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Pioneers of Jackson County - Part 6
LOWER SANDY VALLEY
The large stream known as Big Sand Creek enters the Ohio River some
miles below the mouth of the Little Kanawha, a few miles above the
mouth of Mill Creek. Some miles from the river, a large branch known
as the Left Hand Fork comes at nearly right angles, heading back to
the north of Limestone hill.
The basin drained by Big Sandy, as it is called in common parlance,
contains an area of many square miles.
It is about nineteen miles, by road, from the head of "Sandy", near
the Stalnaker schoolhouse in Roane County, to Ravenswood, at the mouth
of the creek, on the Ohio River.
The distance by water is much greater, as there are two long cut_offs
between the forks of the creek at Sandyville and the river.
The soil of the Sandy valley is greatly diversified, much of it being
extremely fertile, while another considerable amount is hickory and
white oak land of medium quality, and some, especially in the lower
valley, is a white, leachy, soapstone clay of little value for
cultivation. This soil, with low crawfish bottoms and low rolling
hills, and comparatively smooth "flats" and chalky "second bottoms",
prevails as far up as Sandyville. About the mouth of Straight Fork,
from Crooked Fork to Cherry Camp, the Mud Run flats, and for a mile or
more up Trace Fork and the Right Hand Fork of the Main Creek. Near the
mouth of the stream, much of the soil is almost a pure sand, hence the
name of the creek.
Next the head of Right Sandy and its numerous branches, the soil is
fertile, but rough and hilly, while Left Sandy heads back in Limestone
ridge, a region noted for the fertility and the endurance of its soil,
its high, sheer, hills, "black waxy" clay, locust thickets, bluegrass,
herds of cattle and flocks of sheep, and above all, for its orchards
of apple and peach trees, which hardly ever fail to produce
bountifully year after year. It is the wheat and fruit belt of the
west central part of the state.
All the Sandy valley was heavily timbered, oak, poplar, beech,
hickory, maple, etc., being the prevailing species.
Panthers, bear, deer, wolves and the smaller animals common to this
region were plentiful when the country was first settled.
One of the peculiarities of the Sandy valley, in the early days of its
history, was a dreadful scourge which came to be called the "Sandy
Fever". Just what it was, or the cause of it, has never been
satisfactorily explained, but for a half century, it prevailed,
numbering its victims by the score, sometimes blotting out a whole
family in a few weeks, or, again, taking one here and other there.
Scarcely a household in the valley escaped from a sacrifice to the
plague. At times, say the old pioneers whose memories extend back to
those unhappy visitations, the pestilence was so virulent that it
attacked the cattle in the woods, many of whom were carried off by it,
even calves after sucking a stricken dam, being seized with vomiting
and dying in great agony. One old man with whom I talked claimed that
the disease was often transmitted through the use of milk from
diseased animals.
Another theory advanced is that the epidemic was caused by poison in
the water, which is probably the true solution of the dying of the
cattle. There is a spring on the John Somerville farm, on the Brushy
Fork of Left Sandy, far up among the limestone hills, in which some
poisonous principle (supposed to be arsenic) is so abundant that
cattle have to be fenced away from it in dry weather when the water is
low. And there are, or used to be, places on Trace Fork and perhaps
neighboring streams, that the people had to keep their stock away from
the water a certain seasons of the year, although, when the streams
were flush, the poison was so diluted as to be harmless. In this
connection, I will mention that I have been told that "Patrick Bord
was in knowledge of a lead mine in the south west bank of Sand Creek,
not far from Sandyville, and about two feet under water". I think this
was on the Right Fork. Pioneers used to get lead there, it is said,
sufficiently pure to mould bullets for their rifles.
The real "Sandy Fever" was probably malarial in its origin, and more
prevalent, as well as more virulent, on Sandy than the neighboring
streams, because of local conditions, such as lower altitude, sluggish
and stagnant water, low, wet bottoms, assisted, perhaps, by poisonous
mineral substances in the water when at a low stage.
To this day, typhoid and malarial fevers are far more prevalent, and
the death rate higher, on the waters of Sandy than on either Mill
Creek or Reedy.
The principal streams falling in to Sandy are, on the left, Lick Run,
Straight Fork and Beatty's Run, and on the right _
Crooked Fork, which heads against the west branch of Sycamore, and was
so named as a "companion piece" for Straight Fork, which comes in from
the north at Silverton, a little lower down the creek.
Cherry Camp, Mud Run and Trace Fork, so called from an old Indian
trail, which led up this stream, and down one of the upper branches,
still known as Little Trace, and thence over to Reedy, and the Little
Kanawha.
WASHINGTON SURVEY
The history of the Sandy valley begins with the voyage made by George
Washington down the Ohio River, in October and November, 1770, for the
purpose of selecting the lands which the Colony of Virginia, proposed
to grant him as a renumeration for his services in the French and
Indian war. There were two canoes in the party. The first was occupied
by Col. Washington, Col. William H. Crawford, who was burned at the
stake by the Delaware Indians, in 1781, Dr. Craik, Robert Bell,
William Harrison, Charles Morgan, a boy named Rendon, and the
interpreter, Joseph Nicholson. The second was full of Indians.
On October 29th, 1770, the expedition was at the mouth of Big Sand
Creek, of which Washington wrote in his journal:
"Just below a pavement of rocks, on the west, comes in a creek with
fallen timber at the mouth, on which the Indians say there are wide
bottoms and good land. The river bottoms above, for some distance, are
very good, and continue for nearly a half a mile below the creek."
On the 6th of November, the party, which had gone as far as the Great
Kanawha River, arrived at the mouth of Sandy on its return trip, which
was then the site of the encampment of a hunting party of Indians, of
the Six Nations, under Kiashutas, an old acquaintance of Gen.
Washington's, with whom they stopped for the remainder of the day.
(The Indian mentioned Guyasuta, a Seneca Chief.)
The entry for this day in his journal was, in part _
"This bottom, through which the creek comes, may be about four or five
in length, and tolerable wide, grown up pretty much with beech, though
the soil is good".
And for the next day _
"Wednesday 7th _ We set out at half an hour after seven, and, leaving
the bottom through which the creek with the fallen timber at the mouth
runs, and which I believe is called Buffalo Creek, we came to a range
of hills, a mile or more in length, upon the river, etc."
This is at the Roliff farm, explains C.L. Brown, in an interesting
article in the Ravenswood News, in which he also contends that the
"Cherokee Path" leaves the Ohio at the mouth of Mill Creek, instead of
Big Sand Creek.
The following spring, Col. Crawford returned under a commission as
"Special Surveyor" of lands for Virginia soldier, his appointment
having been secured by his friend, Col. Washington, and in return, he
located several large bodies of the best land for the latter, among
them a tract of two thousand four hundred and forty eight acres at the
mouth of Big Sand Creek, described as "lying and being in the County
of Boteourt, and bounded as followeth, to wit:
Beginning at or near the upper end of the fourth large bottom on the
east side of the Ohio, and about sixteen miles below the Little
Kanawha, at a water oak and sugar tree standing on the river bank, at
a point below a small run, and about six hundred yards below the point
of an island, with all woods, underwoods, swamps, marshes, low
grounds, meadows, feeding, and his one share of all veins, mines and
quarries, as well discovered as not discovered, within the bounds of
the aforesaid, and being part of the said two thousand four hundred
and forty eight acres of land, and the rivers, waters and watercourses
therein contained, together with the privilege of hunting, hawking,
fishing, fowling, and all other profits, commodities and hereditaments
whatsoever, to the same, or any part thereof, belonging or in anywise
appertaining."
Washington tried in 1794, owing to financial pressure, to sell all
these lands, at the rate of three acres for $1.00. A year later, he
raised the price to $5.00, and in 1797, to $8.00 per acre, but found
no buyers. By a schedule affixed to his will, his nine thousand, seven
hundred and forty four acres of land in the Ohio River bottom was
valued at $97,440.00, and was divided by his executors among his
numerous heirs.
"The Ravenswood Bottom tract", says C.L. Brown, "fell to Thomas, Peter
and Ann Ashton's heirs, the dividing line between them being now the
north corporation line of the town of Ravenswood. Ephriam Wells bought
all the land north of Ravenswood, being one thousand, four hundred and
forty and a half acres, of said Peter, and then conveyed to Charles P.
Wells the upper three hundred and seventy three acres, being the
Proctor land, and to Bemont Hubbard, the three hundred and fifty one
acres next below same (since the late Robert and William Park farms),
and retained for himself the seven hundred and fifteen acres next to
Ravenswood".
John Nesselrode built the first cabin at the mouth of Sandy, not far
from the year 1808.
FLEMING FAMILY
Bartholomew Fleming was a permanent settler at Ravenswood, in 1820. He
is said to have had some kind of a lease, under the heirs of Gen.
Washington, who owned the land. He kept a wood yard, to supply fuel to
passing steamboats, and as early as 1831, kept a ferry across the Ohio
River, which was licensed by the Virginia Legislature, in 1841, and in
1844, he and Walter Holmes bought a wharf boat at Bull Creek, above
Marietta, and brought it to this point. The wharfboat at Ravenswood is
still (1906) in the hands of the Fleming family.
The first voting place was at Mr. Fleming's house, and the first
election held at the close of the Harrison's "hard cider campaign", in
1840.
The firm of "Fleming and Stanley", consisting of "Bartle" Fleming and
David Stanley, was the second to open a mercantile trade in the
village.
Mr. Fleming was one of the most important business men Ravenswood ever
had, and lived to the ripe age of eighty three years. He is well
spoken of by those who remember him.
As nearly as I can make out from numerous conflicting statements and
memorand _
Bartholomew Fleming married first Miss Seelye, and second, Hannah
Warth, a daughter of John Warth.
In the flood of 1832, Fleming took his wife out at the roof of his
cabin, which was down on "the point".
The town of Ravenswood was laid out in 1840. (This date is given by
Nicholas, son of Henry Fitzhugh, the founder.)
Some accounts say the first post office was established in 1846, with
Thomas Atkinson as postmaster, and names Sandville (now Ravenswood) as
the location.
A sketch of Jackson County given in "A Gazzetteer of Virginia",
published in 1833, mentions Reed's Post Office as situated ten miles
north of Ripley. My conclusion is that Warren Reed, who lived at New
Era at that time, was the first postmaster in Ravenswood District, but
the post office of Sandville was at Sandyville, and not, as some
records say, Ravenswood. Ravenswood is not mentioned in the Gazatteer
for the good reason that there was no place of that name from three to
seven years later.
Had it been a village at all, it would have been Fleming's Ferry. The
Atkinson post office may have been established in 1846.
Joseph Holdren, George Warth, Bartholomew Fleming, Thomas Coleman,
John Thorn, Thomas Slagle, and David Stanley purchased the first lots
in the town.
The first merchant was Joseph Holdren, in 1837, the second, Fleming
and Stanley, and the third Henry Fitzhugh.
The first sermon was at Fleming's house, by Rev. J. C. Brown, a
Presbyterian minister, in 1834.
The first church was the Methodist Episcopal, who had ministers and an
organized class at Mr. Fleming's house as early as 1828.
In 1845, the Rev. Sam Black organized a Southern Methodist Church.
The first hotel was opened by Thomas Schlagle, in 1839.
The first resident physician was Dr. James Henry, and the first
blacksmith John Clark.
The first sawmill was built by Henry Fitzhugh, in 1837, a set of buhrs
for grinding being added in 1838.
The first school in Ravenswood was taught by a man named Smith, in
1837.
There are two conflicting accounts as to the origin of the name
Ravenswood. One is that Mrs. Payne named the village Ravensworth, in
honor of relatives of that name in England, but somehow it was changed
to Ravenswood, through a mistake in engraving a map of the state. The
other that Mrs. Fitzhugh was an ardent admirer of the works of fiction
being written by Sir Walter Scott, and gave the place its name from
that of the hero in the "Bride of Lammermoor".)
The first newspaper, not only of Ravenswood, but of Jackson County,
was the Virginia Chronicle, first issued by W.P. Frost, September 1st,
1853, and continued its publication until he went into the Union Army,
in 1861.
The second venture in this line was the Ravenswood Press, established
by a Mr. Wells, of Athens County, Ohio, in 1866.
In 1867, the Press was sold to S.R. Klotts, who two years later moved
it to Cottageville, and then sold out to Mr. Huggins, who published it
until 1870. In August, 1868, the West Virginia News, edited and
published by Andrew Flesher and S.J. Gregory, made its first
appearance, and under various managers has been issued continuously
ever since, though known as the Ravenswood News for the past thirty
years.
FITZHUGH FAMILY
The founder of Ravenswood, Henry Fitzhugh, was born in Fauquier
County, Virginia, in 1783. He moved to Kanawha County in 1834, and
engaged in the making of salt. He married Henrietta Fitzhugh, who was
born in the District of Columbia, in 1789. She was daughter of Major
Nicholas Fitzhugh and Sallie Ashton Fitzhugh. Sallie Ashton's mother,
Ann Ashton, was a niece of General Washington. Thus, through the
wife's inheritance, the Henry Fitzhughs came into possession of the
land on a part of which Ravenswood now stands.
