Fletcher Workman
Rittman, Ohio

-----------------------------

I have followed with interest your articles on Wayne County History. Your suggestion February 24 as to contributions from readers is a very good one. I am quite interested in four early Wayne county families, my mother's people, Napier, Porter, Finley and May. A good many descendants of these are living in the county today and day and could add to this information through courthouse and family Bible records.

Pioneer Thomas F. Napier, common school teacher for forty years on left fork of Twelvepole, born 1774-0 in Virginia, married 1800-3 Haney Smith, born 1778-90; whose son Adam Napier, farmer, born 1826 in Virginia, married 1846 Susannah Finley, born 1829 in Virginia; whose son Jacob Wade Napier, farmer, lumberman and N. & W. pumper, born 1854 in Virginia, married Elizabeth Porter, born 1855 in Virginia; whose daughter Mary Napier, born 1875 in West Virginia, married 1898 Leonard C. Ayers (my parents, now living in Roanoke, Va.)

Pioneer Samuel Porter, farmer, gunsmith and herb doctor, born in Ulster, married Susan Moore; whose son William Porter, farmer and gunsmith, born 1821 in Ky., married Mary May, born 1825 in North Carolina; whose daughter Elizabeth Porter, married Jacob Wade Napier, above.

Pioneer Hezekiah Finley, married Elizabeth Helby; whose daughter Susannah Finley married Adam Napier, above.

Pioneer Jacob May, miller, born 1801 in North Carolina, married Mary Elizabeth Sutherland, born 1801 in North Carolina; whose daughter Mary May, born 1825 in North Carolina, married William Porter, above.

Sincerely yours,

W. CURTIS AYERS
2011 Denniston Ave.
Roanoke 15, Va.

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(WCN - 3/24/1950) WAYNE COUNTY HISTORY NOTES

In response to your request for some items about the old settlers, local history, I will try to give etc. of this section. As Samuel Ferguson, whose will you recently published and gave a short sketch of his life, was my great-great-great-grandfather, I will add a little more to what you wrote of him. When he and Mr. Perry furnished the site for Tazewell Court House, Tazewell included what is now McDowell and part of Mercer and Logan counties as well. Tazewell developed into a prosperous county, and I was recently told by one of her citizens that she is now the wealthiest county in the Old Dominion except those counties that have large cities.

Samuel Ferguson settled in Wayne county in 1803 or 4. I don’t suppose there was a single house on Trouts Hill, and only one cabin in Stonewall District and that at the mouth of Lick Creek. I might add here that the oldest house in this section was built by Milton Ferguson, grandson of Samuel. It stands on the right fork of Camp creek, two miles from East Lynn and was built more than a hundred years ago. Though it has weathered the storms of more than a century, it is in a good state of preservation.

Among the thousands of descendants of Samuel Ferguson are preachers, lawyers, doctors, teachers, bankers, editors, legislators, and inventors who have done their part in making Wayne county what it is. I believe that one fourth of population of Stonewall District are his descendants. I will name a few of the families in which are found his descendants: Miller, Ross, Booton, Bing, Osburn, Ferguson, Adkins, Vaughan, Napier, Francis, Morrison, Fry, Dickerson, Casteel, Davis, Skeens , Fraley, Tabor, Watts, Griffin, Hale, Wallace, Smith, Jones, Stiltner, Pratt, May, Asbury, Parsons, Tomblin, Walker, Bradshaw, Workman, Lloyd, Chaffin, Brumfield, Peters, Lambert, Hite, Elkins, Sansom, Justice, Bloss, Ingram, Maynard, Clark, Aldridge, Crabtree, Russell, and Fortner and Dean.

Samuel Ferguson not only helped settle Tazewell and Wayne counties, but he helped fight for our independence at Kings Mountain. Another pioneer settler who fought at Kings Mountain, Guilford, C. H. and Cowpens and Point Pleasant was Capt. James Moore. He was one of the first settlers in Tazewell county.

Pendelton's History of Tazewell County says: "In the battle of Guilford C. H., Capt. Moore with his mountain riflemen met the first charge of the British Infantry and he and his men won great distinction by their wonderful courage and superior marksmanship. Capt. Moore settled in Abbs Valley, Tazewell County, near Pocahontas after the revolution was over and became a prosperous farmer. He and several of his family were later murdered by the Indians and his home burned. The Daughters of the Revolution have placed a huge monument at the spot where he was killed. I was at this place a few years ago and was told that when the monument was unveiled hundreds of people, some coming from Washington, D. C. assembled to honor the memory of this brave pioneer. I may give more of the details of him in a later article on "The Captives of Abbs Valley."

One of the best known characters of this section and who lived to the greatest age was Aunt Nancy Clay who lived to see the sun set on one hundred and three summers and winters. Her genial personality drew a host of friends to her. One thing that contributed to her long life was that she didn't worry but took things easy. Those who visited her with a frown came away with a smile. I was present at the celebration of her hundredth birthday. Her son James and I carried her out of the house in a chair and she sat and talked freely with the visitors and said she was getting younger every day. Her example and long life in an incentive for others. It is said she never took any patent or doctor medicine in her lifetime. — To be continued.

LUCIAN W. OSBURN
East Lynn, W. Va.

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Times have changed a lot in the past fifty years. I can remember when Jack Clark and Oscar Owens (Oak), hauled timber on Laurel creek with an ox team. If children then had seen an automobile it would have meant more to them , than an ox team would to children today. My first school teacher was Miss Virgie Lykins at Murder Hollow school on Lick creek. We only had five months of school then and I had to walk two miles to school. Now the school bus picks the children up right at their door.

Some people think they have a hard time living now. They don't know the first step of hard work. I can remember when my daddy, Henry Hale took corn to "Uncle John Henry" Queen's water mill on 12-Pole, and now people won't have a loaf bread if it isn't sliced. People would go for miles to church, riding horseback. Horses would be hitched up all over the hillsides. Now they have cars to go in, but half the church doors are closed. There are too many other places to go.

I've heard my grandmother Dyer tell that when she moved to this country they had to ride horseback to Kentucky to get salt. It was a two-day trip. They would take their wool to have it carded and spin it into yarn and weave their own cloth for clothing. Grandmother was the only one in the country who could warp the thread and people came for miles to get her to warp the thread so they could put it in the loom to weave their cloth. Young people of today don't know what that means.

The men would have workings, clear ground, roll logs and build miles of rail fence around corn fields. The women would get together and cook for two or three days getting ready for the working. They would boil ham, cook five or six hens, make 30 or 40 pies to feed the forty or more that would be present. If they all worked good and weren't too tired, sometimes they had a square dance that night.

I think people would enjoy themselves better if we had times now like we did back then. The children all looked forward to Saturday night when they could go to their grandparents or some uncle or aunt to play blind fold and have a taffy pulling, even though we did have to sleep at the foot of the bed.

Times have changed. In the good old days the women all wore dresses. Now days they most all wear breeches. We don't know what it will be in another 50 years.

Mrs. Everett Blankenship
Wayne R. 1. W. Va.

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Back in the late 1800's when timbering was the main occupation of the people for cash and a livelihood, for that part of the year when they were not busy with the cultivation of their crops such men as Asbury Jackson, Bill Napier, Arkimides Mills, Wash and Jeff Stephens, C. W. Ferguson, Sol Thompson, Calvin Harris, A. V. Christian, Isaac M. Sister would turn to timbering. They would use ox teams of about six or seven yoke of large steers weighing about 1000 pounds each. They used a short legged blocky yoke for draft, or wheel cattle and a long-legged tall yoke for the "Spike" or second yoke, so as to equalize the strain of holding up the draft yoke.

In the spring, about the last of April, they would hire men and go into the virgin forest and cut down the huge poplars and peel the bark off and leave the logs lying in the woods until late summer or winter when they would start hauling. They chopped down trees with axes as sawing trees did not come into common use until about 1900.

They would tip the logs off full length and haul a whole tree at a load some as much as 60 or 70 feet in length. Some of this timber was hauled to the bank of Twelve Pole and rafted there or run loose, and caught in a boom at the mouth of Twelve Pole.

Some of it was hauled to splash dams built on small streams like Camp Creek, Big and Little Lynn, Greenbrier, Trace, Wolf Creek and others of that size.

The last splash caught in this part of Wayne county was caught in the spring of 1887 on Wolf creek, a tributary of Trace Fork to drift out staves made by Isaac M. Lester. The spars to this slash were knocked down by the late Anderville Christian Sr., and myself.

These splash dams were usually located at the lower end of a bottom where there was a bluff on one side of the creek to aid in building the dam, and a pen of logs filled with stones was built on the other side leaving a space between the Pens for the gates.

