EXPLORATION & EARLY SETTLEMENTS IN WEST VIRGINIA

From:  MYERS' HISTORY OF WEST VIRGINIA, Volume 1, Chapter V, pages 
51-67.  Compiled by  S. Myers, 1915.  Published by The Wheeling News 
Lithograph Company. 

..... West Virginia was embraced in the second charter granted to the 
Virginia Company of London, May 23rd, 1609. She was, therefore, a 
part of Virginia from 1609 to 1863 -- a period of 254 years; and 
throughout this length of time they had one common interest in the 
literature of those States.
 
The first white people to traverse what is now West Virginia were 
hunters and trappers from the east and an occasional Indian trader 
from the upper country who came down the Ohio river to trade with the 
red men on the Ohio side. Our forests abounded with wild game and the 
streams teemed with fish. It was an ideal country for the sportsman. 
In traveling over the hills and mountains and up and down the valleys 
they could not but see the future possibilities of the country for 
farming and other kindred purposes. They also noted the value of the 
navigable streams for transportation facilities, as well the 
beautiful sites for future towns and cities; for these men, though 
woodsmen, were not blind to all these advantages, as results have 
long since proven. So when these men returned to civilization, they 
were not slow to extol the wonderful country they had beheld in their 
travels beyond the mountains; and ere long small parties of the most 
adventurous persons commenced to wend their way o'er tortuous trails 
to the new El Dorado; and in time our Little Mountain State became 
the home of the English, the German, the Welshman, the Irishman, and 
the Dutchman, "men representing the old Teutonic and Celtic peoples
-- men whose ancestors had helped to make history on the battle fields
of Europe -- some of them on that of Hastings. Transplanted from the 
Old World to the New, their descendents -- those who became 
frontiersmen in western Virginia -- lost none of the heroism, valor 
and bravery of their forefathers."
 
Previous to 1664 hardy pioneers had extended the domain of 
civilization even to the eastern base of the Blue Ridge; but of the 
region beyond that "Rocky Barrier" nothing whatever was known, for 
the most daring adventurer had not, as yet, penetrated its vast 
solitudes. But the exploration and conquest of the wilderness was the 
mission of determined spirits, and the time was near at hand when 
white men should traverse this hitherto unknown region and return to 
tell the story of its wonderful resources. 

The following brief but comprehensive information relative to the 
first explorations of western Virginia is taken from the Third 
Biennial Report State Department Arch. and Hist. W. Va. This will be 
followed by the names of some of the earliest settlers and their 
respective places of settlement, from the same source of information: 

The first West Virginia river discovered by white men was called New 
River, its upper course having been discovered in 1641 by Walter 
Austin, Rice Hoe, Joseph Johnson, and Walter Chiles. It was a new 
river, one flowing northwest, in an opposite direction from those 
east of the mountains -- hence the name New River. The Ohio river, 
which forms the western boundary of West Virginia, was discovered by 
Robert Cavalier La Salle -- the most eminent French explorer of the 
New World. It was in the year 1663 that Europeans first heard of the 
Ohio river, and this information came from the Indians to Dallier, a 
French missionary in Canada. It was reported to be almost as large as 
the St. Lawrence. This information inspired the adventurous spirit of
La Salle with a desire to behold the great river. Accordingly, with
Indian guides, he began his journey via Lake Onondagua, now in New 
York. In October, 1669, he reached the Allegheny river, which he 
descended to its confluence with the Monongahela, and thence 
continued down the Ohio as far as the Falls -- now Louisville, 
Kentucky. He was the first European on the Ohio river, and the first 
that saw the western part of West Virginia. 