Henry Fitzhugh moved to the land near the mouth of Big Sandy about
1840, and lived in the vicinity until his death, in 1855. He was,
during his life, one of Jackson County's leading citizens. They raised
a large family of children, among whom were:
George N. Fitzhugh.
Theodore B. Fitzhugh.
Mary H. Fitzhugh, married A. A. Quarrier.
Henrietta Fitzhugh, married D. M. Barre, of Charleston.
Sarah A. Fitzhugh, married J.F. Cotton.
Nicholas Fitzhugh was born in 1823, attended Marietta College and
Washington and Lee University. He was admitted to the Bar in Jackson
County, but later moved to Charleston. He was in the Confederate Army,
and a Delegate to he Continental Convention. He was twice married. His
first wife was Martha D., daughter of Samuel Shrewsbury, and his wife
Laura, was also a daughter of Samuel Shrewsbury. The wives'
grandmother was also an heir of General Washington, her name being
Harriet Washington.
Children of Nicholas Fitzhugh were: Hugh, Edit and Norman.
WELLS FAMILY
Ephriam Wells had, in 1835, purchased the large tract of land above
Ravenswood, which had been inherited from General George Washington,
by the Parks, through Harriet Washington Parks. He had disposed of
part of it, but retained for himself seven hundred and fifty one
acres.
Ephraim Wells was born in 1801, in Brooke County, and died in 1874. He
married Margaret McIntire, and for many years held the position of
Justice of the Peace, and member of the County Court. Of their
children, I have:
Charles P. Wells, who had purchased a part of the tract of his father.
He had a son, J.D. Wells, and a daughter, who married Judge R.S.
Brown.
His father is said to have been named Absolom Wells.
CLICK FAMILY
Christopher Click, born in Germany, was a son of Christopher and
Barbara Rabhold Click. He came first to Pennsylvania, and to
Ravenswood in 1859. Their children were: Christopher, Henry, Andrew,
George, Philip, Jacob and Sarah.
Other early settlers in the vicinity of Ravenswood were the Stanleys,
Rowleys and Andersons on Lower Sandy.
William Flesher, at Silverton.
Uriah Gandee, who lived "on the banks of the Ohio river above
Ravenswood" in 1804, when his daughter, Susan Gandee Allen, was born.
Eli Gandee, on Little Sandy.
Shermans, at the mouth of Little Sandy.
Tapley Beckwith, on the head of Bar Run, in 1830.
ANDERSON FAMILY
Many, many years ago, when the silence of the forest was yet unbroken
by the sound of the woodsmans axe, while the wild animals and wilder
redmen roamed hill and vale at will, in undisturbed security, Andrew
Anderson left his home in New Jersey, to seek the adventures of a life
in the unbroken wilderness of the Ohio Valley. He crossed the
mountains and drifted down the "Beautiful River", as far as the Big
Bend, below Ravenswood, where he established himself in a camp, made
in the hollow of a huge sycamore tree which stood in the fertile Ohio
bottom. This tree was his home for several years, while he hunted and
trapped among the neighboring hills, raising corn enough to provide
his Johnny cake, roasting ears, and hominy, and making occasional
canoe voyages to some fort or station to dispose of his furs or
venison ham, and lay in a supply of salt, powder and lead. Finally
tiring of this solitary life, he left his strange, yet roomy and
comfortable abode (it is said the hollow in the tree was sufficiently
large to turn an eleven foot rail in), and moving further up the
river, entered a piece of land, married and settled down for the
remainder of his days, bringing up around him a large family, of
hardworking industrious sons and daughters whose descendants are
thickly scattered over Meigs and Jackson counties. So runs the family
tradition.
Here history comes in and relates a story, different, yet easily
reconcilable, if one only knew how.
In 1785, Captain Tilton and Judge Wood planted a colony (mostly
Scotsmen) at Belleville.
in 1787, Joel Dewey, Joseph Dewey, Stephen Sherrod and family, from
Wyoming, Pennsylvania, Malcolm Coleman and family, from Carlisle,
Pennsylvania, and Andrew Anderson, from Wheeling, joined the colony.
Some years before the Belleville settlement, David Lee, a native of
Pennsylvania, a famous hunter and trapper, had camped for a time on
the banks of the stream which still bears his name, and , hunting
until after Waynes treaty with the Indians at Greenville, in 1795,
brought security to the frontier. He married a sister of the
Andersons, and with peace, purchased a tract of land on Tygarts Creek,
and raised a family of five sons and three daughters. Many of his
descendants are still inhabiting that part of the state.
Andrew Anderson may, like Lee, have visited this section before the
building of the fort at Belleville, afterward returning to Wheeling,
or he may have drifted to the wilds of the Big Bend forests from the
colony, preferring this wild, free life to the companionship of his
fellow men.
Who he married has not been preserved, but it is known that he settled
down to quiet farm life until swept away with the many victims of the
Cholera Scourge that visited the Ohio Valley in 1832.
Andrew Andersons children were:
Joseph Anderson, married Nancy Stanley, a daughter of one of the early
Sandy pioneers. He was married about 1822, and located on the creek
one and half miles below the John Haynes farm, then the home of John
Stanley, his wifes father.
James Anderson (Jim), married Susy Hughes (it is said she was a niece
of Jesse Hughes), and lived at the "Flatwoods", below Ravenswood.
John Anderson, married a Boice.
Andy Anderson, married a sister of Johns wife, and lived on Straight
Fork. His son, Lewis, married Sydney Bishop.
Polly Anderson, married John Woodruff, and lived near her fathers
home, at Big Bend, Ohio. William Woodruff was one of their children.
Sarah Anderson, married John Stanley, a brother of Joseph Andersons
wife, and lived on Sandy, in the same neighborhood.
Lizbeth Anderson, married Robert Pickens, of the Big Bend, Ohio, where
they continued to reside. A son, Bartholomew Pickens, lived on Crooked
Fork for a while before his death.
Andrew Anderson had another daughter whose name my informant was
unable to recall.
Joseph Anderson married Nancy Stanley, about 1822. They lived a mile
and a half above Haynes, and raised a family of four sons and four
daughters.
Elizabeth married Josiah Stanley, a son of James Stanley, and
presumably her first cousin.
Elmira (Miry) never married.
Priscilla (Prissy) married first a Shannon, and second, Sanford
Richards, who lives on Trace Fork.
Mary married Bill Romine, and lived on the creek below Sandyville.
They lived at one time on the north side of Sandy. At the mouth of
Bearrys Run, in one of the two cabins where so many fell victim of the
Sandy Fever.
John Anderson married Elizabeth Pruden, and lived on Sandy.
Lewis Anderson never married.
George Anderson married Hester, a sister of John Vannoy.
Joseph Anderson married Hepzibah Rowley.
Joseph Anderson was born in 1829, and was married to Hepzibah,
daughter of Harry Rowley, in 1854. His death occurred in 1907, on
Cabin Run, about a mile north of Liverpool.
He was a large man, physically, but had been in poor hearth for
several years before his death.
Mr. Anderson was a good talker, and related many interesting
reminiscences of pioneer life on Sandy, when I visited him in 1904. He
remembered many of the early settlers of this section, and I am
indebted to him for much information.
He had known Dr. Adams, Parsons, Edwards, Little, and Bonto and all
the early settlers of the Trace Fork, as well as Reed, Magee, and the
Sayre family at Sandyville, Jim Smith, the guerilla captain and many
others.
Uncle Joesy, as he was familiarly called by all, was a crack shot with
his famous deergun.
He had shot with the noted Patton Carder rifle, with which someone is
said to have killed Boone, in the siege of Spencer, in 1860, at a
distance of a hundred yards, and fondly described it as a "honey
darling". The old hunter was, until his death, as fond of a good gun
as the horseman is of his steed.
The first school Anderson went to was taught by a man named Copen, in
a log hut on Crooked Fork, probably about 1836 or 1837.
He remembers going with an older brother on a fishing expedition one
winter.
It had been very dry that summer, and the fish had some up the creeks
in the spring as usual, but owing to the low stage of water on the
bars, had not returned, and winter caught them in the deepest pools.
Winters in the early days were much more prolonged and severe than
they are now. A heavy freeze had formed ice several inches in
thickness, and the brother, who was grown, made a harpoon with which
to spear the fish through holes they cut in the ice with an axe. The
fish taken were white suckers, and they took enough to make a twelve
gallon sugar kettle full of dressed fish.
The rock bar at the mouth of Bar Run was a favorite place for taking
fish. He had seen fish and "tortles" so thick in the Bar Run hole that
they almost "hid the water".
After his marriage, Anderson lived some years on Mud Run. In 1861, he
moved to Trace Fork, living below the Adams, now Hawk, farm. About
1896, he bought a piece of land at the mouth of Cabin Run, and put up
a corn mill, and a few years later, moved up on the run to the farm
now owned by his son, Jeff Anderson.
STANLEY FAMILY
Who John Stanley was, and when or whence he came to Sandy, I have been
unable to ascertain, only that he was living in a cabin on the high
plateau in the bend of the creek, across from John Haynes place, in
1822, when his daughter, Nancy was married to Joseph Anderson, of Big
Bend, Ohio.
Who his wife was is equally in darkness, with his ancestry and date of
his birth and death.
Probably he was of the same family as David Stanley, the Raveswood
pioneer. His children were:
James (Jim) Stanley, married a Runner, and lived on the flats below
Mud Run, in the forties.
William (Bill) Stanley married a Bibbee, died at Silverton.
Henry Stanley died unmarried.
Jonathan Stanley married first a Hanshaw, and second, Mazella Parsons,
a daughter of George Parsons, on Trace Fork. They never owned land,
but lived in different places on Sandy. The Parson record given his
name as Noah Stanley.
Elias Stanley married a Runner (probably these girls were daughters of
Elijah Runner.)
Noah Stanley, name only given.
Levi Stanley went off and never returned.
Nancy Stanley married Joe Anderson, and lived one and a half miles
below her father's home, at the Haynes farm.
Besides these names, which were furnished by the late Joseph Anderson,
Chris Stutler mentions:
Tom Stanley, who died at Silverton.
A daughter married "Zeke" Vernon.
Whether these were children of John Stanley, or of one of his sons, I
cannot say.
A farm on the bend of the creek below Mike Boso's mill was at an early
day known as "The Old Stanley Farm", from John Stanley having once
lived there.
PICKENS FAMILY
Probably Robert Pickens, who married Elizabeth Anderson, was of the
following family:
John Pickens, a Revolutionary soldier. His children were:
James Pickens, a soldier in the War of 1812.
John Pickens, born in 1806, in Mason County, married Mary Lawrence.
Their daughter, Samantha, married Ed Greathouse.
Also, Elijah Pickens, whose children were: Ben, Dave, Sam and Joe.
ROWLEY FAMILY
William Henry Rowley had two brothers, but their father dying when he
was small, they became separated, and he lost sight of them. W.H. was
"bound" to a shoemaker on Long Island.
It is not stated whether he came to West Virginia or not. A son,
however, did, and his daughter married Joseph Anderson, as previously
related. This sons name was Harry Rowley, and he may have been the
"old man Rowley" who was living on the east side of Sandy, between the
mouth of Trace Fork and the bridge, about 1835. He and his wife both
died with the Sandy Fever afterward.
Of his children:
Thomas Rowley married Tabitha Parsons, daughter of George Parsons
(Trace Fork George), and they went to Ohio.
Huldah Rowley married John Smith Carder, and lived for a time on Trace
Fork, and later of Joes Run.
Nancy Rowley married first Philip Adams (probably son of Dr. Adams),
who died in Middleport, Ohio,. Was said to have been the smartest man
J.A. ever knew, to have had no education. Her second husband was
Jacob, son of Thomas McGlothin.
JESSE HUGHES
Jesse Hughes, the renowned scout and Indian fighter, spent the last
years of his life on the Ohio River, near the mouth of Big Sandy. He
first bought land at Sandyville, but lost it through a former patent.
It would appear that Hughes came to this section a few years before
the closing of Indian hostilities. He had three daughters, Nancy,
Agnes, Massie and Luraine. Nancy and Massie were hunting cows on
Turkey Run, which enters the river a mile above Ravenswood, when they
were discovered by a party of Indians, who made a capture of the
latter, and carried her off and kept her in captivity for two years.
After the Treaty of Greenville brought peace to the border
settlements, Jesse went in search of his daughter, but did not at
first recognize her, as she was dressed in Indian fashion, with rings
in her ears, mouth, and on all her fingers, her face and body smeared
with paint, and she carried a bow and arrows.
Nancy Hughes married George W. Hanshaw, who lived in a cabin on the
site of the house occupied a few years since by W.S. Proctor, on the
old Proctor farm, above Ravenswood.
Jesse Hanshaw, who lived near the mouth of Mill Creek, was born there
about 1830.
G.W. Hanshaw at one time owned the Blake, or Varner farm on Sandy.