There were two ways of closing the openings to let the water and logs through. One was by making two gates, one hung on either side and closing in the middle and held together by spars set against the pen and gate on each side. The other was by making the cap sill so it would turn and boring holes through the ends of strong planks, running a rope through the holes and fastening the rope to the cap sill and when ready to turn the water and logs through, turn the cap sill and disengage the planks from the mud sill and let the sawlogs and water go out.

G. W. Workman said to me once that it was wonderful how much more a man could stand than a brute for "I have worn out five ox teams."

The greatest waste of timbering was in the peeling of tan bark from the chestnut oaks and leaving the fine logs to rot in the woods.

I was born in Wayne County more than 82 years ago.

Rufus Lester

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(WCN - 3/31/1950) WAYNE COUNTY HISTORY NOTES

Do you know any Wayne county history ? The Wayne County News would like to publish any letters containing county historical information.

Barboursville, W. Va.
March 20, 1950

Editor the Wayne County News,
Wayne, W. VA.
Dear Sir:

I am sending you a copy of an interesting partition deed, by the heirs of William Morris, Sr, the pioneer settler of Kanawha county. In fact, he was the first settler in the entire Kanawha Valley. The interesting thing for us is that a number of his descendants intermarried among Wayne county pioneers, and at this late date, it is doubtful whether many of them now know about it. I am giving this information to aid a lot of people who might be interested in compiling more complete family histories. Every person who is a lineal descendant of William Morris, Sr., is eligible for membership in the D. A. R's., or the S. A. R's.

I will later give a more extended account of some of these families.

Very truly,
F. B. LAMBERT
March 4, 1950
Kanawha County, W. Va.

Deed Book K, Page 80
Sept. 10, 1837.

This indenture of Partition, made this 10th day of September A. D., 1837, by and between Amanda Brannon, daughter of Cynthia Hatten, of the first part, William Morris of the second part, Benjamin Morris, of the third part, James Morris, of the fourth part, Geo. W. Morris, of the fifth part, Johnston Hatton, of the sixth part, and Cynthia, his wife, John Dean and Julia Ann, his wife; Samuel Dean and Sarah, his wife; Shadrack Harriman and Evaline, his wife; George Burgess and Martha, his wife; William Spurlock and Caroline, his wife, and Marshall Spurlock; the said Cynthia, Julia Ann, Sarah, Evaline, William, Caroline, Martha and Marshall, being the children and heirs of Frances Spurlock, deceased, who was a daughter and heir of Levi Morris, deceased, sixth part; and Cassander Spurlock, Samuel Booth, and Mero, his wife; Asa Booten and Rozanna, his wife; and Levi Spurlock, the said Cassander, Mero, Rozanna and Levi being the children and heirs of Elizabeth Spurlock, deceased, who was a daughter and heir of the said Levi Morris, deceased, of the seventh part; and Margaret Morris, widow of said Levi Morris, deceased, of the seventh part, and Margaret Morris, widow of said Levi Morris, deceased, of the eighth part.

WITNESSETH, That Whereas, at a Circuit Superior Court of Law and Chancery held for the County of Kanawha, on the third day of May, 1837, the said Court entered the following decree in a cause therein pending, to-wit:

Amanda Brannon, by her next friend, Lawrence H. Brannon vs. William Morris, and others (the heirs and distributors of Levi Morris, deceased) in Chancery. The Court proceeding to consider the partition made of the realty and of the slaves, and the personal property, as reported, doth adjudge, order and decree, that the Complainant, Amanda Brannon, and the Defendants, severally, and by apt and proper deeds of conveyance and special warranty, convey and assure, each to the other, the several lots of land which have been apportioned to each in severalty; that is to say to the said Amanda Brannon, in right of her late mother, Cynthia Morris, deceased, Lot No. 1, containing 130 acres, and Lot No. 6 of coal land containing 19 acres.

To the said Benjamin Morris, in his own right, Lot No. 2 containing 124 acres, and Lot No. 5, of coal land containing 14 1/4 acres.

To Cynthia Hatton, wife of Johnston Hatton; Julia Ann Dean, wife of John Dean; Sarah Dean, wife of Samuel Dean; Evaline Harriman, wife of Shadrack Harriman, last man killed by Indians, 1794; Martha Burgess, wife of George Burgess, William Spurlock, Marshall Spurlock and Caroline Spurlock, being heirs of Frances Spurlock, deceased, late a daughter and heir of said Levi Spurlock deceased, Lot No. 3, containing 128 acres, and Lot No. 4, containing 13 1/2 acres of coal land.

To James Morris, in his own right, Lot No. 4, containing 173 acres, and Lot No. 2 containing 13 1/4 acres of coal land.

To William Morris, in his own right, Lot No. 5, containing 154 acres, and lot No. 1, containing 11 1/4 acres of coal land,

To George W. Morris, in his own right, Lot No. 6, containing 94 acres, and lot No. 3, containing 11 ½ ac res of coal land.

To Cassander Spurlock, Mero Booth, wife of Samuel Booth, Rozanna Booten, wife of Asa Booten, and Levi Spurlock, being the children and heirs of Elizabeth Spurlock, deceased, late daughter and heir of Levi Spurlock, deceased, who take in right of said Elizabeth (Spurlock), lot No. 7, containing 124 acres and Lot No. 7 of coal land containing 17 3/4 acres.

To Margaret Morris, widow of Levi Morris, deceased, as an equivalent for her dower right in realty, of said Levi, the land lying within the following metes and bounds (See plat for metes and bounds.)

To have and to hold to her and her assignes, for and during her natural life.

It is further adjudged, order and decreed that the adult defendants, the Plaintiff Amanda Brannon, by her guardian ad litem, who is hereby appointed a Special Commissioner for that purpose; and the infant Defendants, by their guardians, ad litem, respectively, do execute, seal and deliver the deeds of partition hereby directed and acknowledged the same for record, in which Deed of Partition altogether apt and proper deed, the said Amanda Brannan shall grant a rent charge on, and out of the land hereby decreed to her, the sum of $30.00 annually, during the life of the widow, the first of which annual rents is to be paid on the first day of January next to Cynthia Hatton, wife of Johnston Hatton, Julia Ann Dean, wife of John Dean, Sarah Dean wife of Samuel Dean, Evaline Harriman, wife of Shadrack Harriman, Martha Burgess, wife of George Burgess, William Spurlock, Marshall Spurlock, and Caroline Spurlock, heirs of Frances Spurlock, deceased.

For the security of the one payment whereof proper covenants and grants are to be inserted on each deed, giving to the said Grantor full power and authority to enforce the payment there of by entry and distress in such manner and form as may lawfully be resorted to between landlord and tenant. And for the further security for the due payment of the rent charge, aforesaid, which is declared hereby to be a lien upon the laud herein decreed and partitioned to the said Amanda Brannan liberty is reserved to the said Grantees of said rent charge to apply to this Court by petition for such further decree as may be necessary to enforce the lien aforesaid. By which deed of partition, or by other apt and proper deed, the said Benjamin Morris shall also grant a rent charge and create a lien on and out of the land partitioned to him, with the same covenants, parts, and provisions for securing the said sum ot $30.00 to be paid by him annually to Cynthia Hatton, wife of Johnston Hatton, Julia Ann Dean, wife of John Dean, Sarah Dean, wife of Samuel Dean, Evaline Harriman, wife of Shadrack Harriman, Martha Burgess, wife of George Burgess, William Spurlock, Marshall Spurlock, and Caroline Spurlock, Heirs of Frances Spurlock, deceased, commencing at the same time and ending in the same event as herein provided in relation to the rent charge payable by the said Amanda Brannam, and with the same remedies and reservations, and by the said Deed of Partition, or by other apt and proper deed, the said George W. Morris shall also grant a rent charge and create a lien on and out of the land partitioned to him of $30.00, five dollars whereof shall be paid by him annually to Cynthia, wife of Johnston Hatton, Julia Ann, wife of John Dean, Sarah, wife of Samuel Dean, Evaline, wife of Shadrack Harriman, Martha, wife of George Burgess, William Spurlock, Marshall Spurlock, and Caroline Spurlock, heirs of Frances Spurlock, deceased; and the remaining $25.00 shall be paid by the said Goorge W. Morris, to the said James Morris; and the said rent charge so payable by the said Goorge W. Morris, shall be a lien upon the land hereby partitioned to him, the deed for granting which shall contain the same covenants, grants, and provisions for securing the same to the respective Grantees in their several partitions, commencing at the same time, and ending in the same event as is herein provided in relation to the rent charge payable by the said Amanda Brannan, and with the same remedies and reservations, and by the said Deed of Partition, or by other apt and proper deed, the said Cassander Spurlock, Mero, wife of Samuel Booth, Roxalana, wife of Asa Booten, and Levi Spurlock, heirs of Elizabeth Spurlock, deceased, shall also grant a rent charge, and create a lien on and out of the land patented to them with the same covenants, grants, and provisions for securing the said sum of $30.00, to be paid by them, the said heirs of Elizabeth Spurlock, deceased, to the said heirs of Frances Spurlock, deceased, commencing at the same time and ending in the same event, as is herein provided, in relation to the rent charge, payable by the said Amanda Brannon, and with the same remedies and reservations; and if the said deed of partition and deed creating the lien and rent charges aforesaid are not prepared, executed, and acknowledged for record within sixty days, that then and in that event, James W. Laidley who is hereby appointed a Special Commissioner for that purpose, do purpose, execute, seal, and deliver, for record and acknowledge the deeds aforesaid, for and in behalf of each of the several persons hereby directed to be granted therein, as well infants as adults, so failing to execute the deeds aforesaid—all of which will more fully and at large appear in reference to the record and proceedings of said court in the aforesaid suit.