It is probable that the first white men who saw any part of the 
eastern portion of the State of West Virginia were those composing 
the party under John Lederer, a German explorer in the service of Sir 
William Berkeley, Colonial Governor of Virginia. In company with 
Captain Collett, nine Englishmen and five Indians, he, on August 30, 
1670, set out from York River and proceeded by way of the 
Rappahannock , near the present city of Fredericksburg; thence to the 
mouth of the Rapidan River; thence along the north side of the 
Rappahannock to the base of the Blue Ridge; and thence to the summit 
of the mountain barrier, from which, at a point south of the present 
Harper's Ferry, the explorers looked down upon and across the Lower 
Shenandoah Valley -- now included in the counties of Jefferson and 
Berkeley -- a first view of the old part of West Virginia. 

The first English-speaking men within the present limits of West 
Virginia were those composing the exploring expedition under Captain 
Thomas Batts. These, in addition to himself, were Robert Fallam, 
Thomas Wood, Jack Neasam, and Per-c-cu-te, the latter a great man of 
Appomattox Indians. The party, acting under authority of a commission 
granted fourteen years before by the House of Burgesses -- the Colo- 
nial legislative body of Virginia -- to Major Abraham Wood: "For ye 
finding out the ebbing and flowing of ye waters on ye other side the 
Mountains, in order to ye Discovery of ye South Sea," left Appomattox 
town, near the site of the present city of Petersburg, Virginia, on 
Friday, September 1, 1671, and toiling onward to the westward, 
crossed the Blue Ridge, thence over what is now known as Peter's 
Mountain; and thence through the present West Virginia counties of 
Monroe, Summers and Fayette, until the 16th of September, when they 
"had a sight of a curious river like the Appomattox River in 
Virginia, and the Thames at Chelsea, in England, and broad as that 
river at Wapping, but it had a fall that made a great noise." The 
party had reached the Great Falls of the Great Kanawha river, distant 
ninety-six miles from the Ohio. Here, on the 17th, they took formal 
possession of the region and proclaimed the King in these words: 
"Long live King Charles ye 2d, King of England, Scotland, Ireland and 
Virginia, and all the territory thereunto belonging; Defender of ye 
Faith, etc." Guns were fired, and, with a pair of marking-irons, they 
marked trees; Ist, "C. R.01 (Charles Rex 1), for his Sacred Majesty; 
2d, "W. B.", for the Governor (Sir William Berkeley); 3d, "A. W.", 
for Major Abraham Wood (promoter of the expedition); another for Per-
c-cu-te (who said he would turn Englishman); and also another tree 
for each of the company. Then the homeward journey began and all 
arrived at the Falls of the Appomattox river on the first day of 
October, except Thomas Wood, who died on the expedition. 

In 1716 Governor Alexander Spottswood resolved to learn more of the 
Mountain Region of West Virginia. He accordingly equipped a party of 
thirty horsemen, and, heading it in person, left Williamsburg, the 
Colonial Capital, June 20th, that year.  Day after day the journey 
continued until the Blue Ridge was reached and crossed by way of 
Swift Run Gap.  Descending to the river, now the Shenandoah, the 
party bestowed upon it the name "Euphrates".  It was crossed and 
recrossed;  then a night was spent upon its banks; then the return 
journey began, and from the Blue Ridge the adventurers, looking 
westward, beheld in the distance the lofty peaks of the Great North 
Mountain, in what is now Pendleton county, West Virginia.  On 
arriving at Williamsburg, the Governor established the "Trans-Montane 
Order or Knights of the Golden Horse-shoe," giving to each of those 
who accompanied him a miniature horse-shoe, some of which were set 
with valuable stones, and all bearing the inscription, "Sic juvat 
transcendere montes -- Thus he swears to cross the mountains."  

About the year 1725 John Van Meter, a representative of an old 
Knickerbocker family early seated on the Hudson, traversed the valley 
of the South Branch of the Potomac -- the Wap-pa-tom-i-ca of the 
Indians.  He was an Indian trader, making his headquarters with the 
Delawares, on the Susquehanna.  Thence he made journeys far to the 
southward, to trade with the Cherokees and Catawbas.  It was he who 
first told the story of the wonderful fertility of the land in the 
Lower Shenandoah and South Branch Valleys.
  