Jesse Hughes other daughter, Luraine, was married to Uriah Sayre, and
lived at the mouth of Ground Hog, on the Ohio side of the river.
Her daughter, Lura Sayre, married Lafayette Cozart, of Jackson County,
who relates that his wifes grandfather, Jesse Hughes, after he became
old, wandered off into the woods. He was found on either Tureky or
Lick Run, and though not dead when found, died very soon after. He was
buried on the Proctor farm, some say, at the "old graveyard" but it is
uncertain whether the exact site of the grave can now be located.
Massie Hughes, daughter of Jesse and heroine of the Indian capture
married Uriah Gandee, Jr, and lived near Gandeeville. It is said that
the wife of the famous Indian fighter, Grace Tanner Hughes, spent the
last years of her life with them, and at her death in 1839, was buried
there.
There are numerous persons in Jackson and adjoining counties who claim
descent from Jesse Hughes, or his near relatives.
BUFFINGTON FAMILY
Other choice parcels of land farther up the river were allotted to
Washington's compatriots, George Muse, and a Mercer, and were
colonized about the same time as the Ravenswood tract.
Buffington's Island was settled by Joseph Buffington. (I think Joseph,
and not Joel, is the correct name), who had three sons.
Philip, whose marriage to Sarah Hughes is named as the first wedding
in Union District.
William, who lived in Wirt County.
Solomon, who was one of the Union Home Guards, and died on Pond Creek,
a half mile below the mouth of Jerry's run, shortly after the close of
the Civil War.
DEWITT FAMILY
The first settler at Muse's Bottom was John DeWitt (some of the old
settlers pronounce it Doo_it), who built the first cabin, in 1807.
Soon after, Thomas DeWitt, John Powers, Thomas Coleman, Ellis
Nesselrode, and John Boso came. It is not at all certain that these
parties all came the same year, but they were all among the very early
pioneers.
Where the DeWitts were from is not given, but the name recurs several
times in the early history of Mill Creek and Sandy, and parties of the
same name are still to be found in Grant District.
COLEMAN FAMILY
The Coleman family has been, from the first, the most prominent in the
vicinity of Muse's Bottom.
The Thomas Coleman mentioned above was a son of Michael Coleman, who
was killed by the Indians, at Cottageville, in 1793.
Thomas Coleman was born in the wilderness of Kanawha County, in 1801.
He was a son of James and Nancy Anderson Coleman. His father and
mother both died when he was quite young, and he was raised by a
maternal uncle. He was bound out to a blacksmith at the age of
fourteen, but ran away the next year and went on a keel boat on the
river, which was hauling salt from the Kanawha to Wheeling. Later, he
operated boats of his own. He married Sarah Roush, in 1823, daughter
of Henry and Hannah Roush, of Meigs County, Ohio. He settled later at
Muse's Bottom. Their children were:
Samuel H. died as a child.
David S. went to Missouri.
Reverend H.R.
Thomas B. lives on the home place.
Eliza married P. D. Williams, lived at Muse's Bottom.
Virginia married R.S. Morgan.
Maria married James Morgan.
Thomas Coleman was appointed first postmaster at Muse's Bottom.
A brother of Michael was John Coleman. He was an Indian fighter and
scout at the Belleville fort. What became of him after peace came is
not stated.
The first marriage in what is now Grant District was that of Margaret,
daughter of Mary and John Coleman, to William Harrison. Whether this
was the same John, his son, or a son of Michael (Malcolm, some give
the name), I have no means of knowing.
RECTOR FAMILY
Charles J. Rector was born in 1848. He was a son of Steptoe Rector,
who was born in 1816. They came to Jackson County when Charles was
young. In 1869, Charles married Elizabeth Sherman. He lived on Little
Sandy or at Sherman.
Levin Rector was a brother of Steptoe Rector. He was born in 1814, and
married Sarah B. Sherman. She was a daughter of Isaac B. Sherman and
Nancy DeWitt Sherman. They lived at Sherman in 1883. Mrs. Susan Kyger
was his sister.
Charles Rector, who married Sallie Rust, was the father of Steptoe and
Levin Rector.
ROBERTS FAMILY
William M. Roberts, of Muse's Bottom, was a native of Wood County. He
was born in 1823. His father, John Roberts, came from North Wales. He
was born in 1787, and married Sarah Sargent. He served in the British
Navy for several years. Their children were:
William M., Thomas P., John, Robert, Henry E., Rowena, Adelaide, Sarah
and Elizabeth, who married Abram McKay.
William and Thomas lived at Ravenswood.
NESSELRODE FAMILY
Ambrose Atkins is authority for the following statement:
"Ellis Nesselrode lived at the mouth of Little Sandy (about 1855).
From his appearance he would suppose him to have been born about 1800
or 1805. He was a noted hunter and had a camp under a rock below John
Slavens which is known as Ellises Rock."
If this was the pioneer mentioned as a first settler, he was either
much older than Mr. Atkins supposes, or came much later than the date
given.
Israel Nesselrode lived on Little Sandy. He had sons: Peter, Frank, Ed
and Shelton.
David Nesselrode, who kept the post office on Little Sandy, beyond
Utah Hill, called Israel "uncle".
There was also an Elias Nesselrode living in that vicinity, in 1900,
then an old man past three score and ten.
BOSO FAMILY
The Boso family was forty years ago the most numerous race on the two
Ponds Creeks.
The first of the name to come to these parts, and the father of the
line, was one John Boso, who was living in the block house at the
mouth of the Hocking River, about 1790, and who settled at Muses
Bottom in 1807.
Where Boso came from is not known, but he was French descent, and the
family were intimately connected with the Flinns, another family
prominent in the pioneer history of Pond Creek.
John Boso had four sons, whose name I have been given - Charles, Joe,
Jake and John.
Joe and Jake married girls by the name of Fancher, Joe went to
Indiana, and Jake is not mentioned further.
John Bosos wife was a daughter of the Michael Coleman who was killed
by the Indians. Their children were:
Mike Boso, married a Mills, sister of George. He had a mill on Pond
Creek, below the Flinn ford, at the mouth of Cabin Fork.
John Boso (Curly John), married a Smith, sister of Sam Smith.
Charley Boso, married a Flinn, sister of "Old Johnny" Flinn. He died
in St. Louis. S. Greene Boso is his son.
Nancy Boso married Joe Hale, and lived on a branch of Lee Creek.
Barbara Boso married a Burdine.
"Polly" Boso marred a Hall and lived in Ohio.
Bent Boso married and lived in Illinois.
"Kins" Boso (Kinsman) married a Brown.
"Lafe" Boso was "in the Army".
France Boso lived in Pomeroy.
John Boso, afer the death of his first wife, was married to a sister
of "old Johnny" Flinn, who lived at the mouth of Cabin Fork.
Charles Boso, known for miles around as "Old Charley", was born in the
Big Hocking Block House, some time toward the end of the Eighteenth
Century, probably early in the nineties.
He died at the age of one hundred and six, said his son, Isaiah.
His wife was Mary Anderson, perhaps a sister of "Mike" Anderson, who
lived on upper Pond Creek. Their children were:
Isaiah married Mary E. Orem, a sister of Joe Orem. He was born in 1833
and died February 16th, 1908.
John A. Boso married Debby Mills, a sister of Bill Mills.
Nelson Boso married and Ingalls. He was the father of Charley Boso.
Nels Boso was born about 1828. Probably John was the John A. who was
seventy five in 1900.
Willard Boso went to Indiana.
Charles Boso.
Eliza Boso married John Orem.
Jane Boso married a Ferguson.
"Uncle Charley Boso was born near the mouth of the Big Hocking River,
on a houseboat, spent the early years of his life flatboating on the
Ohio River. Died about three oclock, on the morning on June 5th, 1898,
at age one hundred and eight years.
Was father of seven children, six of whom survived him, was in good
health until two weeks before his death. Died at his son John A. Bosos
on Little Pond Creek. Four hundred people attended burying." So wrote
C. T. Pilchard, of Lone Cedar, in Jackson Herald for June 10th, 1898.
HYDE FAMILY
The Hyde family were originally from England, whence came three
brothers, George, James, and Isaac, the latter a boy just verging on
manhood's estate. Probably the father, whose name is through to have
been Isaac, and the rest of the family were with them. They were six
months in crossing the ocean. They first came to the eastern part of
West Virginia, and to Jackson, probably from Hacker's Creek. Isaac
Hyde appears to have first came to Little Mill Creek, and moved from
there to where his brother-in-law, Alexander Alkire had settled, they
having married sisters named Sims. Mrs. Jane Carder, a granddaughter
of Isaac Hyde, says she has heard her grandmother talk of the "Devil's
Hole". In the early days, the mouth of Shade River was a wild rocky
place, gloomy, dark and cavernous. An Indian trail from the Clarksburg
settlements to their towns on the Scioto crossed the river here,
probably giving a name to both Trace Fork, of Sandy and Mill Creek,
and many were the bands that crossed here with prisoners, scalps and
plunder. The place was known to the settlers as Devil's Hole. Isaac
Hyde married Nancy Sims. He came to Jackson County probably about
1806.
ALKIRE FAMILY
Alexander Alkire lived near the Hydes, in Grant District. His wife was
a Sims, and a sister of Hyde's wife.
An Adam Alkire lived at Muse's Bottom.
SLAVEN FAMILY
One of the most prominent families on Little Sandy for the past sixty
five years are the descendants of one William Slaven, who came there
in 1843 or 1844.
Prior to his removal to Jackson County, Slaven had served as sheriff
of Randolph County, and had represented Lewis County in the House of
Delegates at Richmond. He was a magistrate, or Justice of the Peace,
for many years, and a prominent buyer and shipper of cattle in
Randolph, Barbour, Harrison, Lewis and adjoining counties.
He was a son of Jacob Slaven, a soldier in the Revolution. Of his
brothers and sisters, there were -
Jacob and John, who lived in the eastern part of the state.
Nancy, who married and went to Ohio.
Margaret, who married Stewart Wooddell, at one time sheriff of
Pocahontas County. Joe Wooddell, the newspaperman, was their son.
William Slaven was almost ninety two when he died, in 1889 or 1890. He
was twice married, his first wife being Margaret Wooddell. After her
death, he was again married, to Nancy, daughter of Old Johnny Cline.
William and Margaret Slavens children were:
Charles was a forty niner, went to California and disappeared.
John W. married Mary Cline, John Clines daughter. He was born in 1825
and lived on Little Sandy for many years.
William W. married Fidelia, daughter of Robert Warth, and lived on
Little Sandy.
James Slaven married Emmeline, daughter of James Somerville.
Margaret Slaven married Andrew Somerville, and lived on the head of
the left fork of Sandy.
Nathan Slaven was in the Confederate Army, and was wounded at Fort
Donelson and died.
Henry Slaven was also in the Confederate Army, and lost a leg at the
Winchester fight. He married Sarah Flinn, and lived on the Nesselrode
place.
Elizabeth M. Slaven married Joseph Yeager Springston.
The children of the second family were:
Francis was a chaplain in the Confederate Army, married in Ohio.
Mary married first Jake Gough, and second a Bell.
Roland married Lucy Davenport.
Harriet married Harry Wilkeson, and lived near Cottageville.
"Carline" married George, son of Bill McFee.
Martha married a Cawthorne and went to Michigan.
Sarah married Tom Ingram and lived on Pond Creek.
Lucy married Dave Pickens, and lived on Sandy.
Harry.
FLINN FAMILY
In 1785, a party from Wheeling took possession of an old Indian
improvement of about twenty acres, above the mouth of Lee Creek, and
built a blockhouse. Among these were an old man named Flinn, a
widower, and Thomas and John Flinn, his sons, and a daughter who
married John Barnett. Owing to the hostilities of the Indians, they
moved, for greater security, to the fort at Belleville, in 1787.
This blockhouse was called Flinns Station, and the Flinn family were
descended from this old man.
Old Billy Flinn was born about 1790, and was up in the nineties when
he died. He married Polly Staats, a sister of Dave Staats, and
daughter of Noah Staats. He lived at the mouth of Meat House Fork of
Little Sandy.
Their children were:
William Flinn ("Cap") married a Hostleton.
Sarah Flinn married Henry Slaven.
David Flinn married a Cox.
Kale Flinn married Baxter Howard. (R.B. Howard, near LeRoy)
Nancy Flinn married George Howard.
Jane Flinn married Newton Hicks.
Other children were Joe, George, Lafayette.
Old Johnny Flinn, a brother of Old Billy, lived on Pond Creek, at the
mouth of Cabin Fork.
George Flinn once lived at the first place below John Flinns, on Pond
Creek.
Sisters of these Flinns married Old John Boso, and his son, Charles.
STAATS FAMILY
Elijah, Daniel and Noah Staats were probably nephews of Abram Staats,
who settled on Mill Creek about 1800.
Noah Staats lived on Little Sandy, about a mile from the mouth. His
children were:
David Staats lived on Skull Run.
Henrietta Staats married Sam Rardon.
Rowena Staats married Tom Rardon.
Christina Staats married Peter Derenberger.