Now, Therefore, this Indenture further Witnesseth. That for and in consideration of (Here, deeds were included to each of the heirs, and the following signatures were made:)

Amanda Brannan

Benjamin Morris

Geo. W. Morris

Cynthia Hatton

Julia Ann Dean

Sarah Dean

Emmaline Harriman

Martha Burgess

Caroline Spurlock

Cassander Spurlock

Mero Booth

Roxalana Booten.

Rec Oct. 14, 1807.

--------------------------------

I will now tell of some of the old residences of this community. Sixty years ago as the traveler went up the left fork ot Camp Creek, about two miles from East Lynn on the left ot the road he would see the ruins of an old log building with the roof off and briers growing up inside. This was then known as the "Farlena Hay" house and had once been the home of a woman by that name. The house was later repaired and several additions built to the original which is probably over a hundred years old. It is now a comfortable residence and is the home of Veva Francis and family.

Another old log building is in the head of right fork of Camp where Moses Tabor lives. It was built before the Civil War and is nearing the century mark. It has been weather-boarded and is now a beautiful residence.

The log building standing about two miles south of East Lynn and half a mile from the Twelve-Pole hard road, which was once the home of Aunt Sarah Ann Sellards, now belongs to her son Att Sellards. It is about eighty-eight years old and is built on one of the most beautiful farms in our community.

The old log building on the farm where I live was built by Uncle Hansford Watts about ninety-three years ago after his first residence burned. The house was torn down and moved once but still has bark clinging to the logs. Uncle Hansford married Nancy, a sister to my grandfather Osburn and a great-granddaughter of Samuel Ferguson. She died one hundred and one years ago and is buried here on the farm. The house first stood near the old sulphur spring that I am told was once a deer lick. Near by that spring upon a beech a stranger, perhaps a hunter cut his name eighty-three years ago. It is still visible thus: PAT BYRNE, 1867. This tree must be a hundred years old for it was a large tree when I was a boy. A few rods down the branch below this tree the branch pours over a rock some 7 or 8 feet. Just below that fall there is carved in solid rock an impression about the size and shape of a man's foot. It is four inches deep, smooth and the heel is slightly separated from the front of the foot. I don't see how the water could have cut this. I know not how it was done but whoever or whatever did it sure did leave a footprint on the rock of time.

One of the wonders of this section is the knob just below the residence of Lucian Jones on the opposite side of Twelve-Pole. It contains several acres of ground and as there is a valley around it just a short distance above the level of Twelve-Pole. It is thought by some the creek might have run around it at some pre-historlc period. One of the early settlers here, my great-grandfather, John Osburn reared his cabin at the foot of this knob more than one hundred and thirty years ago. He came from Lee county, Va. in 1815 and settled on Trace Fork of Right Fork of Twelve-Pole and came to this place shortly after. His first wife was Cynthia, granddaughter of Samuel Ferguson and his second wife Susan, a sister to Miles Jackson. He reared a family of seventeen children and has hundreds of descendants in Wayne county today. In 1843 he taught a three months subscription school in reading, writing and spelling. The school house stood on the opposite side of the knob from the dwelling. I have the contract for that school and I will give the list of signers of that contract who were the patrons of the school as follows: Aaron Asbury, Cornelius Sellards, Ambrose Watts, Ralph Stafford, Rebecca Bradshaw, Martha Jackson, J. M. Ross, John Stephenson, Jane Cole, Edmund Osburn, Patrick Napier, Thomas F. Napier and Edmund Napier.

This contract stipulates that tuition may be paid with deer skins, ginseng, beeswax, young cattle, good feathers, wool, linsey or merchantable pork.

Debts could not be paid now with deer skins, beeswax, young cattle, good feathers, wool, linsey or merchantable pork.

Debts could not be paid now with deer skins, beeswax or wool, and it would take a skillful "sanger" like Jesse Skeens to dig enough of that commodity to pay much of a debt. I could not dig enough in a day to buy a pound of meat

The teachers of that day saw a hard time as well as the pupils. An aged citizen here says he worked for one of those early teachers who lived here at East Lynn and taught on Beech Fork and walked to school, boarding at home. As his salary was only $18.00 per month, he couldn't afford to buy a slate, l so he worked problems on the hearthstone with a piece of charcoal.

If a teacher pretended to be wise it seemed the pupils were wiser. It is related that one of the early teachers once told his pupils to ask him any question they might wish in arithmetic. One boy arose and asked him how many grains of corn it would take to make a square foot of mush?

Among the natural curiosities found near this place are the mounds. On the farm of Jacob White in the head of Lick Creek one of these mounds was excavated and found to contain a man's thigh bone and knee-pan. On the farm of Charles R. Morrison on the head of Beech Fork, is a mound covered with stones. It was excavated and an Indian tomahawk found in it. Near the mound has been found a hundred arrows made of flint.

To be continued.

L. W. Osburn
East Lynn, WV

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(WCN - 4/7/1950) WAYNE COUNTY HISTORY NOTES

The neighborhood of East Lynn was once a happy hunting ground for deer hunters. One old citizen told me he saw 27 deer cross the road one morning as he was going to school. If some of the old hunters had assembled for a chase a hundred years ago and stood at a point between the 12-Pole and Little Lynn bridges, not a single residence would have been in sight. Then let time move up a space of a hundred years and if they could have seen what can now be seen, they would have been so frightened they would have run faster than the panting deer. Walking down Camp creek one day, I counted 32 trucks and other cars pass me in about 15 minutes. When the hunters saw this and looked down Twelve Pole and heard the shriek of the locomotive as it brought 25 or 30 cars after the black diamonds and then looked over-head at the air planes going over, their hunting would have stopped for awhile at least.

Some worry about what there will be to work at when our coal supply is exhausted, but every cloud has a silver lining. While mining is carried on, the farms are growing up and if the coal lasts fifty years it looks like there will be plenty of timber to work at by that time. If so, the generation then living may get to see some of the splash dams "Uncle Rufus" Lester speaks of. I remember when logs were splashed out of Camp creek.

It is also whispered that there is a lead mine near by and as lead and silver go together it may be our future citizens will be mining these products.

The pioneer preacher deserves plenty of space in a county's history. I have the autobiography of one who traveled hundreds of miles on horseback. Sometimes he would start out with a supply of beef and corn bread in his saddle bags, and sometimes he would almost starve. On one occasion he got nothing to eat for two days but apples. He would sometimes have to lie out in the forest with saddle bags for a pillow. Yet he was happy and during his life baptized more than 7,000 persons and lived to see two of his sons and one grandson preachers of the gospel. Sometimes his ministry when they could obtain neither salt or leather they used hickory ashes for salt and buckskin moccasins instead of leather shoes.

Mrs. Blankenship in her county history spoke of the weaving and spinning days and as this was once one of the chief occupations of women and the source from which clothing was obtained, I will narrate a few things concerning this. My mother wove and spun a great deal and well do I remember the loom, big and little wheels, swifts and an old reel made by my great-grandfather Walker about 125 years ago. I have one of the sleys that is a hundred years old or more. "Backward, turn backward, O Time in your flight" and bring the old warping bars to sight. Aunt Bet Tabor wove and spun a great deal and would come to our place to warp her webs. On the porch at my place is a strap of leather nailed to a rafter that held the center rod of the warping bars in place when they were adjusted for weaving. I learned to spin on those warping bars after the web was taken off— that is I spun around and around on the bars. Aunt Bet has been gone many years, but twenty of her descendants made school teachers. One son, Lucian, has taught continuously for 42 years and still teaches.

There is charm about the music of a loom that even appeals to little children and they like to repeat the nursery rhyme:

"Whick-e-ty whack, Click and Clak, how the shuttles do glance and sing; here they go, there they go back and forth, and a sociable song they sing."

Man has tried to improve on the old fashioned way of weaving by running the weaving apparatus by electricity. I saw one of these looms weaving silk at the World's Fair. The shuttle went back and forth in a hurry but it seemed to be artificial and unnatural.

