the
bushes, his heart being found in one place, his liver in another. On a
large beech tree near the place where Wheatly was killed, the Indians cut
the figure of a man, which was plainly visible a few years ago. After the
killing of Wheatley, and the snow had disappeared, they moved up Dry fork
and fell upon the family of Roark, killing his wife and several children
and then retired down the Sandy.

In the fall of this same year of 1789, a body of Indians came into the
Bluestone and upper Clinch settlements, crossed the East River mountain on
to the waters of the Clear fork of Wolf Creek, prowled around for several
days to find, as afterwards ascertained, the home of George and Matthias
Harman, they supposed they had killed Captain Henry Harman in the fight on
the Tug the year before. Late in the evening of the first day of October,
1789, they suddenly appeared at the door of the cabin of Thomas Wiley, on
Clear Fork, at what is now known as the "Dill's Place." Mr. Wiley was from
home, they took his wife, Virginia, and five children prisoners, plundered
the house, and moved off up Cove Creek, where they killed all of Mrs.
Wiley's children, crossed the East River mountain by the farm owned by the
late Walter McDonald Sanders, down Beaver Pond Creek, by where the town of
Graham, Virginia, is now situated, striking Bluestone, and across Flat Top
mountain by way of the Pealed Chestnuts, and down the north fork of the
Tug Fork to the Harman battle ground, ( a part of the same Indians that
captured Mrs. Wiley, were in the fight with Harman.) On the battlefield
they gathered together some of the bones of their comrades who had fallen
in the fight, and bemoaned and bewailed their loss, and finally the leader
of the party said to Mrs. Wiley, "Here I killed Old Skygusty," the name
they had given Captain Harman; Mrs. Wiley replied, "No you didn't for I
saw him last week." The Indian, apparently nettled at her reply, said,
"You lie, you Virginia Huzza, you lie, for when I shot him I heard him
call on his God." Mrs. Wiley was taken to the Indian town at Chillicothe
where she remained until the last days of September, 1792, when she
escaped; a full history of which will be given later on when we narrate
the events occurring in year of 1792. This incident is taken in part from
a letter of Mr. Armstrong Wiley and from a report made by Colonel Robert
Trigg to the Governor of Virginia which will be found in the Virginia
Calendar Papers.

A marauding party of Indians entered the Bluestone and upper Clinch
settlements, in the year of 1790, which greatly alarmed the settlers, who
took prompt measures to repel and punish them. They committed no other
outrage than to steal a large number of horses from the people, which they
succeeded in getting away with. At the coming of the Indians in this year
of 1790, an event happened in the neighborhood of the Davidson-Bailey
Fort, which was deeply impressed upon the minds of those conversant with
what is about to be related. John Bailey, son of Richard, the settler, had
married a daughter of John Goolman Davidson, the settler, and the
buildings at the fort being so crowded, and Mr. Bailey desiring to set out
for himself, had on Boyer's Branch, about three-fourths of a mile north-
east of the fort, erected him a fairly good one room log house to which he
took his young wife, and there in summer of 1790, was born his first child
and eldest son, Jonathan, who was only four days old when the Indians
entered the neighborhood. The young mother seized her babe, mounted a
horse and rode to the fort, from which she seemed to suffer no injury or
inconvenience. If such were to happen in this our day there is at least a
probability there would be a funeral or a heavy physician's bill to pay.

Jonathan Bailey long lived, dying in 1770, (Note: as printed in the book)
leaving behind him a numerous progeny of as good people as live in any
community.

The General Assembly of Virginia in October, 1789, created the county of
Wythe within the following boundaries: All that part of Montgomery which
lies south and west of a line beginning in the Henry line at the head of
Big Reedy Island, from thence to Wagon ford on Peek Creek, thence to the
Clover bottom on Bluestone, thence to the Kanawha line, shall form one
distinct county, and to be called and known by the name of Wythe. Court
for Wythe to be held at the house of James McGavock." By this same act a
part of the western part of the County of Botetourt was added to
Montgomery. The western line of Wythe was the same as had been the western
line of Montgomery County viz: from the second ford of Holstein above the
Royal Oak to the west end of Morriss' Knob and then to the head waters of
the Sandy at Roark's gap. And this remained unchanged until the county of
Tazewell was created in 1800.

Andrew Davidson, son of John Goolman Davidson had married Rebecca Burke,
granddaughter of James Burke, the reputed discoverer of Burke's Garden,
and had made his settlement at the head spring of the East River, less
than a half mile from what is now the east limits of the city of
Bluefield, West Virginia. The spring of 1791 being late, Andrew Davidson
having some important business at Smithfield (Draper's Meadows ) from
which his father and family had removed about ten years before, set off
from home in the early part of April leaving at home his wife, his three
small children, two girls and boy, and two bound children, orphans, whose
names were Bromfield. Mr. Davidson had requested his brother-in-law, John
Bailey, to look after his family. Shortly after Mr. Davidson's departure,
perhaps two or three days, and while Mrs. Davidson was gathering sugar
water from sugar maple trees close by the house, there suddenly appeared
several Indians, who told her she would have to go with them to their
towns beyond the Ohio. There was no alternative although she was in no
condition to make such a trip, as she was then rapidly approaching
motherhood. Taking such plunder as they could carry, they set fire to the
house and with their prisoners departed; the Indians helping along with
the children. Only two hours relaxation from the march was allowed her and
they again pushed on. The little stranger after a day's time, they
drowned. On the fateful morning on which Mrs. Davidson and her children
were captured, John Bailey being at the fort informed his people that he
must go over and look after Andrew Davidson's family, whereupon one of his
sisters, (he had but two), told him to get her a horse and that she would
go with him, to which he assented and secured the horse for her. They set
out on the journey, going up Boyer's Branch to the gap in the ridge, where
the livery stable of Mr. J. C. Higgenbothen now stands inside the city
limits of Bluefield, and which spot has now been selected for the site of
the Federal building shortly to be erected. On reaching this gap Mr.
Bailey discovered a heavy smoke from the direction of the Davidson house,
and thereupon told his sister to remain on her horse in the gap and watch
while he went forward to a piece of ground in the valley, (the hill on
which lately stood the Higgenbothen residence, but which hill has been
recently removed). He hurriedly returned, reporting the house on fire, and
that evidently the Indians had been there and taken the people, as no one
could be seen about the house. Mr. Bailey and his sister rode rapidly to
the fort, gave the alarm to the neighborhood, and a party gathered as
quickly as possible and pursued the Indians, but the leaves being dry the
savages had left but few, if any marks, and the party was unable to
overtake them. On arriving at the Indian town, the little girls of Mrs.
Davidson were tied to trees and shot to death before her eyes. The boy,
her son, was given to an old squaw, who in crossing a river with him upset
the canoe and the boy was drowned. As to what became of the two bound
children, was by the white people never known.

Mrs. Davidson was in captivity from April, 1791, until a date subsequent
to Wayne's victory over the United Indian Tribes at Fallen Timbers in
August, 1794. Mr. Davidson made the second trip in search of his wife
before he found her. He had before his second trip received information
through an old Indian which led him across the Canadian border, and
stopping at a farm house to obtain a meal, observed a woman passing him as
he entered the house, to whom he merely bowed and went in. Shortly the
woman came in with a load of wood and laying it down, looked at the
stranger for a moment, then turned to her Mistress, (for she had been sold
as a servant to a Canadian French farmer), and said, "I know that man;"
"Well, who is he?" said the French lady. "It is my husband! Andrew
Davidson, I am your wife." Mr. Davidson was not only astounded, but
joyfully and more than agreeably surprised, for when he last saw his wife,
she was a fine healthy looking woman, her hair as black as a raven's wing,
but had now turned to snowy white. Mr. Davidson returned, bringing with
him his wife, and they settled at the mouth of Abb's Valley on a farm now
owned by A. C. Davidson, Esq. Mr. and Mrs. Davidson raised another family
of children, she long lived, and when she died, her remains were removed
to and buried in the Burke burying ground at the Horse Shoe farm on New
River in the now county of Giles. At the time of the capture of Mrs.
Davidson in 1791, the place where she was captured was then in that part
of Wythe County, which is now Mercer County, West Virginia.