Mary Staats married a Moorhouse.
Louisa Staats.
Peggy Staats.
Sarah Ann Staats.
DERENBERGER FAMILY
Peter Derenberger married Christina Staats, and lived on Little Sandy,
below the mouth of Meat House Run, where there is an old orchard,
below Tack Derenbergers house at the lower end of the place. Their
children were:
W.T. Derenberger, born in 1836.
Elija Derenberger.
Geroge Derenberger.
Annette Derenberger, married Albert Lockhart.
Caroline Derenberger married a Safreed.
Margaret Derenberger married a Safreed.
"Californy" Derenberger married first Alex Trotter, and second Joe
Leep.
RARDON FAMILY
John Rardon married Charlotte Dewitt. Their children were:
Nancy Rardon was a school teacher, married first a Hubbard, and second
a Lange.
Tom Rardon married Rowena Staats.
Margaret Rardon married Sam Landon.
Sam Rardon married a Moorehouse.
John Rardon, who made the first improvement at the Bush place, above
Peniel, was probably a son of John Rardon.
David Rardon was a noted exhorter and class leader. He married a
Barringer. Their children were:
Mary, married Tom Gardner, and uncle of Clint Gardner.
David.
Sam.
Another daughter married Abel Syoc.
MIDDLE SANDY VALLEY
Cherry Camp is a small stream emptying into Sandy, from the right,
about a mile above Crooked Fork. Elijah Pickens lived near its mouth,
and some of this descendants own land in that vicinity. There is a
large area of flat, or slightly rolling, land, extending from below
the mouth of Cherry Camp to the mouth of Mud Run, know as the Mud Run
Flats. It is a lovely plateau with its system of water courses, little
brooks, some rising in the hills and some wholly within the boundaries
of the flat, which may be three quarters of a mile in length, and
perhaps a half a mile wide, in the widest place.
There are some bottoms along the creek, which are probably of good
quality, and each little stream had its miniature bottom, a few rods
wide and sloping back to the tops of the "hills" so gently it can
scarce be told where bottom ends and hill commences. A remarkably
pretty country, to look at, but with a white clay soil of little use
for agricultural purposes.
Mud Run is about a half mile above Cherry Camp, and also heads against
the Left Fork of Sycamore.
The first settlers at the mouth of Mud Run was a man named Stump. The
name is all I have. As to whence he came, or where he went, none
appear to know. The "Sandy Fever" plague may be the solution.
The date probably was about 1830.
The next stream entering the creek some hundred rods higher up is
Trace Fork, so named from an old Indian trail leading from the
settlements in Harrison and Lewis Counties, by way of Shade River, to
the Indian towns on the Scioto. A short distance above the mouth, on a
kind of plateau, is the house of Peter Bontempt, built four or five
years ago. Near it is a row of four very large apple trees, which may
be the remnant of a "pioneer" orchard. Just above, on the left, in the
mouth of a small run, is the old Bonto house, built of heavy hewn
logs, with cut stone cellar, but the old folks passed to the Great
Beyond, and the old buildings are falling before the ravages of time.
Bonto (Bontempt is the original spelling), like Raynaud (Rayno), who
lived below, was of French descent.
The first settler on the Bonto farm was Robert Little, who died of
"Sandy Fever", in 1858. He was (said Mrs. Rhodes) there in 1836.
George Parsons settled the next place above Littles, about 1830.
The site of his cabin I have not been able to make out. There are two
old orchards on the place now, one on a point across the road from the
house, and a little below, the other about two hundred yards lower
down the creek, and on the opposite side, in a bottom cut off by a
bend in the stream. There is no sign of a house there now, but at the
upper site, there is an old house on the bank above the road, among
some trees. If either orchard dates back to the first settlement, it
is probably the lower one.
George Parsons died about 1838. His wife was Sarah Lyons (See Mill
Creek History).
His son, George Parsons, died on lower Trace Fork a few years ago.
Another son, Charles Parsons, was the father of J. W. Parsons, some
time assessor of the first District, and Isaiah Parsons a former
County Superintendent. Charles Parsons lived on the home place, some
say. His sister, Mrs. Rhodes said he moved to Charleston. Another son,
Fielding Parsons, was a Union soldier, and died at Ravenswood three or
four years ago. A Flinn lived on the Parsons place afterwards.
The next improvement was made, as nearly as can be ascertained, by a
man named Edwards, who took a lease and built a cabin across the road,
next the creek, from where Mack Shepherd now lives. There was a Lewis
Edwards, a skillful carpenter, who lived at different places along
Sandy before the war, who was probably the same man. He was not a land
owner, but rented and worked at his trade. It is not mentioned who
owned the land at that time, but it was a part of the same farm now
owned by Frank Hawk.
ADAMS FAMILY
The most prominent of the pioneers of Trace Fork was Dr. Spencer
Adams, who appears to have first come to this neighborhood in 1840, or
a little earlier.
He came, some say, from Ripley to Trace Fork, and it is related that
he married on of four sisters, the father being dead, and the mother
the owner of a five hundred acre tract of land, where he afterward
lived.
Sometime in the thirties, (probably), Dr. Adams was a candidate for
the House of Delegates, but it was discovered after his election that
he was ineligible, not being a freeholder, and his mother-in-law
deeded him a portion of the Trace Fork land so he could take his seat
in the Legislature.
Later, he moved on to his land, where it appears he continued to
reside until 1855.
He had (someone told me) a son, Philip, who went to Racine, Ohio.
There are two Adams children buried in the Howes plot in the old
Sandyville graveyard, one in 1857, the other ten years later. The
first, Amelia Adams, was born in 1830.
The Adams and Howes families were connected, Howes having married an
Adams as his second wife.
Adams wife was, I believe, a Tolley, and Andy Adams, the Spencer
merchant, and the wife of John A. Macintosh were his children.
Dr. Adams was a man of more than ordinary intelligence, and enjoyed an
extensive practice on Sandy and Mill Creek waters.
He lived for a short time in the house next the Shepperd place, and
then built at the mouth of the run, below where Mr. Hawk now lives.
When Smith Carder was first married, he lived for a year or two on Dr.
Adams place. Uncle Eph Carder, who was born in 1837, lived with him,
being a little fellow just big enough to run around and pick up
walnuts, say four or five years old, which would make the date about
1842. He says he used to see Adams " most every day", and would judge
him to have been somewhere in forty years old.
HARRIS FAMILY
About 1862, Anthony Harris bought and moved to the Adams farm. Harris
was born in Greene County, Pennsylvania, March 25th, 1822. When he was
six years old, the family removed to Tyler (or Pleasants) County,
Virginia. He died in 1902.
Shortly after moving to Trace Fork, Harris was out hunting. He saw a
large buck standing in the edge of a thicket. Taking careful aim, he
fired, and the deer fell, on going up to his quarry, he was surprised
to find two deer, instead of one, lying dead. The ball had passed
through the bucks heart, and also killed a fine doe that was standing
behind him, in such a manner as to be concealed from his view.
This farm was a fine one.
My father looked at the farm in November, 1871, and liked it very
well. He would probably have purchased it, had it not been for the
reports of its unhealthfulness and "arsenic" springs.
SHEPPARD FAMILY
The first place about the mouth of Trace is where the man Rowley
lived, about 1835.
There are a few old apple trees standing yet, and the house was still
there when the bridge was built across Sandy below, the workmen using
it to shanty in.
The weight of evidence seems to show that the first settlement on the
farm by the bridge was ade (unless the Rowley clearing was on the same
farm and earlier) by James Sheppard, and the crossing is still known
as the "Old Sheppard Ford."
He was a son I think the oldest of Jonathan Sheppard, and married
Margaret Lockhart, a daughter of William Lockhart, and first settled
on Right Reedy, across the creek from the Pisgah Church.
He was living on Sandy as early as 1835 or 1836. He died on his farm
at the ford, and his widow was still living there in 1850, says Jeff
Dawkins.
The names of five children are given:
Martha Sheppard married Lewis Edwards.
Isaac Sheppard married Margaret Morehead.
William Sheppard married Eliza Howes.
Eliza Sheppard married Isaac Enoch.
James Sheppard went away on a produce boat, and never returned.
The site of the Sheppard home is not given. Probably it was a short
distance below the mouth of Beatties Run. A few old apple trees yet
mark the site of each building.
Mrs. Magee said that a man named Sheppard lived in the one on the east
side of the creek, and an old man and his wife, a connection of his,
on the west, and that the old people and Sheppards family fell before
the scourge, the "Sandy Fever." Certain it is that this location is in
the very heart of the pestilence stricken section. Henry Sheppard is
probably the man referred to, as he is said to have lived here. A
detailed history of the Sheppard Family will be found in the History
of Reedy Valley.
A man maned Dewitt is said to have lived, and died, in the lower
house. Jeff Dawkins said Alex Dewitt, married Miriam Carney, sister to
Joe Howes wife, lived there in 1850.
A man named Wiblin, if I understood Mr. Anderson right, moved one
spring into the West house, saying "Give me plenty of whiskey and
bacon and Im not afraid of Sandy Fever". Before fall, he was dead.
HOWES FAMILY
Joe Howes lived at the mouth of Beattys Run. I do not know if it was
in one of the two "death traps" or not. If so, it was the cabin on the
east side of the creek. More likely, it was up near where T. J.Wilcox
now lives. He was the son of John B Howes. His mother, Catharine
Howes, died in 1856, a the age of eighty two, and is buried at
Sandyville. Of his children:
Joseph Howes married first Jemima Carney, and second, Letty Ingram.
Jemima was a daughter of Jesse Carney, Letty a daughter of Henry
Sheppard, and widow of Charles, son of Jacob Ingram.
Eliza Howes married William Sheppard. He may have been one of the
Sheppards mentioned above, as he died with fever.
BEATTY FAMILY
Beatty's Run receives its name from a family living there, sometime in
the forties. Sam Beatty lived where the pike crosses the run, below
Sandyville, at what is known as the Crow farm.
Will Beatty, a brother, died in a well near Silverton. They were
probably sons of the Ravenswood pioneer.
MAGEE FAMILY
In the low gap between the waters of Beatty's Run and Copper Fork, up
on a slope overlooking the pike, and a deep cut, When I visited the
old lady, in September, 1904, and enjoyed a pleasant hour, talking of
pioneer days, she expressed herself as greatly attached to the tree,
and wished it to stand as long as she might live.
A little over a year later, she was in her grave, but the tree is
(August, 1907) still hale and vigorous. Shame to the hand that is ever
raised against it.
Elizabeth Magee did not come to Sandy when her father, Edward Knotts,
came, in 1833, but remained with relatives in Preston County. The
following year, she was married to Jephtha Magee, and in 1835,
captivated by reports of the new Eldorado, the young couple came to
Sandy, locating on Daniel Sayre's farm, where they remained two years,
and then moved to the cabin vacated by her father when he moved to
Palestine. In 1847, Magee made the first improvement at the homestead
on the hill.
Elizabeth Magee was a daughter of Edward and Mary Bryan Knotts. She
was born in Preston County, Virginia, July 2nd, 1816, and died
December 14th, 1905, aged eighty nine years, five months and twelve
days.
Jephtha Magee was born July 2nd, 1815, and was, to day, one year older
than his wife. He died January 12th, 1859.
He was buried at the old Sandyville cemetery, for his death occurred
ten years before the establishing of a grave yard a little way out the
road from his house.
Here is located the Magee Chapel, a Southern Methodist Church, built
in 1876. The cemetery is of too recent date to be the last resting
place of many of the old pioneers, though Squire Sayre died in 1900,
aged seventy seven. James Blake, Henry and Irma Bonto, Armistead
Morehead, died in 1878, aged eighty five, and his wife, who died six
years earlier, at the age of seventy three, are buried here. Also
James T. Crum, who came from Ohio several years ago, and lived on the
little run which heads at the Magee house, near its entrance into
Copper Fork.
REED FAMILY
On Copper Fork, about a quarter of a mile from its entrance into the
Right Fork of Sandy, and a half mile from where the two branches of
Sandy unite, was the site of the home of Warren Reed, for many years
one of the most intelligent, progressive, and respected citizens that
ever lived in the Sandy valley.
Warren Reed came to this place not long after the coming of Daniel
Sayre, in 1820, and was before 1833 (perhaps some years) appointed the
first post master north of the Mill Creek divide, and at that time one
of the three post offices in the present bounds of the county, the
others being Cedar Grove, at Wright's Mill, and Jackson Court House,
at Ripley. Three forks of Reedy post office, then in Jackson County,
was not established until later, and Muse's Bottom was created in
1836, Ravenswood ten years later.
Mr. Reed was a Justice of the Peace and a Surveyor. His house stood up
on the second bottom, not far from the store building at New Era, to
the right of Copper Fork.
Near here, and a little above the crossing of the creek, is a wild and
picturesque spot, a high bank of rocks, fringed with spruce pines and
stunted bushes, while in one place, a huge rock roof is projected
entirely across the stream, for a distance of thirty or forty rods. I
have ridden under it when the stream was low.
Elihu and Warren Reed were sons of Warren Reed.