First White Settlers in West Virginia. 

The first white man to find a home in West Virginia was Morgan, Ap. 
Morgan, who in 1726 reared a cabin on the site of the present village 
of Bunker Hill in Mill Creek District, Berkeley County. The next year 
a number of Germans from the Valley of the Susquehanna in 
Pennsylvania crossed the Potomac at what has been known for more than 
a hundred years as the old "Pack-Horse Ford", and about a mile above, 
on the southern bank of that river, founded a village which they 
named New Mecklenberg, in memory of their early home in the 
Fatherland, and such it continued to be called until changed to 
Shepherdstown by an Act of the House of Burgesses in 1762. In 1734 
Richard Morgan obtained a grant for a tract of land in the vicinity 
of New Mecklenberg, and there made his home. Among those who came at 
the same time and settled along the Upper Potomac in what is now the 
northern part of the West Virginia counties of Berkeley and Jefferson 
were Robert Harper (at Harper's Ferry), William Stroop, Thomas and 
William Forester, Israel Friend, Thomas Shepherd, Thomas Swearinger, 
Van Swearinger, James Formann, Edward Lucas, Jacob Hite, James Lemon, 
Richard Mercer, Edward Mercer, Jacob Van Meter, Robert Stockton, 
Robert Buckles, John Taylor, Samuel Taylor and John Wright. In 1735 
the first settlement was made on the South Branch of the Potomac by 
four families of the names of Coburn, Howard, Walker, and Rutledge. 
The next year Isaac Van Meter, Peter Casey and numbers of others 
found homes in the valley of that river in what is now Hampshire and 
Hardy Counties; and within the next few years, cabin homes dotted the 
valleys of the Opequon, the Great and Little Cacapon Rivers, and that 
of Lost River and Back and Patterson Creeks. 

Thus far the early West Virginia settlements had been confined to the 
region drained by the upper tributaries of the Potomac river. Now, we 
turn to notice the first pioneer of West Virginia in the valley of 
the Greenbrier river. In 1749 the Greenbrier Land Company was 
organized. It consisted of twelve members or stockholders, among whom 
were its President, Hon John Robinson, the Treasurer of the Colony of 
Virginia, and long the Speaker of the House of Burgesses; Thomas 
Nelson, for thirty years the Secretary of the Council of State; and 
John Lewis, the founder of Staunton, and two of his sons, William and 
Charles. This company was granted the right by the Governor and the 
Council to survey and take up a tract of land containing one hundred 
thousand acres of land, lying and being on Greenbrier river, and now 
in the West Virginia counties of Pocahontas, Greenbrier and Monroe. 
Four years were allowed to make surveys and pay rights for the same. 
Andrew Lewis (afterward General Andrew Lewis of the Revolution) was 
appointed surveyor and agent for the company, and, in execution of 
his commission, he in 1754 and prior thereto surveyed and sold small 
parcels of this land to sundry persons, who hastened to settle 
thereon. Col. John Stuart, the historian of the Greenbrier Valley, 
says that "previously to the year 1755 Andrew Lewis had completed 
surveys for the quantities aggregating more than fifty thousand 
acres. When Andrew Lewis came to the Greenbrier River in 1740, he 
found Stephen Sewell and Jacob Martin, both of whom had fixed their 
abode at the mouth of Knopp's creek on the site of the present town 
of Marlinton, in Pocahontas County. (Recorded in Deed Book No. 1, in 
the County Clerk's Office, Greenbrier County, West Virginia.) 

Dr. Thomas Walker with five companions, two of whom were Ambrose 
Powell and Colby Chew, when returning from a tour of exploration in 
the Kentucky wilderness, crossed the New River at the mouth of the 
Greenbrier, June 28th,  1750, and then journeyed up the latter 
stream. July 6th ensuing they were at the mouth of Anthony's Creek, 
now in Greenbrier County, where Dr. Walker wrote in his journal: 
"There are some inhabitants on the branches of Greenbrier, but we 
missed their plantations." Evidently there was a very considerable 
population in the Greenbrier Valley prior to the year 1755. 