Major Robert Crockett was for a number of years including 1791, and for
some years later, the military commandant in Wythe County, and for a good
part of the time made his headquarters on the Clinch at Wynn's Fort.

A band of Indians from the Ohio country, came in July, 1792, into the
Bluestone and upper Clinch settlements and began their depredations--
stealing horses, which they had found to be a profitable business. They
stole the horses of the settlers, and ran them over into Canada, where
they sold them at remunerative prices.

Major Crockett assembled forty men at the place where stands the residence
of the late Captain Thomas Peery. Among the number who obeyed the call of
Major Crockett were Joseph Gilbert and Samuel Lusk, the latter a youth of
about sixteen years, but with quite an experience as an Indian spy and
scout, having made a number of trips with the said Joseph Gilbert, who was
a noted Indian scout and hunter.

The late Captain James Shannon of the county of Wyoming, West Virginia,
when about ninety three years of age, related to the author, that he rode
behind his father on a horse to the assembly ground, and well recollected
Joseph Gilbert as an active athletic young man, and that he also saw Lusk
on the same occasion.

Major Crockett moved off with his men to follow the Indians, having no
time to prepare provisions for the journey. They took the route down Horse
Pen Creek, and to the head of Clear fork, and down to the Tug and on to
the mouth of Four Pole, then crossing the dividing ridge between the
waters of the Sandy and Guyandotte Rivers. They sent Gilbert and Lusk
forward to a Buffalo lick on a creek flowing into the Guyandotte, to
secure if possible a supply of game. It appears by the report of Major
Crockett, found in the Virginia Calendar Papers, that this was on the
twenty fourth day of July that Gilbert and Lusk set out for and reached
the lick, where they found and killed a deer and wounded an elk, which
they followed, some distance; being unable to overtake it they returned to
the lick to get the deer they had killed. On passing along the Bullalo
path, near which they had left the deer, Gilbert in front, discovered a
stone hanging by pawpaw bark over the path. Gilbert in an instant
discerning what it meant called on Lusk to look out. He had scarcely
uttered the words, when the Indians fired, a ball from one of their guns
penetrating the hand of Lusk, in which he carried his gun, which caused
him to drop the same. The Indians immediately began to close in on them,
Gilbert putting Lusk behind him, and holding the Indians off by the
presentation of his gun. Gilbert and Lusk kept retreating as rapidly as
they could with safety. Lusk's wounded hand was bleeding freely, and he
became sick from the loss of blood, and begged Gilbert to leave him and
get away; this Gilbert refused to do, saying , that he promised his,
Lusk's mother, to take care of him. Finally the Indians got close enough
to knock Gilbert down with their tomahawks, which they did, and an Indian
rushed up to scalp him, when Gilbert shot him dead, but another one of the
Indians dispatched Gilbert, and Lusk became a prisoner. The Indians
immediately hurried with their prisoner down the creek to Guyandotte, and
then down the river to the mouth of Island Creek, and went into camp
behind a rocky ridge called Hog Back at the present day. Major Crockett
instead of following the tracks of Gilbert and Lusk to the lick, had
turned to the west, and crossed a ridge onto the right fork of Island
Creek, and reached and camped at a point within two miles of the Indian
camp, but without knowledge of his proximity to them. During the night
Lusk suffered much with his hand until an Indian went off and brought some
roots which he beat up into a pulp, made a poultice, and bound his hand
which afforded relief. Early on the morning of the 25th the Indians took
to their canoes, which they had left at this point on their way to the
settlements, and rapidly descending the river to its mouth crossed the
Ohio. On reaching the northern bank, they placed their canoes in charge of
some of their party and taking Lusk with them crossed the country.

The Indians had learned some things from their contact with white men,
among them was to wear a hunting shirt, a loose garment which they
fastened around the waist, leaving it open and loose above the waist.
These Indians that had Lusk in charge had donned the hunting shirt. On the
way across the country, on the evening they crossed the Ohio, and before
halting to camp, they passed through some prairie country, and Lusk
observed that they kept now and then stooping down taking something from
the ground, and putting inside of their hunting shirts. When they had
reached their camping place, and had built a fire, they went off and
brought a large iron kettle, put on the fire, and put into it a
considerable quantity of water, and when it began to approach the boiling
point, the Indians gathered around the kettle and began to take something
from the inside of their hunting shirts and throw into the water, and
seemed to be in high glee and indicated by their laughter. Lusk ventured
up to see what it meant, and found it was dry land toads they had gathered
on the route and were putting into the hot boiling water. They were
preparing supper, and when they had reduced the water and the toads to the
consistency of a good thick mush, they took the kettle from the fire and
permitted the mush to cool; they then took wooden spoons, offering one to
Lusk, which he refused, and gathered around the kettle and began to eat.
Finding that Lusk would not eat with them, one of their number went off
and procured some jerked buffalo meat and furnished it to Lusk. The
journey was resumed the next morning, and during the day their town of
Chillicothe was reached, where Lusk met and made the acquaintance of Mrs.
Virginia Wiley, who had been captured on the first day of October, 1789,
as herein before related.

Lusk's wounded hand rapidly healed, and the Indians put him to work in
their corn fields, and later to aid in building some new cabins for the
winter. He appearing to be an expert at what is termed carrying up a
corner, while so engaged and notching down a piece of timber, his axe
threw off a large chip of wood, which struck a stout young Indian about
Lusk's size and age in the face, which make the young fellow very angry.
Believing or pretending to believe, that Lusk had intentionally caused the
chip to strike him, he thereupon challenged Lusk for a fight, which
challenge Lusk accepted, came down from the house, and gave to his
challenger a fearful thrashing.  The other Indians stood by and praised
Lusk, and made fun at the other fellow, who though whipped, was yet very
angry. He went off and secured two large knives, came back offering one to
Lusk, and challenged him to mortal combat. The older Indians advised Lusk
not to take the knife, but to keep out of his way, and at the same time
shake his fist at him, which he did only adding insult to injury; but
finally by the interposition of the older heads the matter was adjusted.
In September the Indians planned and made ready for their annual fall hunt
in the region of the lakes. It was towards the latter part of the month
when the hunting party left Chillicothe going north, leaving only the
squaws, the children, and an old Indian Chief in charge of the town, and
the prisoners Lusk and Mrs.Wiley. Lusk determined to make his escape, and
made known his intention to Mrs. Wiley, who declared that she would go
with him. He sought to dissuade her as she could probably not keep up with
him in traveling, and might very much hinder and embarrass him if they
would be pursued. Up to the time of the departure of the hunting party,
Lusk had made himself helpful to his captors, but expressed himself as
delighted with his new made acquaintances, and expressed a desire to
remain with them, whereby he ingratiated himself fully into their
confidence, so much so that they seemed not to have the slightest doubt of
his sincerity. Not so as to Mrs. Wiley, who had frequently shown signs of
uneasiness and inclination to go away; so that when the hunting party was
about to depart Mrs. Wiley was placed in charge of the old Indian Chief
with directions to keep close watch on her.