A daughter married David O. Hutchinson, who lived on the place in
1854.
GALLATIN FAMILY
Another prominent citizen of former days was Squire Gallatin, a
successful politician, who is said to have represented his county in
the General Assembly.
A brother, Jerry Gallatin, lived at Sandyville, in 1854.
Jesse Morgan lived a little further out the Ravenswood pike, on what
was probably at one time a part of the Reed farm.
WEAS FAMILY
Ziba Weas, father of James Weas and Mrs. D.W. Chapman, spent the
greater part of the last half of his life at Sandyville. He is buried
in a cut stone vault in an annex at the east end of the old Sandyville
graveyard. Ziba Weas was of German origin, was a son of George Weas,
and a grandson of Jacob Weas, who was born in 1733, and died in 1826.
He married Ruth Morgan, of the old Morgan ap Morgan stock. Of their
children:
Zirus, born in Randolph County, in 1805.
Ziba, born in 1807.
VANNOY FAMILY
The Left Fork of Sandy, on which Sandyville is situated, has several
large tributaries, among which are Copper Fork, which enters at
Sandyville, and Service Fork, a stream about three and a half miles
long, which comes in from the right, about one and a half miles above
Sandyville, Turkey Fork on the same side and a mile further up, which
heads about six miles away, in the low gap at Garfield.
Cornelius Vannoy lived on Service Fork. He had sons Ben, Anthony,
Alexander and John. The latter married Susanna Sheppard, a daughter of
Henry and Diana Sheppard. He lived on Rush Run, at the George Knotts
place, about 1857, lost a leg in the Confederate Army, and was a
familiar figure about Sandyville for several years before his death.
Hester Vannoy married George Anderson.
George Winkler, a German, was a school teacher who married a sister of
Vannoys wife, and lived on Service Fork, in 1841 or 1842.
MAIRS FAMILY
Dr. Joseph Mairs, said to be the first resident physician at Ripley,
came to Sandy about 1840 or 1845, and built a large brick house above
the road, about a mile up the Left Fork. I passed there three years
ago. Most of the walls had fallen down, a part of the angle of one
corner of the wall six or eight feet high was standing, with other
foundation walls and scraps and remnants, while piles of bricks and
rubbish were strewed all around, and the whole grown up in a dense
thicket of saplings, brush and weeds. An English sumach tree, planted
in the yard as an ornament for the lawn, had taken complete possession
of that quarter of the grounds, large trees standing thick inside the
old walls and out. The place was abandoned nearly forty years ago, and
has borne the name of being haunted ever since.
Dr. Mairs died in 1841.
A brother, Thomas Mairs, lived at the mouth of Service Fork. His wife,
Louisa, died in 1862, and is buried at Sandyville.
Susan, wife of Benjamin Arnold, a prominent citizen of the Sandyville
vicinity for several years before the war, was a sister of the Mairs.
DILWORTH FAMILY
Nelson Dilworth, said to have lived just above the old graveyard. Near
where he lived in 1876, was the cabin of the renowned Jesse Hughes,
the first settler on the place. Dilworth lived near the Mairs home for
a time, during the Civil War, and was one of several brothers who were
raised in Barbour County.
DEPUE FAMILY
David DePue was a son of Henry, and brother of Beniah DePue. He
married Margaret Arnold. Jonathan DePue, who one represented Wirt
County in the Legislature, was their son.
David DePue died in April, 1885, Margaret four months later.
CHEUVRONT FAMILY
Another pioneer on Left Fork of Sandy was Isaac Cheuvront, who came to
Jackson County in 1831. He lived at a little village long known as
Buttermilk Station, a name bestowed on it when it was a logging camp
and sawmill site, about 1870. When the timber had "fled the country",
and an oak or poplar tree had become a curiosity, the name remained ,
and the name of "Buttermilk" is even now far better known than the
more dignified one of Lockhart.
Isaac Cheuvront was born August 24th, 1802, and died March 22nd, 1896,
aged ninety three years.
John Somerville, James Somerville, Andrew Somerville, Isaac Lockhart,
A.J. Somerville were all prominent citizens on the head of the creek.
Turkey Fork is a small stream not so large as the Right Fork of Reedy,
but there are bottoms thirty to fifty rods in width, and the hills
appear to lie well.
The quality of the soil is probably not the best, on the main stream.
At the head of the creek, and where its branches reach up among the
spurs of Limestone ridge, the hills are high and steep, and the soil
is very fertile.
HAWK FAMILY
On the creek, at the mouth of Turkey Fork, lies the village of
Odaville. Just above is the new Campbellite Church, and a graveyard,
the oldest date noted being on the monument of William A. Smith, who
died in 1886.
One fourth of a mile from Odaville (1904) is an old hewed log house,
partly weatherboarded, with a wide ten foot, two story porch, with
massive posts and railing.
It is said to be known as the "Old Owens place", and a man of that
name lived there when I passed the place in November, 1904. One mile
from the mouth is a little forked run on the left, and the lower
Turkey Fork schoolhouse, and a quarter mile further up lives John
Roliff, on the same side of the road, and above lies one of the
prettiest farms on Sandy. It is the old Hawk farm, now the residence
of Robert Roliff.
It was here that George W. Hawk, and a young man named Woods, were
killed by the "Moccasin Rangers", in 1861. About forty rods below the
house, on the right of the road, and standing so close that one side
is barked and scarred by the hubs of passing wagon wheels, stands a
white oak tree, some five feet in diameter, known as the "Hawk Oak",
which marks the scene of the tragedy. Hawk was born in Randolph
County, in 1817, married Mary E. Shell, came to Jackson County in
January, 1857. He lived first at the present site of Odaville, then
rented and moved to the farm where he was killed, which he had later
bought. He was thrifty and prospered, but was an outspoken Union man,
which drew upon him the censor of the southern sympathizers, and cost
him his life.
The Roliff house is at the mouth of Peter's Run, which heads at the
Wilkeson farm, beyond Garfield.
A short distance below, Thorne's run, so called from Henry, son of
Eugenias Thorn, who lived on it, enters from the right.
FULL FAMILY
A short distance above the Hawk house, Horners Run comes in, at the
upper schoolhouse, further up is the mouth of Five Mile, which heads
at the Ed Nuzum farm, on Limestone Ridge.
David Full lived at the mouth of Five Mile, his father, Joseph Full,
having been the first settler.
Joseph Full was born in 1791, and died in 1865, aged seventy three.
His wife was Mary Lockhart. She was born on New Years Day, 1804.
FRENCH SETTLEMENT
A Frenchman named Lavasse, who was a soldier in the Revolutionary War,
took in part payment for his services, a large tract of land on which
he settled some of his countrymen.
Charles M. Lisez (pronounced Lee-say), was one of the first settlers
on the head of Turkey Fork. He married a sister of Joseph Carez. Lisez
died in 1894, and is buried at Fulls Fork. His age is variously stated
at from ninety four to about a hundred.
Joseph Carez (Ca-ray) was born in France, in 1782, and died in 1872.
He is said to have married a Full.
MCFARLAND FAMILY
Ezekiel McFarland lived on Turkey Fork, in 1841. He was one of the
first settlers at Elizabeth, coming to Jackson County in 1830. He
lived at the Morgan farm at New Era, in 1840, says Mr. T.J. Dawkins.
He died in 1849.
A brother, John McFarland, had a hotel in Ripley, in 1852. Later, he
moved to Ravenswood, and thence to Sandyville. He had sons John and
Tom McFarland.
Thomas McFarland, son of Robert McFarland, married a Miss Custer, and
lived on Trace Fork.
SAYRE FAMILY
From the best information obtainable, the first settlers at Sandyville
were two brothers, Daniel and Benjamin Sayre, who came about the year
1820.
Daniel Sayre was once a wealthy man, and owned a large tract of land
at Sandyville. He came from the vicinity of Letarts Falls, and from
the Ohio side of the river. He came from the vicinity of Letarts
Falls, and from the Ohio side of the river. He was some degree of
cousin to the Mill Creek Sayres. There is an Alfred Sayre buried at
Sandyville in 1867, aged eighty one, which would make his birth year
1787. This may have been Daniel Sayres father.
The name is sometimes given as Daniel W. Sayre, but if that is
correct, he must have added the middle letter himself, for he was born
long before Daniel Webster was known to history.
Daniel Sayre married Hepzibah Chapman, daughter of Ezra Chapman (in
Ohio, I presume). Their children were:
Squire Sayre married Jane ( E.J.) Seckman. He was born in 1823 and
died in 1900.
Alfred Sayre married Hannah Elizabeth Seckman, who died in 1852. They
lived, I think, on the Ripley pike, below Sandyville.
Seth Sayre never married.
Ezra Sayre never married.
"Rusha Sayre married David Custer.
Fisher Sayre married a Warren, a sister of Rev. Dan Warren.
Charlie Sayre married a Phelps.
Lucy Ann Sayre married Frank Fabry.
After the death of his wife, which occurred in 1861, Daniel Sayre
married the widow Blosser, at Reedy. She died in 1907. He was in the
sawmill business with Ezekiel Vernon when I first saw him, in 1872.
The first death at Sandyville, it is said, was Sammy, a son of Daniel
Sayre, who was buried in a plum thicket, opposite the old Jim Weas
house.
Frank Fabry, the Sandyville blacksmith, lives in the old Sayre house,
which was, he says, built in 1841. It is either a frame or a hewed log
house weatherboarded, but never painted. It is two stories high. It
stands on the east side of the creek, in the bottom, and some distance
from the bridge.
Ben Sayre first settled the old Johnson place, above Sandyville. He
married Edie Stanley (Mrs. Magee thought it was), and was living there
in 1835.
Jacob Sayre, a third brother, lived a while at Sandyville, going from
there to Trace Fork. Either his or Bens families nearly all died with
Sandy Fever, someone told me.
TRUEMAN FAMILY
Abraham Trueman had a store and mill at Sandyville, during the
forties. He lived where C.B. Howes now resides, about 1850. He sold
half interest in the mill to John Custer.
CUSTER FAMILY
John Custer was raised in Hancock County, and came from Sunfish, at
the mouth of Middle Island Creek, to Sandyville, about 1850, said C.
Stutler. Mrs. Logan said they were from "Old Virginia". Probably he
lived with his son, Mark, in 1855, when Mr. Atkins knew him on Island
Run.
His children were:
John Custer married first a Seckman, a sister of Squire Sayre's wife.
He lived on Sarver farm, on Big Lick, which he sold to "Old Jimmy"
Harper. He was living there in 1858. He married next Elizabeth, widow
of Jephtha Magee. He lived after his second marriage at the home of
his wife, beyond Independence.
David Custer married Jerusha Sayre, daughter of Daniel Sayre. He lived
at the mouth of little run which comes in to the Right Fork of Sandy,
a little above Murray's, and about two miles above Sandyville.
George Custer.
Mark Custer married Elizabeth Morehead, daughter of Armistead
Morehead. He lived on Island Run and on Copper Fork. He died in 1863.
He had a son, Henry Custer. Miss M. Custer, who married Thomas
McFarland was his daughter. Thomas W. McFarland was a son of one
Robert McFarland. He lived on Trace Fork, in 1852, and for several
years after, then moved to Big Lick, where he bought two hundred
thirty acres of land. He lived there a year and then went to Mark
Custer's, on Island Run, where he died before the war. His widow moved
back to the farm, where she lived during the war. Afterward, she
married Chapman Grant.
About a quarter of a mile up the pike from the Sandy bridge, a long
narrow point of second bottom thrusts far out towards the Right Fork,
which unites with the Left Fork about a quarter of a mile below the
bridge.
The land on either side of this point is several feet lower, and it
looks like the creek may have one day flowed around this tongue of
land, possibly the two streams met at its apex years, centuries,
cycles, or eons ago. Near the end of this point was the cabin of
Elijah Runner.
Runner was one of the earliest settlers, and was reputed to be a witch
doctor. He came as early as 1830, perhaps before. He was yet there in
1840, and is mentioned in 1842.
He married a daughter of Jesse Hughes. There were Runners in Frederick
County, Maryland, in early days.
The road then was a cow path, which led up the creek past Runner's
house. He had a little watermill in the bend of the creek.
A house stood in the low gap beyond Copper Fork, in 1847. Probably it
was the same house that Ben Sayre built when he settled the farm in
the early twenties.
The other residents of the Johnson farm were Jacob Ingram, who lived
here in 1840, Abraham Ingram, his brother or son, living at the same
time a short distance above, at what is known as the Gorrell farm, on
the south side of the creek.
A half mile farther up, the pike makes a long, sharp bend to the left,
crossing a considerable sized run, on a pretty stiff grade. There was
until a few years ago a schoolhouse standing in this loop, the road
passing on three sides of it, thus giving the children a chance to
look at the traveling public most of the time. The stream is called
Island Run, and there is a house about one hundred and fifty yards up,
where Mark Custer, or his father, is said to have built about 1850.
Across the creek, and a little farther up, are two houses, one at the
mouth of a little run, the other up on the bank. It is there that
David Custer built some time after 1850.