On February 23, 1756, Captain Teaque sent to the Lords of Trade, 
London, a "List of Tithables" in Virginia which he had prepared under 
the direction of the Government. Upon this, as a basis, he estimated 
the population of Virginia to be 173,316 whites and 120,000 negroes. 
Taking his estimate for Hampshire County, and estimating for that 
part of West Virginia then included in Frederick and Augusta 
Counties, we may conclude that in West Virginia at that date there 
were about 11,000 whites. and 400 blacks. If an irregular or broken 
line be drawn from the Blue Ridge through Harper's Ferry and Charles 
Town in Jefferson County; Martinsburg, in Berkeley County; Berkeley 
Springs, in Hardy County; Petersburg, in Grant County; Upper Tract 
and Franklin, in Pendleton County; Clover Lick, in Pocahontas County; 
and thence through Monroe County to Peter's Mountain, it will pass 
centrally through the region in which resided at that time the 
pioneer settlers of West Virginia, as shown by contemporary 
documents. 


In Tygart's Valley. 

"About 1753 the first cabins on the waters of the Monongahela, within 
West Virginia, were built. The location was in what is now Randolph 
County. Robert Files built his cabin at the mouth of a creek which 
now bears his name, and the place is now occupied by the town of 
Beverly. David Tygart's cabin stood three miles above Beverly, and 
Tygart's River bears his name. These men brought their families from 
the South Branch. The Valley, of the Monongahela for five years after 
that time was without an inhabitant south of Pennsylvania. In 1758 a 
few settlers came with Thomas Decker and located at Morgantown. 
Decker's Creek still bears his name. The colony was soon destroyed by 
Indians. Thus ended the second effort to colonize west of the 
mountains; and for the ten succeeding years it is not known that any 
attempt at settling the country was made. 

"In 1763 the King of England issued a proclamation forbidding all 
persons to take possession of lands West of the Alleghanies, in 
Virginia, until the land should be purchased from the Indians. Why 
such a proclamation was made is not known, as no Indian tribe owned 
or occupied any portion of West Virginia at that time; and no part of 
it was ever bought of the Indians who had any right to sell it, --
unless it be conceded they held a prior right to occupancy by virtue 
of their long use of it as a hunting ground.
 
"A considerable part of it had already been granted to companies or 
individuals. Governor Fauqueir, of Virginia, issued three 
proclamations warning settlers west of the mountains to withdraw from 
the land, but this was useless, as there probably were no settlers at 
that time between the Alleghanies and the Ohio River." --(Fast and 
Maxwell.) 

In 1761 William Childers, John and Samuel Pringle and Joseph Linsey 
deserted as soldiers from Fort Pitt, and ascended the Monongahela 
River as far as the mouth of George's Creek (the site afterwards 
selected by Albert Gallatin for the town of Geneva). After remaining 
here for a time, and not liking the place, they crossed over to the 
head of the Youghioghany, where, encamping in the glades, they 
remained one year. One day, while out hunting, Samuel Pringle 
discovered a path which he had reasons to believe led to the 
inhabited part of Virginia. On his return to camp, he disclosed his 
discovery to his comrades. Shortly afterwards they ascertained to 
their sorrow that the path led to a settlement on Loony's Creek, then 
the most remote western settlement. While stopping here Childers and 
Linsey were apprehended as deserters, but the Pringles escaped to 
their camp in the glades, where they remained until some time in 
1764. 