In the course of events it so happened late one September evening near the
last of the month, and just before the sun was setting, that the old
Indian Chief, who was lying on the ground, required Mrs.Wiley to sit down
beside him; he drawing the skirts of her dress far enough towards him that
he could lie on the same which he did; turning his face from Mrs. Wiley,
he went to sleep. He had on his belt his scalping knife, the squaws were
busy about their house work, when Lusk made known to Mrs. Wiley, that he
was ready and about to go, and she determined to go with him, and reaching
over the body of the old Chief she secured his scalping knife, cut that
portion of her dress underneath him from the other portion on her body,
and hurrying down the bank of the Scioto, where Lusk had a light canoe in
readiness, they entered the same and immediately and as quietly as
possible set off swiftly and rapidly down the river for the southern bank
of the Ohio, fifty miles away, Lusk using the pole and Mrs. Wiley the
paddle. They reached the southern bank of the Ohio about daylight the next
morning where they abandoned their canoe, and immediately set out up the
Ohio. Lusk believing they would be pursued, and afraid to follow up the
Sandy or Guyandotte waters for fear of either being over taken, or meeting
with some roving bands of savages, he steadily kept his course up the
southern bank of the Ohio to opposite Gallipolis, where a few French
people lived, crossed over into the village and found a place of refuge,
where he and Mrs. Wiley could hide away until the danger of recapture had
passed.

In a few days a pursuing party of Indians reached Gallipolis, but failing
to find the runaways soon departed. Mr. Lusk determined to take no risks
by attempting to return through the Virginia Mountains, and finding some
men passing up the Ohio in a push boat bound for Pittsburg, he secured
passage with them, leaving Mrs. Wiley, who declined to go in the boat,
with her kind protectors in Gallipolis. In a few days after Lusk's
departure, Mrs. Wiley made up her mind to endeavor to make her way home by
the Kanawha and New Rivers, which she did after many days, and a long
tiresome, and dangerous journey, finally reaching her husband's brother
and family at Wiley's Falls on New River in the now County of Giles,
Virginia.

Lusk made his way to Pittsburg, and from thence to Philadelphia, where he
accidentally met Major Joseph Cloyd, of Back Creek, and came home with him
some time in October, about one month after his escape from the Indians at
Chillicothe.

It was related to the author several years ago by Captain William Stowers,
of Bland County, Virginia, then a man above the age of eighty years, but
very intelligent, that he well remembered Mrs. Virginia Wiley, who a
number of years after her return from captivity visited his father's house
on Clear fork of Wolf Creek near the spot where she was captured, and that
her mind was weak, that in fact she had had but little mind since her
return from captivity, and that he heard her relate to his father and
family the story of her capture, the killing of her children on Cove
Creek, her journey to the Indian town, and her escape; and among other
things, her conversation with the Indian on the Harman battle field on
Tug. A letter from Armstrong Wiley to the author states that both Mrs.
Wiley and her husband, Thomas Wiley are buried in the Wiley burying ground
at Wiley's Falls in Giles County.

John Goolman Davidson, to whom reference has heretofore been made, had
with his family resided for some time preceding his removal to the Beaver
Pond spring with Richard Bailey in 1780, at Smithfield (Draper's Meadows).
While living at Smithfield, a man by the name of Rice had stolen a hog
from Davidson, for which he was apprehended, convicted and sentenced to
receive and did receive on his bare back well laid on forty lashes, save
one. Rice was so enraged at Mr. Davidson, that he vowed her would have
revenge, if he had to bring the Indians upon him. We shall soon see how
well Rice kept and performed his vow, and succeeded in having his revenge,
although more than ten years had elapsed before the opportunity was
afforded him.

Mr. Davidson having some unfinished business at his former home in the
valley of Virginia, Rockbridge County, among others, the collection of
some eight hundred dollars due him, determined upon a visit to the valley
to close up his business and get his money. As was not unusual when some
one was going from the frontier into the settlements, it was noised
throughout the neighborhood, that Mr. Davidson was going to make the
journey. In the month of February, 1793, Mr. Davidson set out on
horseback, reached his destination safely, settled his business, collected
his money, and started on his way homeward, having with him an extra horse
which he was leading. He came over the usual route of travel to Rocky gap,
was seen to pass south of that point by a family residing near the
pathway. The spring of 1793 is said by the old people who then lived, to
have been the earliest ever known by them, the timber putting forth its
leaves the first of March.

Richard Bailey, who has already been spoken of, had given to his youngest
son, whose name was Henry, a small calf, which had been turned out with
the other cattle in the range to make their living off the young twigs and
leaves that had begun to shoot forth. The calf failing to come up to the
fort with the other cattle on the evening of the eighth day of March,
1793, Mr. Bailey told his son that it might have gotten mired in some
swampy land down the creek, and that he must get up very early the next
morning, which was on the ninth, and go look for his calf. The boy rose
early, called his bear dogs, and set off down the Beaver Pond Creek in the
direction of where Graham, Virginia, is now situated. Not finding the calf
on his outward trip, he on his return left the Buffalo trail and was
passing up through the swampy bottom land, when his dogs suddenly raised
their bristle as if they were about to engage in combat with some wild
animal; the boy supposing it was probably a wolf, rushed forward to see
the fight, and looking along the path he saw a body of men and horses,
which so alarmed him, that he fled to the fort and reported what he had
seen. An older brother, Micajah, gathered his rifle and followed the party
far enough, to discover that it was composed of a body of Indians. He
immediately returned to the fort, spread the alarm, and Major Robert
Crockett, then on the head of Clinch, gathered a party of men, and
followed the Indians whose camp late one evening he discovered on the
large island at the mouth of Island Creek, just across the river from
where now stands Logan Court House, West Virginia.

After carefully reconnoitering the position, Major Crockett decided to
have the men lay on their arms that night, and make the attack at break of
day the next morning. He had observed that the Indians had hobbled their
horses and turned them out on the island to graze. It may be noted that
this island contained originally, about one hundred acres, but after it
was denuded of its timber and put in cultivation, the soil being of a
sandy nature, has by the effect of high tides in the river been carried
away until there remains now but a few acres of what was the original
bottom.

As it is said to have been, on the morning of the 15th of March, Major
Crockett had his men up and arranged for the attack by the time it was
light enough to see an object. He told his men that the Indians would be
astir early, that while some were preparing breakfast, one or more would
come out to round up the horses and drive them into camp. His instructions
were for his men to wait for the horse drivers to start them toward the
camp, and to then quietly follow them into camp and make the attack.
Crockett had with him a man by the name of Gid Wright, who when the
advance began, was thrown close to one of the Indians engaged in driving
the horses, and who took a severe Buck Ague as the backwoodsmen term it,
(extreme case of nervousness), and without obeying his orders fired at the
Indian missing him, but alarming the camp, so that the whole Indian party
took to flight. John Bailey, an active and quick man on foot, ran close
enough as the Indians were leaving to kill one of them, the rest escaped,
leaving their breakfast cooking, which the whites appropriated, and the
stolen horses, all of which were recovered. Among the number of horses
captured was one recognized as belonging to Mr. Davidson, and the one
which he had ridden from home, and on which was his saddle, with one
stirrup. A brass one, missing. The party immediately determined that Mr.
Davidson had been killed by this gang, and his horse taken, and after
eating their breakfast, and gathering up the horses they started for their
homes and to search for Mr. Davidson's body. Samuel Lusk was with Major
Crockett's party, and on the return assisted in the search for the body of
Mr. Davidson. So soon as the party reached the settlement, they sent out
men along the path leading through Bailey's gap in East River mountain,
and on to the Laurel fork of Clear fork of Wolf Creek, and through Rocky
Gap, finding on the path on the mountain a hat band recognized as
belonging to Mr. Davidson's hat. On inquiry it was found, that Mr.
Davidson had passed the settlements south of Rocky Gap before noon on the
8th day of March, and it was discovered at an old waste place at the mouth
of Clear fork, that he had there fed his horses. Further investigation at
the point where the path left the Laurel fork starting up the mountain,
evidence appeared of the blade of a hatchet having been struck into a
white oak tree, and that a gun had rested on the hatchet, and near by on
the bark of a beech tree was freshly cut the name of "Rice," and under the
root of the tree on the side of the creek, where the water had washed away
the earth, the nude body of Mr. Davidson was found, so far advanced in
decomposition it could not be removed to his home, and was buried near by
where it was found and where it still remains. The statement by some
writers that the body was carried to his home and buried is incorrect
according to the statements of Mr. Joseph Davidson and Captain John A.
Davidson, two of his great grandsons.