Weaving and spinning seemed to be a great industry even back in colonial days. The visitor at Mount Vernon is shown a building Washington had especially for weaving and spinning and one room is filled with wheels and reels, perhaps two hundred years old. I am told that Martha Washington knit with her own hands the socks that Washington wore.

Memories of the spinning wheel will remain with us till the sunset of life but there is one memory greater than that. I will close by letting the poet tell what that is:

"Tonight those old visions come back at their will,

But the Wheel and its music forever is still,

The band is moth-eaten, the wheel laid away,

And the fingers that turned it lie moldering today,

But the dearest of memories I've laid by in store.

Is the MOTHER who trod the old kitchen floor."

To be continued.
L. W. OSBURN

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(WCN - 4/14/1950) WAYNE COUNTY HISTORY NOTES

THE MORRISES OF KANAWHA COUNTY AND THEIR WAYNE COUNTY KIN

By F. B. Lambert
Barboursville, W. Va.

Among the most distinguished families in Kanawha County, or in all this section of what is now Southern West Virginia, was the family of William Morris. He settled at the mouth of Kelly's Creek, in the fall of 1773, or in the spring of 1774, and thus became the first permanent settler in the Kanawha Valley. Kanawha County, at that time, embraced nearly all of the present state of West Virginia, south of the Kanawha River, including the present counties of Wayne, Lincoln and Cabell, Mingo, most of Logan, Boone, and other counties.

Recently the Wayne County News published a copy of the main portion of a partition deed showing that a number of William Morris' descendants intermarried with some of the early pioneer families of Wayne County. Believing that an explanation of these connections may be of value in enabling a lot of Wayne County people to trace their family histories with greater accuracy, I am giving, in this paper, a short history of the Morris family, with special emphasis on their Wayne County descendants. These Morrises were among our most noted pioneers, and pioneers they were, indeed.

George W. Atkinson, in his history of Kanawha County, p. 49, says: "They are the most remarkable family that has yet been mentioned in our border warfare." Other historians, including Virgil A. Lewis, were fully in accord with Governor Atkinson.

William Morris was born near London, England, Jan. 1, 1722. He was of Welsh descent. Laidley, the Kanawha County historian, in the April number of the West Virginia Historical Magazine 1904, states that when William Morris was a boy of about twelve years of age, he was playing about the Scotchyards, in London, which place was a police headquarters, and near the Thames River. Out of curiosity, the boy went aboard a ship. Without warning, it sailed, and he found himself on the way to America. The owner of the ship, a Philadelphia merchant, took a liking to the boy, and kept him in his home, and wrote William's father, asking permission to let him stay in America. This was granted, and he stayed in Philadelphia until he became a grown man.

About 1744, he came to Orange County, where he married a beautiful woman, Elizabeth Stepp, and made his home in that section of Orange County that later became Culpepper County, until he came to Kanawha County some months before the Battle of Point Pleasant.

Walter Kelly was really the first settler at the mouth of Kelly's Creek, in 1773. He built his cabin here, but was surprised and killed by the Indians, and his family went back to the East. Mr. Morris moved into the Kelly cabin, and the other members of his family built their homes in the vicinity. In later years, Mr. Morris gave each of the Kelly boys a horse, saddle, and bridle, to show them that he had not intended to treat them unfairly.

The Indians, at that time, were becoming hostile, and he and his sons built Fort Morris near their homes. He and his sons, John and Henry Morris were in the Battle of Point Pleasant, and defenders of Fort Morris, and the Virginia frontier, and as border scouts. They were Revolutionary soldiers. All his sons and sons-in-law were Indian fighters. There was not a coward among them, and even the women were ready to assist in battle, as well as in the necessary work of their homes.

William Morris married Elizabeth Stepp, of Orange County. She was born in 1729, and died in 1793, not long after the death of her husband, who died December 1, 1792.

William and Elizabeth Morris had eight sons and two daughters, as follows:

I. William Morris, known as "Major" Billy Morris was born Dec. 17, 1746. He married Catherine Carroll May 10, 1778. He served several terms in the Virginia Legislature, and was otherwise quite prominent.

II. Henry Morris married Mary Bird of Bath County, Virginia. Two of his daughters were murdered by Indians in 1792, and he is said never to have lost an opportunity to kill any of them that he could find. Rev. A. N. Morris was one of his descendants.

III. Leonard Morris, married first, Price; married second, Likens.

IV. Joshua Morris, married Frances Simms. He and his brother, John Morris, settled in Cabell County. He was the progenitor of the Morris families who lived at Ona above Milton and at Dusenberry Dam, now known as Martha. Walter Morris, founder of the Children's Hospital, near Milton, and Buford Tynes, former Congressman from this District, were descendants of this family.

V. John Morris came to Cabell County very early, and settled near the present site of Ona. He married Margaret Droddy. He was born in 1751, and died in 1818. Margaret Droddy was born in 1778, in Augusta County, Va., and died in August, 1818. They had a large family of children of whom four became prominent. Thomas A. Morris became a Bishop in the Methodist church. John Morris, Jr., was a Baptist minister, and removed to Lawrence County, Ohio. Calvary Morris removed to Ohio, and, I believe, became a member of Congress. Edmund Morris was first County Clerk of Cabell County.

VI. Carroll Morris married Elizabeth Jarrett. This family removed to another state, and little is known about them.

VII. Levi Morris, born 1763, died 1834, married first, Margaret Starke, After her death he married in 1778, Peggy (Margaret) Jarrett, who was the mother of most, if not all his children. Those will be given later in this article.

VIII. Benjamin Morris married Nancy Jarrett. They were the ancestors of Morris Harvey, for whom Morris-Harvey College was named.

IX. Elizabeth Morris married Michael See.

X. Frances Morris, known as "Frankey" married John Jones. The member of this family in whom Wayne County is most interested was Levi Morris. After his marriage to Margaret Starke he is said to have left Culpepper County and lived in Alexandria, Virginia, near Washington, D. C. He came to the Kanawha Valley with the rest of the Morris family, and acquired a large boundary of land, at or near the present site of Montgomery, Fayette County. His brother, Benjamin Morris, is said to have built the first cabin on the site of Montgomery. Thus, Levi Morris became the first settler in Fayette County.

His children Were:

1. Cynthia Morris, who married Major Lawrence H. Brannon, a hatter by trade. They had but one child, Amanda Brannon. She died July 3, 1851, leaving six children. Her husband was James C. Montgomery, founder of the City of Montgomery, W. Va. The Montgomeries were highly respected citizens of Fayette County. It will be noted that she was an heir to the Levi Morris estate, her mother having died before it was settled.

2. William Morris married Sarah Spurlock, sister of Rev. Burwell Spurlock, Jan. 23, 1812. He was prominent in the early days of Wayne County, serving, I believe as its first Sheriff. He died March 5, 1879, aged 88 years, two months and thirteen days. This would place his birth Jan. 2, 1791. He and his wife were the parents of several children, and have many descendants in Wayne County. Anong these were William Morris, Jr., Levi Morris, who married Electra Spurlock, daughter of Rev. Burwell Spurlock by his second wife, Erasmus Morris, a well known school teacher of the pioneer type, Margaret Morris, and Anna E. Morris.

3. Benjamin Morris married Amanda Hamilton.

4. James Morris married Sarah Shelton.

5. George married Sarah Hamilton.

6. Frances Morris married William Spurlock, brother of Rev. Burwell Spurlock. They had a large family, and both died in the cholera epidemic.

William Spurlock died June 4, 1833, and his wife on the 10th of the same month. This much dreaded disease first came to the United States in 1832. My father's maternal grandparents, Armstrong Rankin and wife, who lived above Marion, Lawrence County, Ohio, died with the same disease in 1849, and were both buried the same day. William and Frances Spurlock left a large family, all of whom were heirs to the Levi Morris estate, and were named in the deed of partition published in this paper recently.

They were:

a. Cynthia Spurlock, who married John Hatten, said to have been a son of Samuel Hatten, Jr., (Second) of Big Sandy river, in Wayne County. Johnston Hatten lived in South Point, Ohio, and had several children. Most of this family went to Missouri and other sections.

b. Julia Ann Spurlock married Samuel Dean.

c. Sarah Spurlock married Samuel Dean, brother to John and Joseph Dean, and others. Joseph Dean was an ancestor of Herman P. Dean, of Huntington and Wayne County.

d. Evaline Spurlock married Shadrick Harriman, and lived in Kanawha County. He was the last man killed in Kanawha County by Indians.

e. Caroline Spurlock married.

f. Martha Ann Spurlock married George Roberts Burgess. They lived in Wayne County and had a large family. She was born March 31, 1820; he in 1813. They married in 1838. Their children were:

1. Judge Goble G. Burgess, who married Barbara Ferguson.

2. Dr. George Robert Burgess married Clara Ferguson.

3. Rev. Strother Burgess married Caroline Kinnes.

4. John B. Burgess married Era Garrett.

5. William Burgess married Tracy Holmes.

6. Octavia Burgess married Goo. W. Andrews.

7. Sarah Burgess married David Kinnes.

8. Susan Margaret Burgess married John R. Wellman. They had two children: William McGuffey Wellman, and Ceres Wellman.

9. Amelia Burgess married Perry Powell.

10. Virginia Burgess married Columbus Prichard.

11. Charity Burgess married Davis Martin.

12. Alice Burgess married Prof. Taylor B. McClure.

13. Catherine Burgess married Albert Strother.

14. Lenora Burgess died in infancy.

g. Marshall Spurlock married, moved to Ray County, Missouri.