A quarter of a mile above Murrays, the creek makes a bend to the left,
coming in against the hill, and the road is literally cut out of a
wooded rocky hillside. (This may have been where there was a little
twelve by fourteen foot pole schoolhouse, about seven feet to the
eaves, and with ridgepole roof, when first I passed that way, in
February, 1872).
Above this, and two miles from Sandyville, at the mouth of the little
run, is a large old house with orchard on the slope above. The first
resident mentioned at this place is a man named Devol, who came
probably after 1850. A man named Boice was living here about 1850, or
later.
About a quarter of a mile higher up the creek, a small run known to
the pioneers as Bear tree, was the site of the first settlement of
James Dawkins, about 1846 or 1847.
John Knotts lives there now.
DAWKINS FAMILY
Benjamin Harrison, a signer of the Declaration of Independence, and
three times governor of Virginia, father of W. H. Harrison, ninth
president of the United States, patented a large tract of land
comprising nearly all the valley of the Right Fork, or "reaching from
Sandyville to Liverpool". The line between the farms of Floyd Carder
and John Hartley is called the "Old Harrison Line", and may have been
the outside line of this survey.
The title of much of this land was forfeited to the state, and resold
for taxes, one time or another.
Several hundred acres of this land above Sweezys had been bought by
George McCall, and was sold by him to Thomas Dawkins, who lived on the
flats of Tygarts Creek, near the Mineral Wells, in Wood County, about
1840.
In 1840, the Dawkins boys came out to the place and made an extensive
"deadening", preparatory to clearing the land, but for some reason,
the family did not move out. Six or seven years later, Jim Dawkins
came out and built a cabin at the mouth of Bear Tree Run, but within
two years, he had succumbed to the Sandy fever, and his cabin was
vacant.
Thomas Dawkins was from Culpepper County, Virginia, but had been in
Wood County since about 1825.
In 1830, Thomas Jefferson Dawkins married and moved on the land. In
1852, he built a house on the lower side of the road, where the creek
which came to the hill just above makes a sharp bend back through the
fields, leaving room for a house, barn, garden, etc., on the
promontory cut off by the pike, then just newly built. Above the barn
is a steep bank down to the creek, by the side of which stands, or did
stand a few years ago, a pine tree.
It was here the teams were fed, and we had lunch, when moving from
Pond Creek to Reedy, in February, 1872.
We had come from Buttermilk, where we stopped the night before, at
Isaac Cheuvronts, that morning, and got to the Three Forks of Reedy
ten miles farther on our way, just after dark.
At that time, there was no house there, just a barn, and perhaps a
corn crib. Jeff Dawkins lived back on the hill, just out of sight from
the road. The intervening hillside was cleared, and in bluegress, but
thickly studded with beech trees of the primeval forest.
William G. Ables, probably a grandson of Martin Ables of Sycamore, had
a lease on the Dawkins land before Jeff Dawkins came out. He afterward
lived with his son, Jake Ables, on Strait Fork.
Jim Dawkins and John Dawkins, who once lived on the Charley Carney
farm on Mill Creek, were cousins to Jeff.
It was about 1850 that John M. Barnett (perhaps a descendant of the
John Barnett who lived at the mouth of Lee Creek, in the Flinn
blockhouse) came out.
Barnett had married on of the Dawkins girls, and made the first
improvement where Perry Boggess now lives, two and a half miles above
Sandyville. After his death, his widow married Moses Hoff.
Jeff Dawkiins lives just above the old house site mentioned above , at
the mouth of Lunn Camp Run.
The next run on the left is at Meadowdale. Some say the first
improvement here was by the negro, Felix Jenkins.
Jacob Ingram was living here about 1845, and Jenkins at the Baker farm
next Sandyville. About 1850, Ingraham went to the Middle Fork of
Reedy, and later to Ohio.
Jenkins was not a pure negro, but he and his wife were classed as
colored people. He had several sons and daughters. They moved from
Right Sandy to the head of Straight Fork.
Felix Jenkins at one time owned two hundred acres on Bush Run,
comprising the Delaney, McCoy, and a part of the Boggess tracts. He
hired John Carder to build him a house, in the bottom, at the forks of
the run, which stood several years, but I think he never moved to it.
About a hundred yards up the rim, above Ingram, was the residence of
Abel V. Syoc (as the name is written in the deed book at Ripley). He
was a soldier in the war of 1812, came from Grave Creek to Crooked
Fork, and from there to Meadowdale, about 1850, perhaps.
He was twice married, his last wife being a daughter of David Rardon.
Big Lick Run comes on the right of Sandy, and a short distance above.
It has been a wild rough country in the pioneer days. The hills are
high, steep and rocky. There are imposing cliffs and walls fo
sandstone lining the sides of a gorge, below the Grant farm, with
rocks framed in the walls as large as a house. This strata of rocks
seems to run solid through the hill, and crops out on the right fork
of Coon Run in a solid wall of rock on each side of the stream, twelve
to sixteen feet in thickness, through which the valley has been worn
in the course of centuries. Near the mouth of Trap Run, the left bank
of the stream is a wall of stone.
The run is named from a spring in the bottom, on the right side of,
and near the stream a little distance from its mouth. This once famous
deer lick is only about a hundred yards below the site of John Custers
cabin, and near the upper line of K. C. Hutchinsons land, and the
water comes out from under the foot of a towering mountain.
JOHNSON FAMILY
Squire Ben Johnson, who lived on the Syoc farm for the fourteen years
next preceding his death, was born in Belmont County, Ohio, in 1838.
He came to Odaville in 1872, and to Meadowdale ten years later, was a
Justice of the Peace, and much respected.
Thomas Johnson, a brother, died on Sandy the following September, at
the age of eighty. Mrs. William Duncan, nee Johnson, who was born in
1822, and died in 1900, may have been a sister.
KNOTTS FAMILY
Absalom Knotts lived in Delaware, where Edward Knotts, his son, was
born, about 1780, or 1785. While yet a young man, Edward Knotts
migrated to Preston County, where he married and settled. The bride
was Mary Bryan, a blooming daughter of Maryland.
In 1833, Knotts came to Sandyville, and located on the Harrison land,
building a little cabin on the right bank of the creek, just below
where Perry Boggess lives, on what is known as the Joe Leap farm.
Probably he was only a squatter, at any rate, he had but an insecure
title to his possession, and only lived there two years. Then,
abandoning his claim, he moved to Palestine, at the mouth of Reedy,
where he died at about eighty years of age. When Knotts first came to
Sandy, he, his sons John, then a lad of fifteen, and an older brother,
came out in the spring, built a cabin, cleared a patch, and planted it
in corn. The father then returned to Preston County and brought the
family out in the fall, while the boys stayed and tended the crop.
When they came, there were no roads, only trails or tracks cut through
the heavy beech woods along the creek, from the "clearing" of one
settler to that of the next.
His "moving" brought the first four horse team ever driven on Sandy.
At that time, Knotts' "opening" was the picket post of civilization.
All the head of the creek above being yet a wilderness, the home of
bears, panthers, wolves, and other "wild varmints" too "tedious to
mention". There was a little colony at the Three Forks of Reedy, and
Mill Creek valley was thinly settled along the creek, as far up as the
mouth of Little Creek, but there were no roads, and but little
communication between the colonies. Reedy found an outlet by way of
Elizabeth, and Spring Creek by the mouth of Mill Creek.
"Uncle John" Knotts, my informant, said they went to mill to a horse
mill kept by a man named Ables "away out towards Ripley". This must
have been when water was low in the latter part of the summer, as
there were mills at an early date at Runner's, at Sheppard's Ford, and
near the mouth of Beatty's Run.
When asked what kind of schoolhouses they had, Mr. Knotts reply was
"Didn't have none".
It was a rather lonely life in the forests for the boys. Uncle John
remembered one night especially, when he had to "bide by himself". His
brother had taken the team to the river for some seedwheat, with which
to sow the corn patch of a few acres, they had cleared around the
house, expecting to be back before nightfall.
The sun, however, sank behind the western hilltops, and the shadows of
coming night gathered among the beech and sugar trees, as the boy
anxiously watched down creekward, but no welcome sight of horses or
man appeared. Slowly the shadows deepened into darkness, and still no
brother came. Reluctantly, the lad left his port on the yard fence as
night settled down, maintaining, however, his stand in the cabin door,
until the wolves gathered in the woods around, making the night
hideous with their howls, when he took the dog inside for company, and
to keep him safe. He shut and barred the door and sat down by the fire
to wait.
The early fall nights were chill and damp, and the boy had built a
"rattling big" fire, when, to his dismay, he discovered the flames
which were leaping up the backwall and dancing in the throat of the
chimney, had set fire to the wooden mantle rock. Here was a new
dilemma. Something had to be done, and done at once. Which was better,
to face the wolves and be gobbled raw, or stay inside and be roasted
before being eaten? It didn't take him long to decide that question.
Seizing a pail, he threw the door open and made a dash for the creek,
some four or five rods distant. So scared and excited was he that he
never knew how he crossed the fence, whether he jumped over or fell
over, but he got the water and extinguished the fire all right.
The brother had been delayed until so late an hour that he did not
return until the next day. Though the wolves continued their serenade
all night, no more untoward happenings came that way.
John Knotts, who, it will be remembered, went to Palestine in 1835,
married Mary Jane Coe, on Lower Reedy, and went to Calhoun County,
where relatives were living, staying there just fifteen years to a
day.
He returned to Palestine, but about the beginning of the Civil war,
moved to Limestone hill, near where Sandy Pond Creek and Tucker's
Creek have their source, continuing his residence for many years.
He died at the age of about eighty nine.
Joseph Knotts and Mary Knotts, his wife, were members of the first
Methodist Church in Washington District, Calhoun County, in 1836.
In 1840, Joseph Knotts united with the first Baptist Church, organized
at Arnoldsburg, Calhoun County.
He was probably the half brother of Edward Knotts, who was the father
of Absalom Knotts, a distinguished lawyer of Calhoun, who once
represented his county in the House of Delegates. His daughter married
Pres Short.
Rufus Knotts, a brother of Absalom, lived on Henry's Fork. His first
wife was a daughter of Edward Knotts, his second, a sister of "Chat"
Riddle.
A JACKSON COUNTY FLOOD
The night of the eighteenth of July, 1889 will be ever memorable in
the history of Wood, Wirt and Jackson Counties. There was a cloud
burst, it is claimed, over Limestone hill, which poured the waters
down the streams like it was pouring out of some gigantic vessel, but
it could not have been the storm was of too long duration. Pond Creek,
Left Sandy and Tucker's Creek were many feet higher than ever thought
of before. Many houses and buildings were washed away, and probably
fifteen or twenty persons drowned.
Houses standing by small streams were carried off, and buildings far
from the banks of the creek were swept from their foundations by the
fury of the tumultuous torrent.
Some claim a straight raise of twenty five feet on the upper waters of
these streams, which is probably far higher than a correct estimate.
In September, 1890, I saw at the mouth of Penike, on Pond Creek, a
drift of rails, logs and debris, which had been formed the night of
the flood and was still piled up into the tops of the low trees which
lined the bank of the creek.
On Reedy, the waters were not so high, the main storm passing to the
north.
The weather had been wet for some days, and about six o'clock in the
evening, a cloud arose in the west, passing around to the north, and
followed by another, and another, and another, moving slowly and
majestically, each one closer than the last.
With dark came vivid flashes of red, coppery lighting, and a
continuous roll of thunder, and by eight, the storm was on.
For over three hours, the room was never dark, and the sound of the
thunder never ceased even for an instant.
By midnight, the worst was over, and at daylight, the waters were run
down.
I visited Reedy the next forenoon, and found a scene of mud and
litter, side walks were floated off, or edged against the buildings in
long sections. The water had been up in the houses, and johnboats were
plying in the lowgrounds.
UPPER SANDY VALLEY
In the month of June, 1782, there lived in the village of Clarksburg,
a man named Charles Washburn, who, while chopping wood in his yard,
was shot by a party of Indians lurking in the vicinity. One fellow
more venturesome than the others, rushed up to the dying man, cleft
his skull with an axe, and, quickly scalping the body, made his escape
with the bloody trophy.
Three of the Washburn brothers had formerly been killed by the
savages: Isaac, who was shot on Hackers Creek in 1778, and James and
Stephen, who were waylaid, while hunting for pine knots for making
shoe wax, near their home on West Fork. Stephen was shot and scalped,
and James was carried off to their town, where he was put to death by
cruel torture.
Charles Washburns widow, who before her marriage was Nancy Lowther,
was afterward wedded to William Carder, who was living "near below"
the mouth of Hackers Creek (as my informant expressed it) when on the
25th of July, 1794, his place was raided by the Indians. Though the
savages were repulsed, they burned the house and drove off the stock.
This was the last depradation committed in that section.
The history of some of William Carders descendants is, for the most
part, the early history of Upper Sandy.
His father, says family tradition, was a rope maker by profession,
while living in England. He and a friend and comrade named Hyre,
crossed the ocean and located together on a large tract of land they
held in partnership.