Colonel Robert Trigg, in his report to the governor, dated on April 10th,
1793, states that Davidson was killed on the 8th day of March of that
year, and that there were twelve Indians in the party, who stole a large
number of horses and passed through the center of the Bluestone settlement.

Colonel Robert Crockett had reported in October, 1789, to the governor,
the capture of Virginia Wiley, and the killing of her four children by the
Indians on October 1st of that year.

On October 17th, 1793, Major Robert Crockett and fifty others, among them
Joseph Davidson, John Bailey, James Bailey, Reuben Bailey, Richard Bailey,
William Smith and John Peery, sent a petition to the governor of Virginia,
informing him of the defenseless condition of the border, and asking for
assistance, and stating the killing by the Indians of John Davidson on the
8th day of March 1793, and that of Gilbert on the 24th day of July 1792,
and the capture of Samuel Lusk at the same time.

The searching party for Mr. Davidson's body found evidences on the ground
that satisfied them that Mr. Davidson, had upon being shot from the tree
where the blade of the hatchet had been buried, fallen from his horse
which took fright and ran out into the brush and vines on the creek
bottom, by which one of the brass stirrups had been pulled off. No doubt
remains but that Rice and his party got the $800.00 which Mr. Davidson had
with him when killed.

Several years after the killing of Mr. Davidson, Captain William Stowers,
then a lad of some fifteen years, while plowing in the bottom where Mr.
Davidson was killed, found a brass stirrup which was recognized by the
family of Mr. Davidson as one belonging to his saddle, and missing
therefrom when his horse and saddle were recovered by Major Crockett and
his men on the 15th day of March, 1793.

This Indian incursion was the last made on the waters of Bluestone and the
upper Clinch, but the troubles continued for a short while thereafter on
the lower Clinch and the Holstein waters as well as along the valley of
the Kanawha, where the Indians killed a man by the name of Harriman in the
year 1794; he was the last person killed in the valley by Indians.

Davidson and Bailey, the settlers at the Beaver Pond spring in the year of
1780, like all other provident settlers who desired to secure good land,
each acquired valuable landed estates, Bailey along the valley of the
mountain and around the head of Beaver Pond spring, and Davidson in
Wright's Valley, reaching from where the town of Graham is now situated
eastward along the valley for three or four miles, including the land on
which the city of Bluefield is now located.

So much alarm and consternation was created along the upper Kanawha, and
lower New River waters in the early part of the year 1793, by prowling
bands of Indians, that the governor of Virginia ordered a company of
soldiers to rendezvous at the mouth of Elk on the Kanawha, and to scout
through the country to the Ohio.

Captain Hugh Caperton, who lived in Greenbrier County, on the New River,
and who was the uncle of the younger Hugh, later of Monroe, was ordered to
raise and did raise a company of New River Valley men for the service
referred to. Captain Caperton with his men marched to the mouth of Elk,
fixing his camp on the right bank of the river at its mouth.

The celebrated Daniel Boone was the commissariat of this company. During
the stay of these men on the Kanawha, they guarded the frontier, sending
scouting parties to various points along the Ohio and protected the
settlers then in the valley, and their homes, by placing one of more men
at each house. At this time there were but few settlers in the valley,
among them George Clendenin, where Charleston now stands, Leonard Morriss,
near where Brownstown now stands, and William Morriss at Kelley's Creek.
Clendenin had removed from the Greenbrier section, Leonard and William
Morriss from the county of Culpeper, Virginia.

David Johnston, member of Caperton's company, was sent to guard the house
of Leonard Morriss. He and Morriss came originally from the same county.
Mr. Morriss had a block house for the protection of his family, and some
slaves, among them a negro woman, who one day, while Johnston was guarding
the house, went outside the stockade to pick up some wood, and was seized
by two Indians and carried away. On another occasion, Mrs. Morriss went
just outside the gate to milk her cow, the guard accompanying her. He
discovered an Indian a little way off in the top of a tree endeavoring to
get a view of the fort and its inmates. Mr. Morriss had a small patch of
corn in the bottom along the river, which was about ready for cutting, and
desiring to look at and to see if anything was troubling it took Johnston,
the guard along with him; they agreeing to separate taking different
directions so as to get a quick view of the situation and return, and
further agreeing that the report of the discharge of a gun should be the
signal for them to hasten to the fort. They had not long been out until
the report of the discharge of a gun was heard. Johnston reached the fort,
and Mrs. Morriss opened for him the gate, which was immediately closed,
supposing Mr. Morriss was probably shot, and that the Indians would make a
rush for the fort. There being several guns in the fort, Mrs. Morriss
said, "Johnston I will load and you shoot." Mr. Morriss soon made his
appearance unhurt. Neither he nor Johnston had fired their guns, and after
waiting some time they ventured out again, and on going to the place from
whence came the report of the discharge of the gun, they found that the
Indians had shot a hog there and dressed it. These men of Caperton's
company had quite a number of skirmishes with the Indians, but no one was
hurt save one man killed, who went across the Kanawha to kill a turkey,
whose gobble he had heard. Very soon after crossing the river, the report
of the discharge of a gun was heard, and soon thereafter the gobble of the
turkey was repeated; whereupon, another of the men remarked that he would
get that turkey, and going a considerable distance up the river he
crossed, and made his way to the place where he still heard the turkey,
and on stealthily creeping up, he discovered the turkey to be an Indian
hid in some sprouts that had grown up around a chestnut stump. He killed
the Indian and scalped him, but found the Indian had first killed the
other man and scalped him.

Captain Caperton and Daniel Boone, his commissariat, had a difficulty, and
Boone left the camp, and was absent for some time. Some of the scouting
parties met with him at the mouth of the Kanawha, and told him of the
necessities of the company and that they needed food, and enquired of him
why he had gone off and left them; he replied, "Caperton didn't do to my
liken."

The following are the names of the men who belonged to Caperton's company,
and were with him on the Kanawha in 1793:

Samuel Henderson
Mathias Meadows
Isaac Cole
John Cooke
Edward Farley
William Smith
William Lee
William Graham
James Montgomery
William Stowers
Andrew Hatfield
John Rowe
Francis Farley
David Johnston
Henry Massey
David French
Matthew Farley
Felix Williams
James Stuart
James Abbott
Patrick Wilson
John Lewis
Joseph Abbott
James Keely
George Lake
John Conner
John Burton
Drewry Farley
Thomas Cooke
Robert Lee
Andrew Johnston
John Garrison
Travis Stowers
Jonas Hatfield
David Marshall
Isaac Smith
Moses Massey
James Graham
David Graham
James Sweeney
Joseph Caterbury
John Scott
----- Noell
Isaiah Calloway
William Wilson
George Abbott

On the 20th of August, 1794, General Wayne won his celebrated victory over
the Indians, at Fallen Timbers in what is now Lucas County, Ohio. This
defeat completely broke the Indian power in the Ohio Valley, and a treaty
of peace was soon after made, which gave perfect quiet to all the border
settlements, at least south of the Ohio, and perfect peace reigned supreme
for the first time in forty years. No sooner was the news of Wayne's
victory received on the Virginia border, than the whole country north and
west of the settlements, swarmed with surveyors and land speculators.
Nearly if not quite the whole of the territory south of the Kanawha and
the Ohio to the head waters of Holstein, were entered, surveyed, and
carried into grant.