7. Elizabeth Morris, daughter of Levi and Margaret Morris, married Rev. Burwell Spurlock, of Wayne County. He was a Methodist preacher, and was, without doubt, the greatest country preacher that this section of Wayne County has ever produced. To this union were born four children:

a. Cassander Spurlock, married Bethia Booten Dec. 23, 1832. She died August 4, 1856, at 45 years, 5 months, and fifteen days. They had a large family. She was a daughter of Reuben Booten, Sr., and his wife, Mary Booten.

b. Mero Spurlock married Samuel Booth and Elizabeth (Ferguson) Booth, daughter of Samuel Ferguson I. Charley Booth lived near Wayne, and was the progenitor of all the Booths of Wayne County.

c. Roxanna Spurlock, daughter of Rev. Burwell Spurlock, by first wife. She married Asa Booton, II, and their descendants are numerous.

d. Levi Spurlock.

To give full account of all Morris' and their descendants would require a large volume; but I believe this will make clear the background of the pioneer descendants of Levi Morris in Wayne County. I would be glad to hear from anyone interested in any of these families, or any other pioneer family of this section.

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(WCN - 4/21/1950) WAYNE ONE OF 30 NAMED TO HONOR 'MAD ANTHONY'

There are approximately 30 towns and villages by the name of Wayne, Waynesboro or other derivatives of the name "Wayne" located in nineteen of the forty-eight states of the United States.

Interesting data concerning the various towns and counties named "Wayne" throughout the country has been recently assembled by Mr. Floyd Chalfant, of the Waynesboro (Pennsylvania) Record Herald. Inasmuch as Wayne and Wayne County, West Virginia have a very peculiar interest in this research, Mr. Chalfant and the Record have had the courtesy to make available to Wayne County News the result of his findings, which is given in the article below.—Editor's Note.

The town of Wayne and Wayne County, West Virginia, are in good company so far as their name is concerned, as is revealed in the list of towns, villages and counties with similar names throughout the country; all of these are named for the distinguished Revolutionary soldier. In addition to the name of the County Seat and County in which this newspaper is published, we also have another tribute to General Wayne in the form of a namesake, which is "Mad Anthony Wayne" Camp located on Spring Valley Drive and operated as a recreation center by the Huntington Park Board. In addition there are numerous men and boys in Wayne County who bear the same name, thus honoring the Revolutionary patriot.

General Anthony Wayne (Mad Anthony) was known in his day as a much traveled gentleman. But in person he never traveled even a tenth of the distance his fame and his name have gone since his time.

He knew the east. But nineteen states of the United States know his name from towns or cities named for him, a number of them in counties designated in honor of him.

There are 30 of these cities and towns and villages, including some that Uncle Sam himself might have trouble finding. The Wayne farthest from the scene of his exploits is Wayne, Montana. Uncle Sam does not know where it is, in fact does not know officially that it exists. There is no post office in Wayne, Montana. For that matter there is no post office in Waynesburg, Kansas, nor at Wayne Pitt, Indiana Wayne Heights and Waynecastle, near Waynesboro, Pennsylvania, also must get along without post offices.

Towns and Populations

Towns and Cities or Villages named after General Wayne and their populations follow:

Waynesboro, Penn. ..................11,000

Wayne Heights, Penna.

Waynecastle, Penna.

Wayne, Michigan ......................10,000

Wayne, Penna. ........................... 8,000

Waynesboro, Va. ....................... 8,000

Waynesburg, Penna. ...... .......... 5,000

Waynesboro, Georgia ............... 5,500

Waynesboro, Miss. .................... 1,445

Waynesburg, Ohio ... ................. 1,223

Waynesville, Mo. ........................ 1,200

Wayne, W. Va. .............................1,500

Waynesville, Ohio ........ ................ 833

Waynesboro, Tenn.......... ............. 768

Wayne, Ohio ............ ..................... 626

Waynesville, N. C. ...................... 7,000

Waynetown, Ind. ........................... 700

Wayne, Okla. ................................. 760

Waynesville, Georgia.

Wayne, Illinois.

Wayne City, Illinois.

Wayne, Kansas.

Waynesburg, Kansas.

Wayne, Maine.

Wayne, Montana (No P. O.)

Wayne, Nebraska.

Wayne, New Jersey.

Wayne, New York.

Waynesfield, Ohio.

Wayne Pitt, Indiana (No P. O.)

Fort Wayne, Indiana ................118,410

Twelve are named Wayne, 6 are named Waynesboro, 3 Waynesburg, 4 Waynesville, 1 Waynetown, 1 Waynesfield.

If Wayne Heights and Waynecastle are counted, Pennsylvania has five communities named for General Wayne, and thus takes precedence among the states. This is eminently fitting, since General Wayne was a native of Pennsylvania. With four derivatives of the name Ohio ranks second.

New York was the scene of some of the greatest exploits of General Wayne, and one would think that state would rank high with Waynes. However, New York has only one town derived from the name. New Jersey has only one, and Massachusetts none at all.

In Utah Too

Sixteen counties in as many states have the name Wayne. The largest Wayne county of them all,

from the standpoint of population, is Wayne County, Michigan, close to Detroit, with more than 2,000,000 inhabitants.

Wayne County, North Carolina, is second if the 1940 census figures are taken as authority, with 60,000 population, and the smallest Wayne County, Utah, with 2,394.

Among the 30 Waynes, Waynesboros, Waynesburgs, and Waynesvilles, certainly Waynesboro, Pennsylvania is one of the largest if not the largest. Wayne, Michigan, 17 miles west of Detroit, in a rapidly growing suburban community, may question this, and the census of 1950 may be required to determine the justification of their claim.

Likewise Wayne, Pennsylvania, a suburb of Philadelphia, near where General Wayne was born, may question the authenticity of Waynesboro's claim. It has had a large increase since the 1940 census was taken. Waynesboro, Virginia, is an active industrial community which has added considerably to its population since the DuPonts established their plant there.

A Deal Is Made

Concerning the Pennsylvania Waynes, an interesting story has come down through the years, apparently with the basis of fact to justify it. The story goes that in early history it was difficult to differentiate among the three Waynes because of the similarity of names. So arrangements were made for one to remain Wayne, Waynesburg to be known as "burg," and Waynesboro as "boro."

Even with this arrangement, difficulties some times arise. It is not uncommon for mall addressed to Waynesburg to reach Waynesboro, or vice versa, although this is not as common now as it was in other years. Wayne mail seldom comes either to Waynesboro or Waynesburg.

However, some mail intended for Waynesboro finds its way either to Waynesboro, Virginia, or Waynesboro, Georgia, due to the briefing of abbreviations. The former Pennsylvania abbreviation was simply "Pa." which when penned could appear much like "Va." or "Ga." Since the accepted abbreviation now for Pennsylvania is "Penna." considerable has been accomplished toward straightening out the matter of mail.

The Largest Town

Waynesboro. Pennsylvania, may be the largest among all the towns named for the intrepid general of Revolutionary fame, but it is difficult to determine which is the smallest, because of the near impossibility of tracing census figures. Where a town or village is a part of a township, even though it has a post office, it is the custom of the census statisticians to include it in the township rather than identify it as a town or village.

Counties Named Wayne

Any story of Waynes in the United States would be incomplete without something relating to counties named in honor of the famous Revolutionary hero. General Anthony Wayne.

Sixteen Wayne counties are to be found the length and breadth of the land in as many states.

The states containing them are: Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Utah and West Virginia.

Have Similar Names

Some of these counties, in fact a good many of them, have towns of Wayne and other derivatives of the name, but not all. For example Wayne County, Pennsylvania, located in the extreme northeastern tip of the state discloses an absence of towns or villages by the name of Wayne, while Wayne County, Mississippi and Wayne County, Nebraska, and our own Wayne County, West Virginia, among others have towns by the same or similar names.

The largest of all Wayne Counties from the standpoint of population, as revealed In an earlier story, is Wayne County, Michigan, with more than 2,000,000 people living there. This is explainable by the fact Wayne County is a populous suburb of Detroit, and very much an automobile center. The smallest in population is Wayne County, Utah, with between 2,000 and 3,000 population.