About this time the Pringles seem to have been employed by a Mr. 
Simpson, a trapper who had come there in search of furs. Here, owing 
to the constant intrusion by other hunters, and the growing 
popularity of the glades as a hunting ground, and fearful of meeting 
with the fate of their former companions, they pursuaded their 
employer to move farther west. In journeying through the wilderness, 
and after having crossed Cheat River, a dispute arose between the 
Pringles and Simpson, and they separated. Simpson crossed the Valley 
River near the mouth of Pleasant Creek, and passing on to the head of 
another water course gave it the name of Simpson's Creek. From there 
he proceeded westward, finally arriving at a stream which he called 
Elk. Going on down this stream to its mouth, he erected his camp, at 
which place he remained for about one year. While there he saw 
nothing of the Pringles or any other human beings. He then went to 
the South Branch to dispose of his furs and skins. He returned to his 
camp at the mouth of the Elk and remained there until permanent 
settlements were made in its vicinity. 

After separating from Simpson, the Pringles proceeded up the Valley 
River as far as the mouth of Buckhannon River. They ascended the 
latter to the mouth of a stream now called Turkey Run, in what is now 
Upshur County. Here they took up their abode in a large, hollow 
sycamore tree, on the farm lately owned by one Webster Dix. Of this 
historical tree L. V. McWhorter, of Berlin, West Virginia, is quoted 
as saying in a letter to Reuben Gold Thwaites, late of Madison, Wis, 
in his commentary on Withers's "Border Warfare": "The aged sycamore 
now (1894) occupying the site is the third generation -- the 
grandchild -- of that which housed the Pringles. It stands on the farm 
of Webster Dix, who assures me that it shall not be destroyed. 
According to Withers, the stump of the tree occupied by the Pringles 
was still standing in 1830. 

In 1767 John left his brother to go to a trading post on the 
Shenandoah for supplies. After many hardships endured by both, John 
returned, with the information that peace had been declared between 
the Indians and French. They thereupon decided to temporarily vacate 
their tree home and proceed to the settlements on South Branch for 
the purpose of prevailing on a few others to come and settle on 
Buckhannon River in the vicinity of the place which they had learned 
to love so well. In this worthy enterprise they seem to have been 
successful, for it is recorded that in the next year (1768) several 
persons accompanied Samuel Pringle to his old home in the wilderness, 
and that they liked the country so well that the following spring 
still others were persuaded to "repair thither, with the view of 
cultivating as much corn as would serve their families the first year 
after their emigration. And having examined the country, for the 
purpose of selecting the most desirable situations, some of them 
proceeded to improve the spots of their choice." John Hacker was one 
of the first to locate on Turkey Run. He was born near Winchester, 
Virginia, January 1st, 1743, and died at his home on Hacker's Creek, 
April 20, 1821. He figured prominently in the Indian wars of his 
region. He also served in Col. G. R. Clark's Illinois campaign of 
1778. John Jackson and his two sons, George and Edward, settled at 
the mouth of Turkey Run. Alexander and Thomas Sleeth found homes near 
Jackson's, on what was later known as the Forenash plantation.  
Others who came about this time, namely, William Hacker, Thomas and 
Jesse Hughes, John and William Radcliff and John Brown, seem to have 
devoted their time to hunting. Of course they were useful in this 
way, as they provided the farmers with plenty of wild meat. On one of 
their hunting trips they discovered and gave name to Stone Coal 
Creek. Descending this stream they "came to its confluence with a 
river, which they then called, and has since been known as the West 
Fork." Under the guidance of Samuel Pringle, other emigrants arrived, 
among whom were John and Benjamin Cutright, who located on Buckhannon 
River, and Henry Rule, who settled just above the mouth of Fink's 
Run. It seems that the first land deal between individuals in the 
Buckhannon country occurred between Samuel Pringle and John Hacker, 
wherein it "was agreed that if Pringle would clear as much land on a 
creek which had been recently discovered by the hunters as he had on 
Buckhannon, they would exchange places. Complying with this 
condition, Pringle took possession of the farm on Buckhannon, and 
Hacker of the land improved by Pringle on the creek, which was hence 
called Hacker's Creek." About this time John and William Radcliff 
likewise settled on this stream.