Robert Morris, the patriot and financier of the American revolution,
secured grants for about eight millions of acres of land. The territory
comprised within the now counties of Mercer, Raleigh, Fayette, McDowell,
Wyoming, Boone, Logan, Mingo, Wayne, Cabell, Lincoln, Kanawha and Putnam
were almost completely shingled over with these large grants, and
frequently they lapped upon each other. Commencing on the East River
Mountain, on the south side, and then again on the north side, where two
grants to Robert Pollard, one for 50,000 and the other for 75,000 acres,
then came the grant of 80,000 acres to Samuel M. Hopkins, a grant of
50.000 acres to Robert Young, 40,000 acres to McLaughlin, 170,000 acres to
Moore and Beckley, 35,500 acres to Robert McCullock, 108,000 acres to
Rutter and Etting, 90,000 acres to Welch------- 150,000 acres DeWitt
Clinton, 50,000 acres to Doctor John Dillon, 480,000 acres to Robert
Morris , 500,000 acres to the same, 150,000 acres to Robert Pollard, 500,
000 to Wilson Carey Nicholas, 300,000 acres to the same, 320,000 acres to
Robert Morris, 57,000 acres to Thomas Wilson, 40,000 acres to George
Pickett, and farther down Sandy, Guyandotte and Coal Rivers were large
grants to Elijah Wood, Smith and others.

Peace having been restored along the frontier settlements, and no further
danger being apprehended from the Indians, there was a great rush of the
people, not only from Eastern Virginia and Western North Carolina on the
the New River waters, and on to Kentucky, but there was a vast throng of
people from the New River Valley, that quickly penetrated the country
between the New River settlements and the Ohio, and settled on the Sandy,
Guyandotte and Coal River waters, even reaching to the Ohio; among them,
the McComas', Chapmans, Lucas', Smiths, Coopers, Napiers, Hunters, Adkins,
Acords, Allens, Fryes, Dingess, Lusks, Shannons, Baileys, Jarrells,
Egglestons, Fergusons, Marcums, Hatfields, Bromfields, Haldrons, Lamberts,
Pauleys, Lawsons, Workmans, Prices, Cookes, Clays, Godbeys, Huffs,
McDonalds, Whites, Farleys, Kezees, Perdues, Ballards, Barretts, Toneys,
Conleys, Strollings, Stratons, Buchanans, Deskins, and many others, who
largely peopled, and left honored descendants throughout the section
mentioned.


Manners And Customs Of These Border People

When these people left their homes for new ones in the wilderness, they
took with them the manners and customs of the people among whom they had
lived, and upon their settling down in their adopted abode made such
changes in these manners and customs as their new situation, surroundings
and necessities required. It often happened that the new emigrant on
selecting his proposed future home, found himself very far removed from
any one he called neighbor. From whence he removed, he was occasionally
honored with a visit of his friends and neighbors, who could come and go
without hindrance or fear of molestation. In this wilderness country he
must travel with his trusted rifle, even as against wild beast that filled
the forest. Later on, after the country had began to settle up, new comers
were joyfully received, and the young people on hearing of the approach of
the new people coming to the neighborhood, would often go a day's journey
in order to meet and welcome them. The young women would make this trip
barefoot, with their dresses so short they reached but little below their
knees.

A wedding was always a time of high glee. Usually the groom and his
friends rode horseback to the house of the bride's father, where there was
generally plenty of applejack, and every body would take a drink, even the
ministers of that day thought it nothing a miss for them to take a toddy.
At the bride's house and ceremony performed, came the dinner, after which
the fiddling and the dancing, the songs and plays among the young folks of
"Old Sister Phoebe," would begin:

"I'll put this hat on your head to keep your head warm,
I'll give you a sweet kiss, 'twill do you no harm."

The neighbors soon gathered, chopped logs and erected a house for the
young couple. At a log rolling and house raising there was generally a
quilting, and at night a dance. It was no easy matter for the young
people, who wished to get married to procure the license, for as a rule
they lived a long distance from the clerk's office. For many years after
the formation of Giles County, it was the habit of Captain John
McClaughtery, who was both deputy clerk and deputy sheriff of that county,
to go once, and occasionally twice a year down on to the waters of the
Coal and Guyandotte, either to collect taxes or to serve process, and he
made it a rule to fill his pocket with blank licenses, in order to
accommodate the young people, who had always to put off their weddings
until the Captain put in his appearance, and when he did, it was soon
noised abroad, and the young men about to be married hurried to the
Captain to get the necessary papers.

There were no schools in that day, and but few boys learned even to read
or write. Afterwards, if a school teacher came into the neighborhood and
was employed to teach school, he usually boarded around among the
families; that is, after settlements had progressed far enough for him to
do this. Each family was largely a little independent colony of itself.
The father and sons worked with mattock, axe, hoe, and sickle. A loom in
every house was a necessity, and almost every woman was a weaver, and wove
the linsey-woolsey made from flax cultivated by her own hands, and from
the wool of sheep--when they had any. The man tanned or dressed the buck
skin, the woman was the tailor and shoemaker, made the deer skin sifters
to be used instead of bolting cloths. For the table ware generally wooden
trenchers, platters, noggins, and bowls. The cradle of pealed hickory bark
or a sugar trough, and plowshares were made of wood, chaff beds if the man
had been fortunate enough to raise any small grain, otherwise leaves were
substituted. Then there was the hand mill, and the hominy block with a
hole burned in the top as a mortar where the pestle was worked. Some times
a gritting board was used, and later a pounding mill was invented which
was operated by water instead of muscle. For sugar resort was had by
tapping the sugar maple trees, and boiling down the water. Salt and iron
could not be had in the backwoods, and each family gathered up its furs
and peltries, and later ginseng, which were carried out on horses to some
coast town, and exchanged for salt and iron. Some, among them Captain
James Moore of Abb's Valley, raised considerable number of horses, which
they drove to the markets east of the Alleghanies.

It was no common thing at that time, for a man on the New River waters to
drive a two year old steer to Fincastle and exchange the same for a bushel
of salt, and bring it back on a pack horse. Their horses were usually
unshod. Captain William T. Moore, of Abb's Valley, told of a horse that
the Indians had taken from his Grandfather, James Moore, but which had
been recovered, and which he had plowed, and which lived to the age of
thirty five years, and never had a shoe on its foot.

After the backwoodsman had gotten to raising hogs, for at the beginning he
could not do so on account of the bears destroying them, he would drive
his hogs to market, selling and exchanging them for needed articles at
home. The life of these people was a long and dangerous struggle, they had
to fell the forests, encounter the forest fires, deep snows and freshets.
Swarms of deer flies and midges rendered life a torment in warm weather.
Rattlesnakes and copperheads were plentiful, and constant sources of
danger and death. For an antidote for the bite of a poisonous serpent
bear's oil was freely applied, and some times salt, when they had it.
Wolves and bears were inveterate foes of the live stock, and the panther
occasionally attacked a man. In the early settlement of the country near
the mouth of Wolf Creek in what is now Giles County, the dogs of Mr.
Landon Duncan drove a panther up a tree. Mr. Duncan being from home, his
wife took his rifle gun and shot and killed the animal; it measured nine
feet in length. Every backwoodsman was a hunter, and the forest were
filled with deer, turkeys and pigeons, and out of these and the bear,
buffalo and elk he made not only his meat, but largely his living. The
black and grey squirrels were very numerous, sometimes destroying fields
of corn, and at times in immense companies would migrate, and cross
mountains and rivers. A race of men unused to war and ever present
dangers, would have been helpless before such foes as these wild beasts
and Indians.