Carder had the most perfect confidence in his friend, and they were,
it is said, "just like two twin brothers." But, alas for trust in
"mortal man!" As is too often the case, this friend proved
treacherous, and taking advantage of the perfect reliance the other
place in him, swindled him out of nearly all that he possessed, and
left him old, infirm and poor, to drift about the country and into a
grave in the potters field.
Carder was a deeply religious man, and withal, it appears, something
of a prophet, for it is said he told Hyre that his ill gotten gains
would not profit him much, for he and his family would be stricken
with blindness. In a few years both Hyre and his sons and sons-in-law
were stone blind.
William Carder had several children. Among them were:
John Wesley, who married Margaret Smith.
Manley.
Elizabeth, who married Thomas Washburn.
Nancy, who married John Stutler.
William, whose last wife was Priscilla Butcher.
John Wesley Carder was born and reared in Harrison County. He married,
and lived there until his older children were married and had homes of
their own. He then, early in the winter of 1838 or 9, decided to
follow his brother-in-law, Washburn, to the fertile valley of Big
Sandy Creek in the new County of Jackson.
Washburn had preceded him by several years, and now Carder, Stutler,
and a neighbor by the name of Cheuvront, packed their rude belongings
and followed him to the new West, where land could be had at a nominal
price and game was yet abundant. Stutler, it is said, came by the
overland route, arriving sometime in January. Carder and Cheuvront
took the long way by water, down the West Fork past Clarksburg, and
down the Monongahela by way of Pittsburgh, and the Ohio River to
Ravenswood, reaching their new home in April.
Carder was an expert blacksmith and gunsmith, a craft always in demand
in a pioneer settlement. His patronage came from many miles in every
direction. He and his boys were successful trappers, and famous as
hunters, and prospered in their agricultural pursuits.
He bought a large boundary of land, and located on the present site of
Liverpool. But, living at first in a squatters cabin near the site of
Mr. T. I. Hartleys residence. Later, he built a log house practically
on the site of Hartleys house, perhaps a little nearer to the well.
CARDER FAMILY
John Wesley Carder was a son of William Carder, and he married
Margaret Smith, who lived on Two Lick Run in Harrison County. They
came to Jackson county in 1838 or 9. Their children were:
William, married "Liz" Slusser of Harrison County.
George, married a Bailey in Harrison County.
Eliza, married William L. Smith, son of John V. Smith.
Ephraim Patton, married Jane Carney, daughter of Spence Carney.
John Smith Carder married Huldah Rowley on Sandy.
Geoffrey Carder married Julia Welch, sister of Lew Wolfe's wife.
Susan Carder married Thomas Hartley, and lived on the home farm.
Elizabeth Carder, married John V. Smith, as his third wife.
Anderson Carder, died about 1855.
Margaret Carder, died at Ripley before the war.
Bill Carder at one time lived on the Amos Mitchell place at the head
of Poplar Fork of Little Creek, which he bought from Thomas Hartley,
but failed to pay out on. His wife died in 1906, at the home of her
daughter, on Little Creek. She lived alone several years, while an old
woman, in a little old round log cabin on the head of Trace Fork. I
passed the spot last autumn (1907). The cabin, which is of birch and
poplar logs, and about 14 by 6 feet in its outside dimensions, is
still standing, but the clapboards are torn off in places, and lie
scattered over the roof and around the yard. The cobble stone chimney
has fallen down. There has been a door in the front wall, reaching
from the sill to the first rib, with an opening sawed out with the
door logs for a half size 8 by 10 window. Now both are gone, leaving a
gaping vacancy. The cabin and its occupant grew old together, but the
hut lasted the longest by a few years. It is situated just below the
mouth of a little brook, with trees, bushes and clambering vines all
around.
George Carder was a Methodist preacher in Harrison County.
Eliza Carder married William L. Smith, the only child of John V. Smith
by his first marriage. Smith went to Illinois, where he enlisted in
the Union Army, and died at Lexington, Kentucky.
Ephraim Patton, known to all as "Pat" Carder, was one of the most
noted deer hunters and marksmen of Jackson County. He shot the first
deer killed by any of the Carder family after they came to Sandy, at a
Lick Spring below George Delaney's, which event gave to the stream the
name of Buck Run.
The winter of 1855 was one of exceptional severity, and it is related
by unimpeachable witnesses that Pat Carder had the carcasses of fifty
five deer he had killed all piled at the same time on the porch at
Thomas Hartley's, where J.W. Hartley now lives. No need of a
refrigerator and no danger of loss while the weeks of continuous
freezing weather lasted. The venison was taken to Pittsburg for sale.
Mr. Ephraim Carder, a nephew of Patton's, thus describes the process
of making "jerked venison," an article much in demand among the early
settlers on their long hunting expeditions, owing to its nourishing
qualities and the convenience in carrying.
First a fire was kindled and a great pile of the thick, heavy bark of
a dry oak was piled on, and left until reduced to a heap of glowing
coals, which would retain their heat for a long time. Then venison
hams were sliced into thin strips, which were strung on ramrods or
smooth hickory sticks, and carefully dried over the coals. This jerk
would keep indefinitely, was easy to carry, could be chewed on the
march, and afforded much nutriment.
Mr. Carder once sold a two bushel sack of dried venison at Ravenswood
for 12 ½ cents per pound.
He also described the manner in which they used to carry salt on pack
horses from Charleston over the rough forest paths to Harrison County.
Naturally, when it was so precious an article and so difficult to
obtain, there was little salt used. Mr. Carder told me he had heard
this uncle, John Stutler, wish he could get "a piece of corn pone
without any salt in it, it would be so good."
It is said that during the Civil War Patton Carder spent a good part
of his time in guerilla warfare. He had a camp under a rock in the
hollow above where Mr. Ferman Dawkins now lives (1906) on the head of
Big Run, where, it is said, he would hide for weeks at a time when the
Yankees had possession of Spencer and the neighboring country. He had
a famous long range deer gun, with which, it is said, Boone was killed
during the siege of Spencer, in the Court House cupola. The shooting
(not by Carder, however) being done from the hill above the old mill -
a distance of not less than 200 yards.
The rifle now is in the possession of W.D. Shafer, who lives on the
old Carder place on the right fork of Buck Run. I have handled the
weapon myself, and would imagine that it has been, as an old man once
described it, a "honey darlin." It has a barrel, originally six feet
long, but now cut off to five feet 8 inches, and is very heavy. The
diameter of the muzzle is 1 1/8 inches, and the caliber, 7/16ths of an
inch.
John Smith Carder (probably named for his uncle, who was drowned at
Reedy in the Trim flood, July 16, 1874) lived after his marriage on
the Adams farm on Trace Fork for a time, and then moved to land he had
bought on Joe's Run.
"Jeff" Carder lived on the Arnold farm above Liverpool, where he was
the first settler.
Ephraim (Uncle Eph) Carder was born in Harrison County in 1837. He was
brought to Sandy by one of his uncles when two or three years old, and
about two years after his grandfather and family had come. He was
brought up by Smith Carder, living with him through the years of his
early youth. Mr. Carder now lives on a small stream which enters
Little Trace where his father-in-law, Gary McPherson, had died several
years ago. This was about a mile from the mouth of Little Trace.
Uncle Eph is a good conversationalist, interesting to listen to, and
entirely reliable in all his statements. I will here give a few
reminiscences as related to me one day in the winter of 1905:
LAST WILD GAME ON SANDY
Some time during the winter of 1845 or 6, Geoffrey and Anderson Carder
concluded they would go out one morning to see if they could find a
bear. There was a good tracking snow, and they hoped to start game
among the oak and pignut trees of the neighboring hills. They climbed
the point at the present site of Tibble's hotel, and followed the
ridge south of where the railroad now is, for some distance, when one
of them discovered a track in the snow, and called jovially, "Here's
Josh Parsons' track," (A kind of club footed man who lived on Reedy)
"now".
They started off in pursuit, following the tracks down into the run at
the "Bear Lick", about a half mile up towards Reedy. Leaving the trail
here, they went down home and got their father, a noted deer hunter,
and the dogs.
They returned and followed the bear tracks over on Cabin Run. About
four hundred rods above where Jeff Anderson's house now is, near some
big rocks, Geoffrey, who was leading in the pursuit, was startled by
seeing the bear rear up just ahead of him. Quickly recovering his
presence of mind, he raised his gun, a short shotgun which had been
adapted to ball shooting, and fired. The bullet at the short range
passed through the animal's body. The bear ran down to the foot of the
hill, where the dogs caught it, and the rest of the party, coming up,
it was quickly dispatched. Uncle Eph distinctly remembers seeing them
bring it in. This was the last bear killed in that part of the
country.
The last wolves seen in this section was a nest of wolf pups Anderson
Carder found in a hollow poplar in the cove above where J. W. Conner
lived, on the head of left fork of Buck Run, in 1843.
The last deer Mr. Carder knew of being killed in the vicinity was a
good sized buck which Smith Carder's boys chased with dogs, and killed
on Joe's Run, about 1883. This was forty years after the wolves had
disappeared. The state bounty paid for wolf scalps about 1840 resulted
in the complete wiping out of those animals within a few years.
Uncle Eph was himself famous as a deer hunter, and killed two or three
deer on Joe's Run as late as 1880.
I have myself seen the spot where Mr. William Hoffman shot and killed
a deer on the head of the left fork of Buck Run. This was about 1870,
I think, and the gun used was an old fashioned muzzle loading rifle.
The distance must have been 100 yards or more.
When Mr. Carder's mother was living in the Jenkins' cabin at the forks
of Buck Run, some dogs ran a deer down from the hill into a hole of
water in the stream by the house. The animal was exhausted, and was so
slow climbing the steep bank from the stream that the woman sallied
forth and killed it with a poking stick.
Another woman, Mrs. Lucinda Bush, in 1871, killed a deer with a
butcher knife, the hounds having chased the animal and caught it in
front of her house on Left Reedy opposite Beech Grove.
Joe Davis and his brother, Abe, sons of Bill Davis, the squatter, were
out hunting one day somewhere in the Big Run woods. They separated,
one taking each side of the hill, thinking to run across deer
somewhere. One of them shot a large buck from off the end of a point,
but only wounded it, and the animal ran back around the spur, again
passing close to him - but it looked so "ugly" that instead of
shooting again, David hid behind a log until it had passed. A wounded
deer, if turned at bay was quite a formidable antagonist.
Mr. Carder remembers killing two wild turkeys but the birds were
scarce and wary. The dogs would tree them, but they would stretch
their necks downward to watch, and if they saw the hunter point a gun
toward them, would fly before he had time to take aim and pull the
trigger.
It is said that a wild turkey was hard to kill unless shot in the head
or neck, as the feathers of the body would turn a rifle ball if the
shot were the least bit glancing.
Uncle Eph related another hunting yarn, which I think it might be well
to insert here. "Grandpap" Carder was out hunting one day among the
hills near Liverpool, when it commenced raining, and increased, until
he was forced to take shelter which he did, on the lower side of a
large tree which was bent like a sled crook" about ten feet from the
ground.
The old man placed his back against the truck of the tree and by
standing straight could keep tolerably dry. He soon, however, became
aware of a buzzing, humming noise, and investigation disclosed that a
large colony of bees had built their comb in the crook of the tree
over his head. Afterward, he raided the unique hive, securing a half
bushel of comb honey.
When Ephraim Carder was a boy he lived with his uncle, Smith Carder,
who lived for a time at the Roy cabin, which stood by a spring below
the mouth of Cabin Run, and afterwards was a tenant on Dr. Adams place
on Trace Fork.
Uncle Eph's first experience in an educational line was under the
guidance of a man named Schlagle, who taught in an old cabin at the
narrows below the mouth of Fallen Timber. Carder was small, and the
path was through a swampy bottom, so he did not go much. His next
teacher was George Winkler, a "Dutchman" who talked very broken
English. He kept school in a little cabin which had been built for a
school house near the John Anderson house about a half mile up Fallen
Timber. This was about 1848. The school house was of the traditional
type, round logs, rib roof, dirt floor, and fireplace in the end.
There were about sixteen or eighteen pupils, and the tuition fee was
$2.50 per scholar for a term of three months. The branches taught were
"readin', spellin' (Webster's Elementary Speller) and slates."
Winkler, the teacher, boarded at Carder's at Liverpool, and held night
sessions in the black smith shop, candles being used for illumination.
Children came from as far as Turkey Fork.
Anderson Carder taught a term of school at a cabin near the site of
the Oak Grove school house, which, Mr. Carder said, was the "only
school that ever done him much good."
STUTLER
John Stutler, who came before Carder, settled in the woods at what is
now known as Warfield Run, building his camp at the mouth of the first
little hollow which comes in on the left. When he came in 1839 (says
Chris Stutler, Carder makes the date a year earlier) there was but one
permanent improvement on the creek above the Knotts' cabin, mentioned
elsewhere, that of old Tommy Washburn at the mouth of the run where
the late Seldon Hutchinson lived.