While it is relatively unimportant, only one Wayne County needs more than five figures to write its population. One is small enough to call for use of only four figures. The second largest Wayne County is in Ohio, with a population of more than 50,000, and the second smallest Wayne County, Nebraska, with approximately 10,000.

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(WCN - 4/21/1950) WAYNE COUNTY HISTORY NOTES

Dear Editor:

I do not want to take up too much of your valuable space, but would like to write one more article on county history before I stop. My first three articles were just an introduction to this. I want to go back and note the great changes that have been made in our section in the last 75 or 80 years.

When Adkins Mill Post Office was established here in 1868 it was the only office on this fork of Twelve Pole and people had to travel for many miles to get their mail as there was no free delivery. Mail was carried on horseback to Wayne once per week and the amount of letters was so small that no mail bags were required, and I'm told the carrier carried them in his pockets. Three mail cars now bring the mail each day in the week, except Sunday. Including the passenger bus, school buses and Sunday school bus, our section is well supplied along this line.

Those who went to school in the old log houses can notice a big change in the schools since that period. There were no buses then, no free text books and lunches. Some had to walk two or three miles to school. Clad in homespun, they carried their few books in a haversack. Among these few books were Ray's Arithmetic, McGuffey's Readers and sometimes a Blue Back Spelling book. Some carried Testaments and read from them. It was not out of fashion to teach the Bible in schools in that day. The boys helped build the fires at school and the girls swept the house, both without remuneration. At some schools boys chopped the wood that made the fires. Many living, remember the old log school house on Little Lynn with one teacher. We now have an eight room building that cost about ninety thousand dollars, with nine teachers and about three hundred pupils, many of them carried to school in buses.

I remember with reverence three of the old teachers, Rev. Lawrence Dickerson, G. W. Frazier and Chas. E. Walker. Mr. Dickerson taught along the Bible line, and so did Mr. Walker and Mr. Frazier emphasize the great moral lessons taught in McGuffey's Readers, which were next to the Bible. I remember that Mr. Walker, crippled as he was, went to the woods with pupils and helped dig maples, locusts, etc., and set the school lot full of shade trees on Arbor Day. The readers of William Holmes McGuffey did more to mould the character of our forefathers than any other set of school books. I am told there were one hundred and twenty-two million copies of them published and they are still popular with the older class of people. During the past few years I have received inquiries from people in twenty-four states about these readers and we are aware that the morals of the country have not improved any since these readers were discarded from the schools. Back in those days Juvenile delinquency was rarely mentioned. What do we hear today? One man kills mother, father, sister and self; another kills mother, wife and daughter.

In my boyhood, Jesse James was considered the champion robber. When he got a loot of ten thousand dollars it was considered a big haul, but the modern robber has him beat 16 to 1. They get a million dollars now at one haul. If Jesse James were here he would have to give up the belt and take a back seat. One of our U. S. Senators says that what the nation and world needs in this hour is a revival of old time religion, a revival of our faith in God, our neighbors and ourselves. Mrs. J. F. Marting of Ironton, O., who kept her three daughters busy at medical studies until they became practicing physicians says, "I kept my children busy, so they kept out of trouble; much of juvenile delinquency is the result of children's idleness and misdirected energy."

Parental delinquency would be more appropriate than juvenile delinquency. Judge Fawcett of the State Supreme Court of New York, says: "During twenty-three years on the bench, in which time over four thousand boys under the ago of twenty-one years were convicted of crime before me, of whom but three were members of a Sunday School, has satisfied me of the value of the Sunday Schools in a community in helping safeguard it from the growth of criminals. In 1902 cases of suspended criminal sentences in which a minister, priest or rabbi became interested at my request, only 62 of the boys were brought back for violation of the condition of the parole. If all the children could be kept in Sunday School and the grown-ups were active in some church, we could close our prisons and jails."

Just recently the inmates of Connecticut State Prison published an article in which they condemned the radio crime producing school, saying these programs gave details on how to snatch $75,000 worth of diamonds while another showed how to case a bank for a $50,000 stick-up. Some church members will allow their children to be taught crime like that over the radio and then complain of juvenile delinquency. Four things stand in the way of morals for youth and adults, trashy literature, beer gardens, movies and dance halls. I have one catalog that lists one hundred and twenty-five books on murder. Our sister commonwealth of Kentucky has voted beer out in ninety counties, I learn. I believe our state will do as well when we get a vote on it. Some church members will contend there is no harm in the movie or the dance. Let such read Paul's letter to Galatians, 5th Ch. 19 to 21st verses and take their dictionary and look at the word reveling. The movie could have been made a power for good in educational and religious lines, as there are some good shows. Some people think I am pessimistic, but I want to give what some religious people have said about the movies. I read that the General Associations of Baptists in Kentucky declared a short time ago that "Beyond question of doubt the picture show is the number one advertising agency of the devil, and that they have done more to break down spiritually our churches than any one thing."

The Editorial Council of the Religious Press recently made and published an analysis of one hundred thirty-three motion pictures and found in them thirty-two murders, five suicides, seventeen gangsters or crooks in leading roles and twenty-seven leading roles filled by criminals other than gangsters. It is estimated that there are over seven hundred thousand young people in the U. S. who are living criminal lives, the majority of whom received their first impression of impurity at the movies.

The kind of amusement the boys had who went to the four-months school sixty years ago was to help with the chores at home mornings and evenings, such as feeding the hogs and horses, digging potatoes, carrying water and coal, cutting stovewood, turning the grindstone or shelling corn to take to mill.

The girls churned, swept, washed dishes, cooked, knit and spun. During the eight months between schools the pupils were engaged in such healthful amusements as plowing and hoeing corn, cutting grass and wheat, swinging the ax and mattock in the forest, shearing sheep, picking geese, making soap and sundry other little things. Such amusements as splitting rails and chopping cord wood helped to make Lincoln, and Garfield president, and home work helped to develop Frances E. Willard and Clara Baron. The young folks engaged in such recreations as service hunting, birch sapping, fishing, hunting, playing marbles and many other games.

Helen Welshimer tells of a Bible worker, who called on the father of a boy in a tenement house and asked him to send the boy to Bible school. The man said, "Yes, I want him to be a real American citizen and uphold your laws." The worker then called on another father in the same house and asked if the boy could go to Bible school and the father said, "No, he didn't want him to go to Bible school or learn American ideals." Those boys grew up and the first is now pastor of a large church in one of our large cities. The other boy made a criminal and it was he who shot president McKinley at Buffalo, N. Y.

Our pioneer preachers and teachers braved the dangers of the wilderness and drove barbarism from the hills and valleys of Wayne county and left us a glorious heritage and we will have to account some day how we used that heritage. Wayne county is dotted over with churches and school houses. Everyone is in reach of a school or church, yet I occasionally find people who do not have a Bible in their home and of course they know but little of Him "who seeks the lost, makes fit the unfit, forgives the erring, binds up the wounds of the afflicted, and moulds a wretched, tortured, misshapen human into a thing of beauty."

It seems like from the garments that Dorcas made, weaving was common in the days of the apostles. But we will go back a thousand years before Christ and see what the wise man, King Solomon said about the weaver and spinner as recorded in the last chapter of Proverbs, "Who can find a virtuous woman? For her price is far above rubies, the heart of her husband safely trusts in her. She seeketh wool and flax and worketh willingly with her hands. She layeth her hands to the spindle and her hands hold the distaff. She stretcheth out her hands to the poor, she reacheth forth her hands to the needy. She is not afraid of snow for her household. She maketh fine linen and selleth it. She looketh well to the ways of her household and eateth not the bread of idleness. Her children arise up and call her blessed, her husband also and he praiseth her. Many daughters have done virtuously but thou excellest them all. Favor is deceitful and beauty is vain; but a woman that feareth the Lord, she shall be praised."

Backward, turn backward, O time in your flight,

Banish evil allurements out of our sight,

Give the boys and girls plenty of home recreation,

It will be a good part of life's education.

Instruct them freely in Bible and McGuffey lore

And juvenile delinquency will soon be no more.

L. W. OSBURN

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Crum, W. Va.
April 10, 1950

Editor Wayne County News:

From the best information I have, it appears that the first settler in this section was Josiah Marcum. The date is not available. His grave on Jennies Creek is marked by the following inscription :

"Josiah Marcum, Drummer Campbell's Va. Mil Rev War." Date of birth and death not shown.

He built a cabin in the bottom where my house now stands, later selling his claim to Adam Crum, who was another Revolutionary War soldier. It seems that Marcum then located on Jennies Creek, on what is now the Herald Farm, and the lands in and around Crum were held by the Crum family until recent years.

It is interesting to note, (though not important) that Josiah Marcum was my great-great-grandfather, and Adam Crum was my great-grandfather. He was the father of William C. Crum, who built the Crum homestead, now standing.