While the pioneers were on a visit to their families on the South 
Branch, at the close of the working, in 1769, a lot of buffaloes 
destroyed the crops in the new settlement, which delayed the removal 
of their families until the following winter of 1770.  Shortly after 
this event, Capt. James Booth and John Thomas located on what is now 
Booth's Creek.

In 1768 Jacob Van Meter, John Swan, Thomas Hughes and some others 
settled on the west side of the Monongahela, near the mouth of Muddy 
Creek, where Carmichaeltown now stands. "Both Van Meter and Swan 
afterwards served tinder Col. G. R. Clark -- at least, in the 
Kaskaskia campaign; Swan commanded a company in Clark's Shawnee 
campaign of 1780, and Van Meter in that of 1782. The latter moved to 
Kentucky and settled in Hardin County in that State in 1798"- 
(Draper.) 

In the same year that the above named persons settled at the mouth of 
Muddy Creek, the place which had formerly been occupied by Decker and 
his unfortunate associates, where Morgantown is now situated, was 
again settled by a party of emigrants, among whom was David Morgan, 
who afterwards became noted as an Indian fighter, some of whose 
adventures will be recorded in another chapter. 

In 1769 Colonel Ebenezer Zane, accompanied by his brothers, Silas and 
Jonathan, and some other persons, came to the Ohio River from their 
homes on the South Branch of the Potomac River, and proceeded to 
locate for themselves new homes'   "The Zanes were descendants of a 
Mr. Zane who accompanied William Penn to his province in 
Pennsylvania. . . . . Having made himself obnoxious to the Society of 
Friends (of which he was a member) by marrying without the pale of 
that society, he moved to Virginia and settled on the South Branch, 
at the point where Moorefield, in Hardy County, West Virginia, now 
stands. One of his sons (Isaac) was taken by the Indians when he was 
only nine years old and carried into captivity to Mad River, Ohio. He 
became reconciled to Indian life, married a squaw, became a chief, 
and lived the remainder of his life with the red men, but never waged 
war with the whites. It is said his descendants still live in Ohio." 
--(Thwaite's Commentaries.)

Colonel Zane selected for his future home an eminence above the mouth 
of Wheeling Creek, nearly in the center of the present City of 
Wheeling. Silas located on Wheeling Creek, where Col. Moses Shepherd 
afterwards resided, and Jonathan lived with his brother Ebenezer. 
Several others who had accompanied the Zanes to their new home 
likewise remained with the Colonel, in the capacity of laborers. 
After having prepared places for the reception of their families, 
they returned to their former homes on the South Branch to prepare 
for moving to their new settlement on the Ohio. In the ensuing year, 
accompanied by Col. David Shepherd, John Wetzel and the McCulloughs, 
the Zanes again repaired to their wilderness homes. Other settlements 
followed shortly afterwards, at different points, both above and 
below Wheeling. George Leffler, John Doddridge, Benjamin Biggs, 
Daniel Greathouse, Joshua Baker and Andrew Swearingen were the first 
to locate above Wheeling. 

According to Thwaite, John Doddridge settled in Washington County, 
Pennsylvania, on the Ohio River, a few miles east of the 
Pennsylvania-West Virginia line, in 1773. Joseph Doddridge, the 
celebrated antiquarian, and the author of "Notes On the Settlements 
and Indian Wars," etc., was his son. Greathouse and Baker became 
unpopular in the community by reason of their connection with the 
massacre of Chief Logan's family in 1774. Leffler and Biggs figured 
prominently in border warfare.
 
In 1770 Joseph Tomlinson, from near Fort Cumberland, came to the 
flats of Grave Creek, accompanied by his brother Samuel. Being 
pleased with the country, he decided to locate there, and at once 
erected a cabin, into which he moved his family in the spring of 
1773, some delay having been occasioned by his apprehension of 
trouble with the Indians. His cabin was located a short distance 
north of where the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad station is situated in 
the City of Moundsville. Mr. Joseph Tomlinson was the great-grand-
father of Circuit judge Charles C. Newman, of Wheeling. He died May 
30th, 1825, aged 80 years, and was buried in Moundsville cemetery. 