Stutler and his wife, the Washburns, Carders and others of the old
pioneers, are buried in the old graveyard on the point between Rush
Run and Fallen Timber.
For an account of the Stutler family, see the History of Reedy Valley.
WASHBURN
Washburn came out some years earlier than Carder and Stutler. He died
at home at the mouth of the Washburn Run, and the family scattered -
mostly going to Ohio.
He had sons, Isaac, Elias and William, and two daughters, Clarissa,
who married Joe Murphy, and Sally, who married Joe Davis, and lived on
Copper Fork.
HARTLEY FAMILY
There was a colony of squatters who came from Sheppard's Fork of Reedy
and located in the woods on the head of the right fork of Sandy,
several years before Carder came to the place.
There were three families: John Hartley's, William Roy's and John V.
Smith.
John Hartley was an Englishman. He married Mollie Roy, a sister of the
old man Roy. He was living on Sheppard's Fork at an early day in that
settlement.
After coming to Sandy, he first built at the mouth of Rush Run and
later at the site of A. L. Carmichael's house at the mouth of Cabin
Run. Of John Hartley's children, I find:
Thomas Hartley, married Mollie Carr. He lived around Liverpool for
awhile, and later went to Syracuse, Ohio. Peter Hartley, who lived on
the head of Sandy, was their son.
Abby Hartley, late in life married Levi Snyder. She lived at the mouth
of Cabin Run.
Lucinda Hartley, married Lige Redmond (Records at the Wood County
Court House say "Elijah" Redmond.)
Another Harley who figured in the history of Upper Sandy Valley,
Thomas Hartley, a grandson of John Hartley, who had been raised by J.
W. Calder, and married his daughter, Susan Carder.
After his marriage Thomas Hartley went to Blue Creek, where he lived a
few years; then returning, he bought all the land on Little Trace Fork
above the Geoffrey Carder line, which was at the lower end of what is
now George Kuhl's orchard. Afterward, he bought the Mitchell farm on
the hill. There was left a long wedge shaped tract between Hartley and
the "Harrison Line," afterward purchased by Bruce Parsons.
The Mitchell tract he bought of Michael C. Rader. Subsequently he sold
it first to Bill Carder and then to Strader Cook, neither of whom paid
for it. Finally, about 1860, Marshall Mitchell bought and paid for the
land.
When Hartley first came to his new home, sometime in the late Forties,
there was "not a stick amiss," on the whole boundary. He built his
cabin in the dark shade of the forest trees, and both he and his wife
sat to work with a hearty good will and soon had quite an opening
made.
After the death of his father in law, they got the home place.
Meanwhile Anderson Carder had bought a piece of land acquired by
George Smith at a court sale, which included all that part of T. I.
Hartley's farm below the Oak Grove school house, as well as the whole
of the Davis farm. This, Hartley also bought - thus owning all the
land on the stream except the Geoffrey Carder tract.
Hartley built the Ravenswood and Spencer pike in 1851 and 2, while his
wife spun yarn, and, with the children, worked the farm and maintained
the family. She made rails, and fenced five or six acres of ground,
including a large part of what is now Mr. Kuhl's farmstead, and the
children dug "mints of 'seng,' as one of them expressed it. Thus she
kept the family while the father earned money to but the Anderson
Carder land.
But flying time brings changes to us all, and though they lived to see
their family grow up and scatter like birdlings from the nest, it was
but a few brief years until they were both slumbering under the oak
trees which encircle the quiet Liverpool graveyard.
Susan Carder Hartley was born in 1823, died in 1880.
Thomas Hartley was born about 1824, died about 1893.
It is said that Thomas Hartley built and set up on the run east of
Soap Hill near Ravenswood the first portable saw mill ever brought to
Jackson County, and the first mill run by steam.
Strader Hartley owned the Batten farm at Duncan. Married Catherine
Hall. He "deadened the bottom" on his farm, built a house, and moved
on it. He was in the Confederate Army.
Clarissa Sheppard said there was a John Carr or Karr living on the
creek opposite where Hite Sheppard lived, when she was small. Hite
Sheppard, however, has no recollection, he says, of any such name.
ROY FAMILY
William Roy built at the spring below the mouth of Cabin Run, near
where a little rivulet crosses the road, and not far from the present
site of Ed. Nuzum's house. His wife (the Rev. M.B. Edmondson thinks)
was a full sister of Reuben Full of Right Reedy.
Rev. Edmondson said that there was a John Roy living across from the
mouth of Buffalo on Reedy above Palestine, who "looked enough like
Reuben Full, Jr., to be his brother."
From different sources, more or less reliable, I gleaned the
following:
William Roy married a Full. Their children were:
William, married on Somerville Fork.
Larkin.
John, moved to Leatherwood, Kanawha County.
Sudnor, married a Conrad, and then Jim Smith, as his second wife.
James and Betsy were other children.
SMITH FAMILY
For the history of John V. Smith's father, see History of Reedy
Valley. John V. Smith's first wife was a Hardman. They only had one
child, William L., who married Eliza Carder, and went west. He died in
the Union Army.
Smith's second wife was Annie Hartley. She died on Big Run, where E.L.
Waybright now lives, in 1845. Afterwards, Smith married Betsy Carder,
Ephraim Carder's mother. The most of the family went west after the
war. The Smith children were:
S. Foley Smith, married a Magee. Went to Arkansas.
James E. Smith, married a Winkler, and went to Arkansas.
Owen Brown Smith, married Margaret Mills in Meigs County, Ohio.
John H. Smith went to California "to dig gold."
Margaret Smith, married a brother of Chris Stutler. He died in the
Confederate Army.
Mary Jane Smith, married Simon Stutler, a cousin to Chris.
Sarah E. Smith, married George Ables, and lived at Syracuse, Ohio.
Harriet H. Smith, married Jabez Spring, and lives in Ohio.
Henry Smith lived on Elk Fork of Mill Creek.
VANNOY DUNCAN
Henry Vannoy was a son of John Vannoy, and lived on the point above
the mouth of Warfield Run. He was a Justice of the Peace, and at the
time of his death a few years ago, he weighed 425 pounds.
William Duncan, who lived here some years ago, was probably a
connection of the Warfields, who came from Noble County, Ohio, after
the war.
The run opposite the village of Duncan was known as Trap Run, and the
larger stream coming in on the same side, above, was called Coon Run.
Both were uncleared until a comparatively recent date.
John M. McCartles saw mill boiler exploded on the head of the right
fork of Coon Run, about the fall of1890, but no one was killed.
HUTCHINSON FAMILY
As previously stated, Thomas Washburn made the first improvement on
the Hutchinson farm. After his death the land was sold for taxes, and
bought by Nathan Hutchinson.
David O. Hutchinson, who married Warren Reeds daughter and lived on
the New Era farm in 1854, and the father of the late John A.
Hutchinson, the brilliant Parkersburg attorney and politician, were
Nathans brothers.
Nathans sons, Seldon and Albert Hutchinson, "batched"on the land about
the beginning of the war. It is said Sel Hutchinson first came out
when he was fifteen years old, or about 1855 or 6.
Seldon married a daughter of M.A. Seaman of Reedy, and lived on the
Washburn farm. Albert lived on the first place below, and a younger
brother, Kenner, bought the Ingram farm at Meadowdale.
HARPER-COE
Later owners of the land where Stutler first located were Messrs.
Harper, Coe and Warfield.
Harper was the father of Samuel and John Harper. Levi Coe was probably
connected with the family of that name on Lower Reedy. He died, and is
buried at Liverpool. He came to Duncan after the war and lived on the
farm at the turn of the road below Warfield Run. Danger Camp or Defeat
Camp was the pioneer name of the steam, so given because of a hunters
camp, which was destroyed here by Indians before the country was
settled.
BAKER
The first settler of whom I have any account at the mouth of Fallen
Timber and Rush Run after Hartley and his daughter, was Elijah Baker.
He was born in 1815, and died February 12, 1896, aged eighty years. He
was a son of John Baker, who lived below the mouth of Conrads Run, on
Reedy. He married Nancy Wolfe, a daughter of James Wolfe, who settled
at the mouth of Elk Fork, on Mill Creek, soon after she was born.
Nancy Baker was born in 1815, and died June 30, 1902, at the age of
eighty seven years.
Baker settled here many years ago. He kept a country store at the
mouth of Rush Run several years, and was the first Postmaster at
Leroy. When I first knew the country, he lived on the hill above the
road, where Mike Tatterson now resides. He was a strong Union man, and
had a child killed about the beginning of the war.
SNYDER FAMILY
Another family who lived in this section before the war, though not
pioneers, were the Snyders, Levi, Ben and Henry, who came from Preston
County.
Levi Snyder came to Jackson County and lived on Mill Creek. Later he
married Abby Hartley, and the family moved to the neighborhood of
Ripley. His son, Burris Snyder, was in Company "F" 4th W. Va. Cavalry,
and two nephews, Nimrod and Elias Snyder, sons of Henry Snyder, were
in the "11th W.Va. Infantry".
Ben Snyder, another brother of Levi, built a cabin on the high point
on the left of Little Creek, just below the Widow Logans place.
There was a Snyder (some say Ben, others, Tom) lived in the Jenkins
cabin at the forks of Buck Run during or after the war.
Tom Snyder lived on Wolf Pen or Patterson Run at onetime, where he
made a two-man hand mill which was of great benefit to the
neighborhood. It is possible that he lived on the Warren place.
The Snyders lived in various places in the neighborhood of Liverpool
for several years. There is another family of the same name in the
vicinity of Mill Creek and Sandy, who I think are not related.
Sometime about 1850, Joseph Smith, afterward a prominent lawyer of
Jackson County and Judge of the Circuit Court, bought 2,000 acres of
land, including the Burroughs farm, all the lower part of Buck Run,
the Warren and Patterson farms, also most of the land on the pike
above Liverpool. He moved on the land which he contemplated turning
into a tobacco plantation. He hired a great boundary cleared, and
planted it in tobacco, building several large log tobacco barns but
either the project was not a success or he lacked what the Germans
call "ausdauer"to push it to successful results. Perhaps the coming of
the clouds of war caused him to leave the place. In any case, the
undertaking fell through with.
In 1868, Mr. James Tibble, who had come to Jackson County from Athens
County, Ohio, in 1864, after a short stay at Ravenswood and Ripley,
bought a part of the land and moved on it. He lived in the house at
the mouth of Buck Run until his death in March, 1901, in his eighty
first year.
The land at the mouth of Little Trace was bought by Anderson Carder
from George W. Smith. Later he sold it to Thomas Hartley, as before
mentioned. There was an extensive sugar camp in the bottom at the
forks of the creek, and thousands of pounds of sugar have been made
there. Later a smaller camp was opened in the bottom in front of the
Dave Hill house below the Arnold line.
There was an old house on the land, said to be haunted. Mr. John
Hartley told me that once he was passing the house, which was then
vacant, at night, and as he came in sight a light was shining through
the cracks between the logs, as though there were a fire or other
light inside but when he came close, all was dark and silent.
MCPHERSON
The McPherson family, who live on the head of Little Trace, are
descendants of James McPherson, who came from Loudoun County,
Virginia. They were of Scotch descent. (For more of the McPherson
family, see Mill Creek Valley.)
Gary McPherson married Keziah Davis. He lived on the right fork of Big
Run during the war, and died at a little cabin down in the hollow from
where Eph Carder now lives. He came to Big Run from Gilmer County,
in1855. Stephen McPherson on the head of Brushy Fork of Sandy was his
brother.
BUTCHER
The Butchers are descendants of one Thomas Butcher who came from
Claysville in Wood County. "Prissy" Carder was the second wife of
Thomas Butchers father.
HOPKINS
The head of Sandy was not settled until a few years before the war,
when Robert Hopkins, who had married a daughter of John Stalnaker, who
lived just across the divide on the Right Fork of Reedy, built where
William Burdett now lives. For the Hopkins family, see History of
Reedy Valley.
One of the most beautiful spots on the head of Sandy was the deer lick
on Buck Run, from whence came its name through the killing of a large
buck at the place by Patton Carder about sixty five years before I
first saw it in 1905.
The lick is on top of the first bank on the left side of the stream,
about forty rods below where George Delaney now lives. I first saw it
in the spring, when Nature had just spread a fresh carpet of green and
coloring over the face of the earth.
The water came out under a mossy rock, and slipped away over the flat
and down the bank to the stream, passing between two large beech
trees, which stood like sentinels over the "lick". A lynn tree had
been broken down, the log extending from the bank above down over the
rocks and into the lick below. As if to make amends for the loss, a
thick cluster of sprouts grown to twenty feet in height had sprung up
around the stump.
A service tree, full of berries, hung over the spring, into which an
occasional robin darted with worried hoots because of me, gathering
the fruit for its early fledglings. The rocks above were white with
stone crop, and the moist ground was covered with water cress. Spring
beauties and violets were everywhere and the bees were humming busily
in a clump of willows where catkins were yellow with pollen.
(c) 2001 by Betty Briggs
Pioners of Jackson County - The End
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