People coming from the old world, no matter how thrifty and adventurous,
could not hold their own on the frontier. They had to seek protection from
the Indians by a bold living wall of American backwoodsmen. These border
men were hunters, wood choppers, farmers and soldiers. They built and
manned their own forts, did their own fighting in their own way under
their own commanders, when they had such, but generally every man was his
own commander. There were no regular troops along the frontier, and if the
Indians came into the country, each border man had to defend himself,
until, there was time to arouse the country and gather help to repel the
foe. Every man from his childhood was accustomed to the use of the rifle,
and even a boy at twelve years was regarded old enough to have a gun, and
was soon taught how to use it. He at least could make a good fort soldier.
The war was never ending, for even the times of so-called peace were
broken by forays and murders. A man might grow from boyhood to middle age
on the border, and yet never recall a single year in which some of his
neighbors were not killed by the Indians. As the settlements continued to
grow they each had their various officers, who in fact exercised but
little authority, as they had no way of enforcing orders, and all services
rendered were merely voluntary.

When a group of families moved out into the wilderness, for protection
they would build for themselves a block house or stockade, a square
palisade of upright logs, and looped it with port holes, with a large gate
that could be strongly barred in case of necessity. This fort or stockade
was generally safe from any attack the savages might make upon it, unless
they could take it by surprise. This backwoodsman was generally an
American by birth and parentage, and of mixed race, but the dominant
strain in their blood was that of the Scotch-Irish, so called. The Irish
Presbyterians were themselves already a mixed people, though mainly from
Scotch ancestors, who came originally from both lowlands and highlands,
for among both were Scotch Saxons and Scotch Celts. From this Scotch-Irish
stock, came David Crockett, (Note: David Crockett is said to have learned
the hatter's trade at Christiansburg, Virginia) John Robertson, Andrew
Lewis, Andrew Jackson, Samuel Houston, the Prestons, Cummings, Johnstons,
Shelbys, Campbells, Grahams, Banes, Gillespies, Georges, McDonalds,
McKensey and McComas'.

No great number of them came to America prior to 1730, but by which time
they came by multitudes; (Note: Roosevelt's "Winning of the West.") for
the most part, in two streams; the larger to Philadelphia, the lesser to
Charleston, South Carolina. Those from Philadelphia soon made their way
southwest into the valley of Virginia and to the Piedmont region; while
those from Charleston soon pushed their way up to the mountains and with
those in Virginia became the advanced posts of civilization. They were
wholly a different people in manners, customs and temperament from the
people of the tidewater region, in which there was a large admixture of
Germans from Pennsylvania, especially so in the Virginia Valley. Some of
this German population came across the Alleghanies, and settled in part,
in what is now Montgomery County, and in the eastern portion of what is
now Giles County, among them the Kinsers, Bargers, Highbarges,
Shufflebargers, Hornbargers, Phlegars, Sibolds, Surfaces, Snidows,
Straleys, Boltons, Clyburns, Noslers, Decks, Millers, Honakers, Keisters,
Croys, Worleys and Woolwines. There came also some of the Scotch-Iris
people into the same territory, among them the McDonalds, Blacks,
McKenseys, Johnstons, Christians, Prestons, Craigs, Triggs, McGavocks,
Wileys, and Whitakers. (Note: The Wileys and Whittakers came from North
Carolina.) Some Hugenots also came into the territory of what is now Giles
County, among them the Pearis, Hares and DeCamps; and in the same
territory came some Hollanders, among them the Lybrooks (Leibrock),
Mosers, Walls, Decks and Douthats. Most of these people brought with them
their Bibles, which was as a usual thing the guide of their lives, and
although they at first had but few, if any ministers among them, yet as a
rule they were religiously inclined, many of them coming from countries
where they had been taught religious principles, but those coming direct
from the old world did not comprehend what religious freedom and soul
liberty meant in its fullest sense and its fullest extent, until they
reached the wilderness country, where every man could worship God
according to the dictates of his own conscience. They had no church
buildings, but gathered in the groves, "God's first temples" and in
dwelling houses to have worship.

Captain James Moore, and also Zechariah Munsey, grandfather of the
distinguished William E. Munsey, were Christian men and had worship in
their families. Munsey was an early Methodist Preacher.

The first preachers that came into the wilderness country, and in fact all
who came up to a period long after the close of the American Revolution,
were Dissenters, who found perfect freedom in the wilderness from
molestation, interruption or arrest. The nearest church of England man to
this wilderness country for many long, long years, was located at
Fincastle, but so far as known he never ventured across the Alleghanies.
Among the first if not the very first, preachers of the Gospel that ever
stood on or reached the banks of the New River were the two who
accompanied Lewis' Sandy expedition in 1756 and whose names were Brown and
Craig. (Note: They were Presbyterian ministers from the Valley.) The first
minister to permanently locate in this wilderness section, was the
distinguished and learned Presbyterian, Charles Cummings, who came to a
place near the present town of Abingdon in 1772. Six years thereafter came
Elder Tidence Lane, a Baptist Minister who is believed to have founded the
Baptist church at St. Clair's bottom in 1777 or 1778, and who organized
two churches on the Holstein waters, one on Buffalo ridge six miles east
of Jonesboro, and Cherokee Baptist church four miles east of Jonesboro,
both now in Tennessee. In 1773 came Squire Boone from the Yadkin in North
Carolina, and whether he was regularly ordained Baptist Minister or not,
he at least preached the Gospel. He spent the winter of 1773-4 in Castle's
woods, now in Russell County. A little later came James Abbott, a Baptist
Minister from Culpeper County, to the New River section. And in 1777 came
John Alderson, a Baptist Minister from the Valley of Virginia and located
on Greenbrier River, a little late came a Mr. Johnston, Baptist preacher
who subsequently went to the Kanawha Valley, and then on to Kentucky.
Later still came Josiah Osborn, Lewis Alderson and James Ellison, all
Baptist Ministers who located in the Greenbrier section.

The early Baptist preachers, in southwest Virginia, were Elders Jonathan
Mulkey, Andrew Baker, Edward Kelley, Barnett Reynolds, John
Bundridge, ----- Colley, Jesse Senter, and -----Edwards. In the year of
1788, came the Rev. Francis Asbury, the first Methodist Bishop of America.
He reinvigorated the itinerant system, and sent missionaries into wide
ranges of country to preach and found new societies. And it is said of him
that in 1785 he laid the foundation for the first Methodist College in
America, and organized many societies throughout the country. There were
practically no church buildings in the wilderness in the days of Bishop
Asbury and other early preachers; now the country is dotted over with
numerous church buildings of nearly all religious denominations.

Landon Duncan, born in Fauquier County, Virginia, removed from thence to
Stokes County, North Carolina, and from there to what is now Giles County,
about the close of the 18th century, became a Baptist preacher of the
order of New Lights, but in 1818 changed his views, and united with the
followers of those who adopted the doctrines taught afterwards by
Alexander Campbell. Mr. Duncan was an earnest, faithful preacher during
the greater part of his life, which ended about 1967. For many years of
his young life he was a school teacher, having among his pupils the late
General John B. Floyd, and others who became prominent in their day. Mr.
Duncan was for many years, the Commissioner of the Revenue for Giles
County.