In 1772 the Tygart's Valley region, comprising some twenty-five or 
thirty miles of rich bottom land, was taken up by a party from 
Greenbrier, among whom were the names Hadden, Stalnaker, Connelly, 
Whiteman, Warwick, Nelson, Riffle and Westfall. "The latter of these 
found and interred the bones of File's family, which had lain 
bleaching in the sun, after their murder by the Indians in 1754." 
About the same time (1772) Capt. James Parsons, of the South Branch, 
located on Horse Shoe Bottom, on Cheat River; and Robert Cunningham, 
Henry Fink, John Goff and John Minear settled near by. In the same 
year Robert Butler, William Morgan and some others settled on Dunkard 
Bottom.
 
In the same year the following persons settled in and near the 
present site of Clarksburg: Thomas Nutter, Sotha Hickman,  Samuel 
Beard, Andrew Cottrail, Daniel Davisson, Samuel Cottrail, Obadiah 
Davisson and John Nutter. About this time emigration to the 
Buckhannon and Hacker's Creek settlements had increased so heavily 
that there was almost a famine in those sections, and 1773 was for a 
long time remembered as the "starving year". It is said that had it 
not been for the heroic efforts of William Lowther, the results from 
the scarcity might have been more serious. But he proved to be the 
"Joseph in Egypt", and the people were tided over until a more 
bountiful season. The writer believes that this worthy subject is 
entitled to more than a passing notice, and takes the liberty to 
quote the following interesting biographical sketch from Withers's 
"Chronicles of Border Warfare": 

"William Lowther was the son of Robert, and came with his father to 
the Hacker's Creek settlement in 1772. He soon became one of the most 
conspicuous men in that section of the country; while his private 
virtues and public actions endeared him to every individual of the 
community.  During the war of 1774 he was the most active and 
efficient defender of that vicinity against the insidious attacks of 
the savage foe; and there were very few, if any, scouting parties  
proceeding from thence, by which the Indians were killed or otherwise 
much annoyed, but were commanded by him.
 
"He was the first justice of the peace in the district of West 
Augusta -- the first sheriff in the county of Harrison 
and Wood, and once a delegate to the General Assembly of the States. 
His military merits carried him through the subordinate grades to the 
rank of colonel. Despising the pomp and pageantry of office, he 
accepted it for the good of the community, and was truly an effective 
man. Esteemed, beloved by all, he might have exerted his influence 
over others to the advancement of his individual interest; but he 
sought the advancement of the general weal, not a personal or family 
aggrandizement. His example might teach others that offices were 
created for the public good, not for private emoluments. If aspirants 
for office at the present day were to regard its perquisites less, 
and their fitness for the discharge of its duties more, the country 
would enjoy a greater portion of happiness and prosperity, and a sure 
foundation for the permanence of these be laid, in the more 
disinterested character of her coun sellors, and their consequently 
increased devotion to her interests." 

These comprise the principal settlements in what is now West Virginia 
prior to the year 1774. From this time onward people from the north, 
south and east came in by hundreds. Former homes, encircled by the 
comforts of civilization, were readily exchanged for homes in the 
virgin forests of a wild and strange land, where wild game and savage 
men were known to trod. The objects for the attainment of which they 
voluntarily placed themselves in this situation, and which nerved 
them to undertake the risks and hardships which they could not but 
foresee lay in wait for them, were almost as various as their 
individual characters. As a general thing they were men of poor 
circumstances, unable to pay for land in the neighborhoods from which 
they came, and they were not content to longer remain the tenants of 
others. The new country afforded them an opportunity to acquire homes 
for the mere "taking up". Most of them were satisfied with small 
farms. A few others, however, availed themselves of the right of pre-
emption of large tracts, and some of these became rich,-- as wealth 
was then known. The excellent transportation facilities offered by 
the Ohio River were a great inducement to the more enterprising, far-
seeing spirits; the wide, fertile bottoms along its course and its 
tributaries; the beautiful sites for towns and cities, -- these all 
appealed to the business sense. The natural result was that the Ohio 
and its navigable tributaries soon outstripped, with few exceptions, 
all other settlements in population and improvements, as well as 
intellectual and moral qualifications. Segregate human beings from a 
civilized community and place them in a wild country, isolated from 
all things tending to perpetuate civilization, and they will 
naturally partake of the less exacting social reguirements of their 
surroundings. But, place these same people where the environments 
tend upward instead of downward in the social scale, and they will 
soon average up with their neighbors in intelligence and progress. 
Environment, indeed, has much to do with the conditions of people.
 