It Is also interesting to note (though not important) that Jenny Wiley was grandfather's aunt and was an occasional guest at the Crum homestead.

My mother, Elizabeth Queen, is the only living member of grandfather Crum's family. She is almost ninety years of age.

W. M. QUEEN

--------------------------------

Dear Editor:

Would you allow me space for a few lines about pioneer settlers of Wayne county and some hard times?

I will begin with splash dams. Rufus Lester spoke of the last ones back in the 70's or near 80's, but I remember them a few years of a later date. I have seen splash dams in Milum creek, Kiahs creek and also Camp creek. My father, the late Winchester Maynard, was a man who worked a great deal in timber. He worked on Camp creek and shantied (as they called it in those days, now they say camped) at the place known as the "Uncle Jess" Francis farm on Camp creek. He hauled logs out of Milum and Kiahs creek with six yoke of oxen. I have seen those big logs, poplar and oak, 35 and 40 feet long, float down Twelve Pole for three and four days at a time, when there was a log tide. They would be so thick that one could cross the creek on them. And what did they get for that timber, the finest that was grown? Two and one-half and three cents a cube, but they had to live. The timbermen paid for help, 75c to $1 per day, and that was big wages. Then we could go to the store and buy 10 pounds or more of bacon for a dollar, beans 2c per pound and sugar four pounds for 25c. What can we get now for a dollar? I imagine the younger generation would be excited now to see a man coming along the road with six yoke of oxen, pulling a big log 30 or 40 feet long, with a nine foot whip. The late Jesse Fry was an ox team driver for Dad, and he always said he was a good one. But now all the big trees are gone and almost all the people who worked them.

The women folk and children had to work hard too. They would help clean up the land for planting the crops, such as they grew back then in the hills, get the ground all ready In the spring. The men would do the plowing. What did the women and children do? Take a little hoe with a blade maybe 1 1/2 inches wide and three inches long, with a short handle, a "sang hoe," a bottle of milk, a piece of corn bread, maybe a slice of bacon and take to the woods and be gone all day, and there were some wild animals too in those days, come in, in the evening with a poke (it was poke in those days, now we say bag) full of ginseng, which they sold for the necessities of life, such as a pair of shoes, maybe cloth for a dress or two for the girls, some cotton shirting for the boys. Those were happy days, not a care in the world. Grandmother (granny, we called her) would weave. Oh! that old loom, I seem to see it now. How the shuttles would fly back and forth. Grandpap hunted quite a bit in his early settlement.

I remember he told us grandchildren of killing a big bear back on one of the mountains in the head of Kiahs creek, too big to carry, so he rolled him down the mountain side to a small creek, Rollem In, this is how the creek got its name.

Granny had sheep, she carded and spun the wool on a big wheel. She also had a little wheel, and how the old wheel would hum at night, with a piece of split pine knot stuck in a crack in the jamb rock for a light. She raised flax, made cotton thread, wove coverlets, blankets, counterpanes, table linen, bed ticking, and also made all of her dyes. The old dye pot would sit in the corner of the kitchen. The kitchen floor was made of puncheons, about 3 feet wide, split from big poplar trees, with one side hewn down. We children still have some of Granny's work, blankets and coverlets, more than 100 years old. We loved to go to Granny's house. We didn't mind to sleep at the foot of the bed, and we all loved to sleep in the little trundle bed. We'd slip and eat dried apples and peaches. When Grandpap would rob the bees in the summer, he'd give us all a big piece of honey and we'd run around the yard eating it. There was an old well sweep, and a gourd for a drinking dipper. We would make taffy from sorghum molasses. We wore linsey dresses, brogan shoes, one pair from fall until spring, then it was good old barefoot days. We'd gather chestnuts and black walnuts in the fall. We never got cold out at play. Now most of the girls wear breeches with shirt tails out.

We only had four months of school, the teachers were their own janitors and got from $18 to $30 per month, and we walked three or more miles to school. Now the bus picks up the pupils at the door, the teachers all have private cars of their own.

Mrs. Georgia Maynard Adkins
Portsmouth, O., Route 5

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258 Hillside Lane
Rittman, Ohio
April 12, 1950

Dear Editor:

A little more Wayne county history, especially ministers of the gospel.

My grandfather, Leander Osburn, was a Baptist preacher. I remember him very well. He was going horseback to Wayne to attend Masonic lodge, when a deer crossed the road near Big Branch. He got off his horse, killed the deer, made a noose of grape vines and hung the deer in a bush until he returned from lodge.

My great-grandfather, Goodwin Lycan, was also a Baptist minister. He was one of the founders of the Bethesda church on the left fork of Twelve Pole. The church was first named Oak Hill Baptist church, and was built on Two Mile creek. I think it was the first church organized in that community, unless it was the Centerville church. J. S. Christian told me not long ago that preacher Goodwin was a great bear hunter.

I well remember the old loom my mother used when I was just a small boy. I used to feed, the shuttle for her. Mother and my older sisters used to knit all the socks and stockings for the family.

Rev. Burl Akers, another Baptist minister, said he preached his first sermon barefooted at Cassville, now Fort Gay. Rev. Akers was asked by another preacher once where he attended college. His answer was, "Under a rock cliff at Spruce Lick." Then he was asked how he could pray such a good prayer. He said, "He practiced."

Rev. J. D. Garrett was another great preacher. He was a Methodist Circuit Rider.

Fletcher Workman

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(WCN - 5/12/1950)

Pictured above are members of the Wayne High School Band which participated in the West Virginia Band Festival in Huntington last Saturday. It marked the first time in recent years that the Wayne band took part in the festival. Gaynelle Fry, standing behind drum, is drum major. Front row, left to right, are Majorettes Jeanelle Lecky, Peggy Adkins, Jo Ann Fraley, Jean Pemberton, Judy Pemberton, Libby Morrison and Betty Booton. Second row, left to right, Director Louis Morace, Thomas Damron, Ruth Gay Bias, Frances Sullivan, Wanda Mullens, Lovell Bing, Margaret Trimble and David Wilson. Third row, left to right, Carolyn Hensley, Avonelle Adkins, Mary Wriston, Mary Adkins, Joyce Ross, Edward Thomas, Donald Wilson and Donald Smith. Fourth row, left to right, Monrow Ferguson, Donald Hunter, Nancy Staley and Charles McKinster. Miss Rebecca Scaggs, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Jimmy Scaggs, band mascot, is standing at lower right. Absent when picture was made were Bobby Bowen, majorette, and Laura Smith, Glen Thompson, Clideth Damron, George Fleshman, Jack Rutherford, Opal Stephen and Carol Queen.

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(WCN - 5/12/1950) WAYNE COUNTY HISTORY NOTES

Versailles, lnd.

Gentlemen:

You will find enclosed check for the renewal of my subscription.

I also enclose a poem which was printed in the "News" I believe about 1925. I prize this poem very highly because of my relatives mentioned, and its historical value to me. The author was my uncle, and "William" Dickerson was my father.

Uncle Lawrence and his "sister Lizzie" (Kendrick), have now answered the last call. I enjoy reading the items of "30 years ago."

My family, with the exception of one brother, left West Virginia in 1907.

I attended school in Wayne from 1905 to 1907, the late O. J. Rife was our principal.

Mrs. T. B. McClure was post mistress. The postoffice was in a small building near the McClure residence.

Respectfully,
Queen Dickerson Franklin

----------------------

The following poem was written by the late Rev. Lawrence Dickerson, of Prospect, O., formerly of Wayne county, and was read by Rev. Dickerson to his former pupils at an annual Dickerson School Reunion held at Armilda on the Wayne-East Lynn road several years ago. "Hi" referred to in the poem was Uncle Hiram Dickerson, and "Jess" was Uncle Jess Francis, pioneer citizens here who had few equals in wielding an ax in the forests. The poem portrays the hardships of school days in Wayne County just after the Civil War.

THE LONE TRAIL THROUGH THE LOW GAP
By Rev. Lawrence Dickerson

In eighteen hundred and sixty-six
two youthful fathers proceeded to fix
A well-blazed trail across the hill,
To do their part, a school to fill.

After sixty-five years I now confess,
it was my father and Uncle Jess.
Their children a crooked road would roam,
to school of a morning and then back home.

There was Becky and Martha and Cyntha Ann,
I'll name them all if I possibly can -
And two little boys with pranks and prances,
Came down by our house, William and John Francis.

Five from that family and we added three,
Enough for half, a school it seemed to me.
There was William and Lawrence when not busy,
Including sometimes our sister Lizzie.

One morning quite early Uncle Jess came down,
With his ax on his shoulder looking around,
And said, "Jess, this trail is too long, our children are frail,
Let's take our axes and blaze them a trail."

"All right" said Hi, gave his mouth a swipe,
Just wait a minute, Jess, till I fill my Pipe-"
And down the hillside by Peter Cave creek,
They blazed a lone trail, a near way to seek.