Except in portions of Greenbrier, Monroe, Montgomery and Tazewell,
Presbyterianism had but little footing for many years. Methodism seemed to
be well adapted to the soil, and took root quickly, sprang up and grew
vigorously. Among some of the early preachers of that denomination was
Rev. George Eaken, an Irishman, and most usually called "Father Eaken;"
quaint and peculiar was his style. There was held in the days of Methodism
in its early beginnings in this section, near the residence of the late
Colonel John S. Carr, in what is now Mercer County, a campmeeting, which
Father Eaken attended year by year. Of those who came to the meeting, as
regularly as the meeting was held, were people of the country, known and
designated as "Todds," and so designated on account of their foxey and
frolicking disposition, that is they were drinkers, fighters, gamblers,
horse racers and wits generally. These Todds always got happy at
campmeeting, and usually professed to have gotten religion. Father Eaken
was an observant man, and having seen these same people engaged in
drinking and general carousal shortly after the close of the meeting, he
prepared himself for them at the next and while the meeting was well under
way the Todds in a good way shouting, he suddenly arose, and cried out in
a loud voice, "Would that the good Lord would take a liking to these Todds
just now, for if they ever get to heaven it will be from a campmeeting."
The distinguished William G. Brownlow was once in the County of Tazewell
and preached at Bluestone. Among the early Methodist Ministers who were
highly esteemed in this section of the country were Thomas K. Catlett and
Jacob Brillhart. The Methodist had class leaders and exhorters, among the
latter was one Abraham Garretson, who lived on the East River and whose
custom was to go on the Sabbath into the different neighborhoods in what
is now Mercer County and exhort. Garretson had a neighbor by the name of
Blankenship, who though not a Christian, yet a constant attendant at his
Sunday Exhortations and who always took his position near the speaker and
during the service frequently said "Amen! Amen!"

On an early Sunday morning in the month of March, Mr. Blankenship rose
early, and went out to feed his cow preparatory to be off to brother
Garretson's meeting that day, to be held at a neighbor's. With Mr.
Blankenship to feed his cow went his dog, which ran a raccoon up a tree,
which Mr. Blankenship captured and took to his house, stripped off its
hide, and while engaged in stretching the same on the side of his cabin
there rode by in the direction of where Mr. Garretson was to hold his
meeting a Mr. Elijah Peters, a Magistrate of the County. Mr. Blankenship
hurried up his work, got his breakfast, took a shave and put off for the
meeting. Mr. Garretson's subject for the occasion, was the violation of
the Sabbath, working on Sunday; going "coon hunting." Mr. Blankenship
squirmed and twisted as the speaker earnestly told his hearers of these
various Sunday violations till finally Mr. Blankenship being impressed
with the thought that Squire Peters had told Mr. Garretson that he had
been coon hunting on Sunday, determined that he would stand the scourging
no longer, and rising from his seat and addressing the speaker said,
"Brother Garretson, who told you I went coon hunting on Sunday?" To which
Garretson replied: "My Lord and Master," whereupon Mr. Blankenship said in
a loud voice: "Well Brother Garretson if Squire Elijah Peters is your Lord
and Master, mark my name off of your book.

Zechariah Munsey was of a family of French extraction, lived in Giles
County, and was a local Methodist Preacher, and went into various
neighborhoods and held meetings, He was a peculiar, eccentric man with a
strange drawling voice. In the early days, one of his preaching places was
at Mechanicsburg, a small hamlet on Walker's Creek. In his congregation at
this place were a number of young people who often became amused at his
quaint and peculiar expressions and were often led into laughter thereby.
Mr. Munsey had frequently reprimanded them, and on one occasion their
conduct so disturbed him that it called forth the following utterance from
him: "No young gentleman nor young lady properly trained will misbehave at
Divine service, and you are in the habit of doing this, and if the people
of Mechanicsburg had their just dues, they would have been dead and in
hell forty years ago; it's the truth and you know its the truth."

David Munsey, the father of the distinguished William E. Munsey was a son
of Zechariah, and was also a Methodist Preacher. William E. Munsey spent a
part of his young life in or near that wild, rough section of Giles County
known as Dismal. Rough as herein referred to means mountainous and thinly
settled. At a campmeeting held at Wabash in the year of 1866 or 1867,
William E. Munsey preached on Sunday at 11 o'clock a. m., on the subject
of "Hell and the Lost Soul." A large and attentive audience heard him,
among the number, Captain John A. Pack, who always had a vein of fine
humor and wit. Captain Pack walked up to where was standing a small group
of his acquaintances and friends, and inquired if they knew why Mr. Munsey
had such clear conception of Hell. Some one inquired why, to which the
Captain made answer, "because he was raised up on Dismal."

Of this Munsey family there were several preachers, a doctor and two or
more lawyers. The preachers were Zechariah, Nathaniel, David, and William
E., the lawyers, Thomas J. Munsey and Thomas J. Munsey, Jr., and Doctor
Munsey, a physician of note, who resides at Pearisburg, Virginia.

Among the most remarkable eccentric, itinerant, yet local Methodist
preachers that ever lived in the New River Valley, was Robert Sawyers
Sheffey, who was born in the county of Wythe, Virginia, July 4, 1820, and
died in Giles County, Virginia, in 1902. He was a son of Henry Sheffey, of
Wythe, and came into the New River Valley some time in 1859, where he
married for his second wife a Miss Stafford in what is commonly known as
Irish settlement, in Giles County, where Mr. Sheffey located. For reasons
of his own, he never united with the conference, but continued throughout
his career as an itinerant, going from place to place, and wheresoever his
inclinations led him. He was eccentric beyond description. That he was a
pious devout Christian and Godly man was never doubted. He was a man of
wonderful faith in God, and was usually most eloquent in public prayer.
When troubles and difficulties surrounded him his oft repeated statement
was, "I'll go and talk to the Lord about it." One thing about this good
man which was most remarkable, that his prayers for specific things were
not only not in vain, but what he asked the Lord for, he in some way or
some how always seemed to receive it. So often were his prayers answered,
and his highest hopes and aspirations gratified, that people who knew him
well and were disposed to do evil things were frequently alarmed for fear
he would call down vengeance from heaven upon their guilty heads, and many
believed that if he should ask the Lord to smite them with pestilence or
death it would be done. The eccentricities of this man led numbers of
people to express doubts as to his sanity. Some of these expressions
reached Mr. Sheffey, and he often publicly repeated what he had heard, and
his only comment thereon was, "Would to the Lord they were crazy on the
same subject that I am."

Many and interesting are the stories and anecdotes told of this preacher
and of his conduct; some of which will here be related, and from which it
will appear that while his eccentricities often appear therein, yet the
great and strong faith of the man is also exhibited. Twenty-five or more
years ago Mr. Sheffey had a regular preaching place on East River in
Mercer County, near the residence of Mr. Anderson Tiller, at whose house,
when in the neighborhood, he made his stopping place, and where he was
always carefully looked after and entertained. It was known that Mr.
Sheffey was exceedingly fond of sweet things, and especially of honey. On
an occasion, when on a preaching tour, he went to fill his appointment on
East River, and became as was usual the guest of his brother, Tiller.
Being on a Sunday morning and late in the summer season and while at the
breakfast table, Mr. Tiller remarked to Mr. Sheffey that he regretted that
he had no honey for him, that his bees had done no good, had not swarmed
and that he feared they had frozen out in the winter or that some insect
had destroyed them, and that the season was too far spent to have any
swarms. Mr. Sheffey arose from the table and went down upon his knees, and
told the Lord that the brother's bees had not swarmed, and that there was
no honey in the house, and he implored the Lord to have the bees swarm.
Scarcely had his petition ceased when the swarms came with such rapidity
that Mr. Tiller was unable to procure rapidly enough sufficient gums to
save the swarms. The truth of the incident is vouched for by the best
people in the neighborhood of where it occurred, and Mrs. James R. White
the daughter of Mr. Tiller, and who still lives, and who was at home
unmarried at the happening of the incident, vouches for the truthfulness
of the story.