Withers says: "The infantile state of all countries exhibits, in a 
greater or less degree, a prevalence of barbarism. The planting of 
colonies, or the formation of establishments in new countries, is 
ever attended with circumstances unpropitious to refinement. The 
force with which these circumstances act will be increased or 
diminished in proportion to the remoteness or proximity of those new 
establishments to older societies, in which the arts and sciences are 
cultivated, and to the facility of communication between them. Man 
is, at all times, the creature of circumstances. Cut off from an 
intercourse with his fellow men, and divested of the conveniences of 
life, he will readily relapse into a state of nature, -- placed in 
contiguity with the barbarous and the vicious, his manners will 
become rude, his morals perverted, -- brought into collision with the 
sanguinary and revengeful, his own conduct will eventually be 
distinguished by bloody and vindictive deeds.
 
"Such was really the situation of those who made the first 
establishments in North Western Virginia. And when it is considered 
that they were, mostly, men from the humble walks of life, 
comparatively illiterate and unrefined, without civil or religious 
institutions, and with a love of liberty bordering on the extreme --
their more enlightened descendants can not but feel surprise that 
their dereliction from propriety had not been greater, their virtue 
less." 

In almost all the settlements there were individuals who had a 
greater attachment for hunting than for farming, and this class 
sometimes followed their inclinations to the exclusion of all other 
pursuits. Yet nearly all the men in the settlements did more or less 
hunting, especially in the fur season, as furs and skins for a time 
represented their chief commodity in trade. Then, too, there was 
something peculiarly attractive about life in the forests, in spite 
of its hardships and dangers, especially after a season in the 
clearings or confinement in a fort. To make a successful hunter one 
must have a good eye and a steady nerve; he must be versed in 
woodcraft and possess a thorough knowledge of the characteristics of 
the game he seeks. The knowledge which enabled the hunter to 
approach, unperceived, the watchful deer in his lair, enabled him 
likewise to circumvent the Indian in his ambush. 

In each settlement there existed a unison of feeling. Petty strife 
and ambition for personal preferment were practically unknown. Their 
interests were mutual. Their environment made them so. This condition 
made them as brothers. A show of liberality was not made for the sake 
of remuneration, nor an act of kindness done for the purpose of 
reaping a reward in return. A favor done was genuine, -- it had no 
"strings to it". No tolls exacted -- no interest charged. They were 
kind for kindness' sake; and sought no other recompense than the 
reward of an approving conscience.
 
So, if our forefathers did not measure up to our standard of morals, 
they possessed many virtues which we might, with profit, emulate in 
this enlightened age; and the writer would ask the reader, as he 
reads of bloody deeds in following chapters in which the whites were 
sometimes compelled, by force of circumstances, to wage a war of 
retaliation and extermination among the unfortunate Indians, to bear 
in mind the fact that foreign nations, and a few bad, white men in 
this country, were the instigators of a condition over which the true 
settler had no control, yet had to bear the brunt of savage ferocity. 
The Indian, as a rule, regarded all white men alike. If one dirty 
white man ill-treated one Indian, the whole Indian tribe held all the 
white people responsible for the act. So, many an innocent person was 
made to suffer for the faults of others. 
 

Contributed by Linda Cunningham Fluharty.