At a meeting being held by Mr. Sheffey at Jordan's Chapel, now in Summers
County, Dr. Bray, a physician in the neighborhood, together with his wife,
was present at Sunday morning service and had with them a nursing infant
child, which was taken suddenly ill about the close of the service. The
mother became alarmed and grief stricken about the condition of her child,
and in her paroxisms she cried out that her child was dying. A large
number of people were present and gathered around the mother and child
supposed to be dying, when Mr. Sheffey appeared and being informed of the
cause of the trouble, said, "Brother give me the little child," and taking
it in his arms he fell upon his knees, and in a most earnest prayer to God
asked for the life to the little child and that it might be restored to
its mother. Arising from his position on the ground, he handed the child
to its father, remarking, "here brother is your little child well and all
right;:" and so it was.

Mr. Sheffey had a right good vein of humor in his makeup, and he
occasionally exercised that faculty to the discomfiture of people. Some
thirty years ago, there lived on the upper waters of Brush Creek, a
Christian gentleman by the name of Robert Karr, a member of the Methodist
Church, at whose house Mr. Sheffey was entertained, when on his preaching
tours in that neighborhood. He had a protracted service in the
neighborhood of Mr. Karr, which had continued some weeks, and which Mr.
Karr had not attended, and whose non-attendance Mr.Sheffey had observed,
and taking his brother Karr to task about his want of interest in the
meeting, enquired why he did not attend; Mr. Karr replied that he had a
good reason, and being pressed by Mr. Sheffey to give his reason, he
finally said, "Well, I don't just exactly like your way;" whereupon Mr.
Sheffey with a ha! ha! said, "Neither does the Devil."

On the occasion last mentioned or a similar one, while Mr. Sheffey was
holding a meeting at Mr. Karr's, early one Sunday morning, a young man
rode up to the house and delivered to Mr. Sheffey a message from his wife
that his little son, Eddy, was very sick, and that the doctors had said he
could not live and for him to come home at once. Mr. Sheffey made no
response to the message, but went off a distance to some high granite
boulders on the top of the highest of which he went to the Lord in prayer,
and continued to pray until the time had arrived for him to meet his
congregation at the church. On reaching the pulpit, he related to his
congregation the message he had received, and then said, "I have talked to
the Lord about this, and Eddy is not going to die." Eddy still lives, a
bright, intelligent, useful and honored citizen.

Mr. Sheffey had wonderful faith in God's providences, his care for his
people in providing for their wants, physical as well as spiritual. It is
told of him that on one occasion he met a man in the road on a very cold
day, and that the man had on no socks, and that Mr. Sheffey observing this
took off his and gave them to the man. After riding some distance he
stopped at a house to warm his feet, and that the lady of the house said
to him that she had knit for him some nice pairs of socks which she wished
to present him. Another thing may be mentioned of this man, and that was
the tender care of his horse and of other animals. He could not bear to
see them suffer, not even a bug if turned on its back, and he has been
known to dismount from his horse and turn it over. If he found what
appeared to him to be a hungry animal or dog, he would give it his lunch
rather than eat it himself. The story is told of him and another preacher
who were out in some wild mountain district, that on leaving the house
where they had been entertained, the woman put a lunch in Mr. Sheffey's
saddle-bags telling them that they were not likely to meet with their
dinner that day, and that she had provided a lunch that they might not
suffer from hunger. Off the preachers went on along the mountain pathway
during the morning hours and until about noon, proposed to eat the lunch.
Mr. Sheffey informed him that he had no lunch, that he had just met two
very hungry looking dogs to which he had given the lunch.

If there was a man beyond any other that believed that the whiskey traffic
was one of the Devil's strongholds it was Mr. Sheffey. He assailed this
traffic when opportunity offered and often in public prayed for its
overthrow and destruction. He was often appealed to by good people to pray
the Lord to remove stillhouses and liquor manufactures. On the upper
waters of the Bluestone, many years ago, was a whiskey distillery operated
by a man and his son. Mr. Sheffey stopped in the neighborhood at the home
of a good Methodist family. The good woman of the house told him of this
distillery, and that it was ruining and wrecking the lives of many of the
young men in the neighborhood, and requested him to pray for its removal,
which he promised to do. The lady inquired "how long will it be before we
may expect our prayers to be answered;" "about twelve months," was his
reply; and sure enough within the twelve months the distillery was closed
up, and the owner and his son in jail on charge of defrauding the
government.

On another occasion he was on Wolf Creek, near Rocky Gap, when he was
informed by the mother of a family with whom he was stopping, of the
existence of a distillery in the neighborhood that was proving a great
evil and requested Mr. Sheffey to pray for its removal. Mr. Sheffey then
and there went to the Lord in prayer, and asked Him to destroy the evil,
and if necessary send fire from Heaven to burn it up, and that very night
an old dry tree near the distillery took fire, fell on the shanty and
destroyed the whole thing. The whole neighborhood firmly believed
Sheffey's prayer brought down that fire, which rid the neighborhood of the
evil.

As has already been stated, Mr. Sheffey went to the Lord about everything
he did, even about small things, which sometimes brought him into ridicule
by some classes of people, but that did not in the least deter him. He
believed that the Lord controlled the actions of animals as well as men,
and in verification and illustration thereof the following story is told
by a gentleman living a few miles south of Pearisburg, Virginia. Mr.
Sheffey stopped at his house over night, and by Mr. Sheffey's direction
his horse was turned on pasture. Mr. Sheffey having an appointment for the
next day, and anxious to get off early requested the gentleman to have his
horse ready for him. The man went out very early to get the horse which he
was unable to do, even summoning help, still the horse would not allow
himself to be caught, nor would he be driven into the stable yard or lot.
Finally the man gave up the effort to secure the horse, went to the house
and informed Mr. Sheffey of the situation, and he went out with the man
into the field where the horse was grazing, and requested the man to wait
until he told the Lord about it. Down upon his knees he went and told the
Lord of the inability of the man to bridle the horse and requested that He
put it into the mind of the horse to stand and be bridled, and on rising
from his knees he said to the man "you can now bridle the horse," which he
immediately did. Many other such things occurred in the history of this
man, which for want of space cannot here be related; there is however,
just one other incident of his life which will be related, as it shows
that he was a man whose religion was pure and undefiled and near akin to
that of our blessed Saviour. Mr. Sheffey's hostility and open expression
against the liquor traffic and the traffickers, often brought down upon
him, not only the curses and imprecations of these people, but once at
least, a pounding upon his head. He was preaching in Bland County, and
during the service was interrupted by some unthoughted young men under the
influence of ardent spirits, which led to their severe censure and
arraignment by the preacher, which so offended and enraged them that they
took position at the outside of the church door, and as Mr. Sheffey went
out they clubbed and beat him severely. These people were indicted in the
Court of Bland County, and Mr. Sheffey summoned as a witness for the
Commonwealth. He did not appear, and compulsory process was taken against
him, and on his appearance in Court he endeavored to avoid testifying. The
young men were convicted, when Mr. Sheffey with tears in his eyes, and a
prayer on his lips implored the court to allow them to go unpunished, that
they knew not what they did; that he had forgiven them, that he had asked
the Lord to forgive them, and now asked the Court to forgive them, which
in a measure it did. Whatever may be said of this peculiar man and his
eccentricities, his like will never be seen again., He died in peace with
God and man, and all who knew him revere his memory.