Round the foot of a knob, shaped like a cap,
They blazed a lone trail right through a low gap.
The trees and bushes they continued to hew
Till they cut the distance half way in two.

On Bartram Fork in a little log lodge,
A school was taught by a Mr. Hodge.
To old time whippings he sure was true,
Wore a long tail coat of Yankee blue;

He governed his school by the hickory rule,
But smoked his pipe in time of school.
I went one day to warm my back,
And with that pipe I got a whack.

And to the school for miles around
Came all the young people that could be found.
Down Bartrum Fork, snow or rain,
Came K. B. Lewis and his cousin, Cain.

From Napier Ridge, just think of that,
Came a young married man by the name of Pat;
In many, many ways he was in the lead,
But he came to that school to learn to read.

He was exceedingly clever, never nursed a grudge,
And made for his country one fine circuit judge;
His decisions were fair and always sane,
When Judge of the circuit of Logan and Wayne.

Down on big Lynn was a group of four,
Jim was the oldest, fifteen or more—
Then came a sister according to memory,
Then two little boys, Cassell and John Emory.

At the mouth of Big Lynn lived Uncle Mat Ross
With two young boys, but uncle was boss.
But amongst the three was never a spat,
So he sent Jones and young Matt.

Above the mouth of the creek, around the bend,
A mother decided, she, two would send—
So down the road through Twelve-Pole gorge
Came young Dock Sellards and his brother, George.

On Little Lynn creek was a group of three,
Cynthia was the sister's name, it seems to me.
Mont was clever but could play a prank,
But the leader of them all was named Tom Frank.

The number from Uncle Bob's, there is no tellin',
Including Tommy and Cyntha, Sarah June and Mary Ellen.
At grandmother Osburn's there was no lack,
But she only sent little Susan and Mack.

But where are those fathers who blazed the trail,
That their little children never should fail?
They lived a long time tolling for others,
They have passed through "The Low Gap" along with our mothers.

But what of those children from Peter Cave creek?
Four you'll not find if among men you seek.
They've passed over the trail through the "low gap" of death,
Loving and loyal until their last breath.

There was Becky and Willie and Cyntha Ann,
And my brother William, the best little man.
They have long been gone to that city four-square,
They are watching and waiting for us over there.

Here's Martha and John, whom you all know,
Still traveling the trail but will soon have to go.
Besides these dear cousins here's Lizzie and I,
We are nearing the "Low Gap" and will soon have to die

But beyond the "Low Gap" is a land bright and fair
May Peter Cave groups all meet over there,
And from that good land no trail will lead out,
Together forever, we'll sing and we'll shout.

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(WCN - 5/12/1950) MOTHER'S DAY 1ST OBSERVED AT GRAFTON W. VA. CHURCH

Next Sunday our busy nation will pause to pay its annual tribute to the mothers of America. On this forty-second observance of Mothers Day, Grafton, West Virginia's Andrews Methodist Church, "the mother church of Mothers Day," will be the scene of an impressive memorial program.

A large number of West Virginians and residents of neighboring states are expected to visit the little church where, in 1908, the first public Mothers Day service was held.

Mothers Day was originated by Anna Jarvis who was born near Grafton and spent much of her early life there. Within the church are pictures of Miss Jarvis and her mother, Anna Reeves Jarvis, the first mother of Mothers Day.

Miss Jarvis, who passed away several years ago, conceived the idea for Mothers Day at the close of the Civil War when veterans of both armies were returning to war-shattered homes in Grafton. People were embittered, misunderstandings developed and Grafton, a border community, was the scene of much feuding.

The mothers of Grafton united under Mrs. Jarvis' leadership and declared a Mothers Friendship Day" in an effort to correct the appalling situation. It was a successful move, for on this day the men of Gray and the men of Blue clasped hands and became friends once again.

Some years later the Jarvis family moved to Philadelphia, and it was there that Mrs. Jarvis died. Only a few months had passed when Miss Jarvis expressed her desire to hold a special service in her old church in Grafton to be dedicated to her mother and all the mothers of Taylor County. The service was held May 12, 1907.

The first public Mothers Day services were held simultaneously, May 10, 1908, in Grafton and in Miss Jarvis' church in Philadelphia. In 1912 Mothers Day was proclaimed an official holiday by the state of West Virginia, and in four more years it was observed as a national holiday, recognized in a resolution adopted by Congress and approved by President Wilson.

Flower arrangements of native plants will adorn the Andrews Methodist church next Sunday, and, as is traditional, all women in the congregation will receive a gift. Bouquets will be presented to the oldest and youngest mothers present and to the mother having the most children in attendance.

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(WCN - 5/26/1950) WAYNE COUNTY HISTORY NOTES

BY F. B. LAMBERT

PLYMALE FAMILY HISTORY

We usually think of history as a recital of the deeds of great leaders, military or civil, such as governors, senators, presidents, or great discoverers, inventors, etc. If we can't be one of them, we like to run our family tree back to one of them. We fail to recognize the fact that in all such adventures, the common man was just as necessary as the leaders. This was most certainly true of our pioneer settlers, for it was they who cleared the forests, built their log cabins, and laid the foundation for our present civilization.

The accompanying will of John Plymale gives us an introduction to one of the very early pioneer families of Wayne, then a part of Cabell county. He was not the earliest settler here, as many had preceded him by fifteen or twenty years; but he came in time to find a howling wilderness in the Twelve Pole Valley. His neighbors were few, and widely scattered. He was born November 25, 1795, in Botetourt County, Virginia, and came here in the spring of 1815. He was then a mere boy of about twenty years of age. We do not know why he left home and probably never will know. No doubt, he was restless, like other youths of those days, and sought adventure beyond the mountains, where land was cheap, and game plentiful. Little is known of his forbears in Virginia.

Tradition says he was one of seven brothers, and that his father was Anthony Plymale, and his mother a Bowen, possibly a distant relative of Hugha Bowen, the first of the Bowens to come to Wayne.

John Plymale and his brothers, Anthony and Gabriel, are shown by records to have been the only Plymales who settled in Wayne County. William Plymale remained in Virginia, and Bowen Plymale probably came here, as he was said to be somewhat profligate. If he did come here, he must have gone elsewhere, probably west, for he never owned any land in Wayne County.

James Plymale married Polly Hatfield, October 6, 1828, the daughter of James Hatfield, of Lincoln County, and purchased land on Guyandotte River below Barboursville, but evidently went further west.

Hugh Plymale, another brother, settled at Yellowtown, below Gallipolis, Ohio. He raised a large family, but died of yellow fever in 1878, having contracted the dreadful disease from the towboat, John Porter, which came up from the south in that year. Every man on board died, and the boat drifted to the shore at the Plymale farm. James Plymale went west, and Gabriel sold out to Henry Luther for $100 and was last heard from in Kansas. All of these Plymales came direct from Giles county, Virginia, indicating that the family had left Botetourt County and removed farther south.

John soon sent for his brother, Anthony; and the two of them married Ferguson sisters, and lived, reared their large families, and died on the waters of Twelve Pole, about Buffalo Creek. John built his small, log cabin on the north bank of Twelve Pole, a short distance above the mouth of Buffalo Creek. Anthony built his cabin on the opposite side of the creek. After a number of years John built a fine, brick home, which is still standing and is owned by a Mr. Miller. There were several such buildings in the neighborhood, all of which were built by a Mr. Stuck, an old brick mason.

As stated, John and Anthony Plymale married sisters. John married Rebecca Ferguson, December 23, 1819; and Anthony married Polly Ferguson, June 10, 1824. Rebecca died July 29, 1828, aged 27 years and nine months. She left five children, as follows:

1. Anthony Wayne Plymale was born June 10, 1823, at Buffalo, Shoals. He was married twice and had two sets of children. His first wife was Permelia Chadwick, daughter of Hiram Chadwick. They were married Oct. 9, 1845. She was born July 22, 1826. They had eight children:

1. Rebecca Plymale, born Nov. 5, 1847; Married Anthony Wayne Plymale Jan. 3, 1844. He was a son of Anthony Plymale Sr. They had nine children.

2. Frances (Leah F.) Plymale, born May 12, 1849. Married James Spears. They lived in Missouri, and had six or eight children: James Spears, Hadley Spears, and others.

3. Lucretia Plymale was born Dee. 5, 1851, and lived to be quite old. She married Luke Drown son of Benjamin Drown by his first wife. They had several children.

4. John Milton Plymale, born Nov. 24, 1853, and died November, 1925. He married Anna Merrill, of Ironton, Ohio. They had four children: Sadie, married a Mr. Hawks. She lives in Kenova; Curtis Plymale, Kenova, W. Va.; Harry, lives in Cincinnati. I have not learned the name of the fourth one, but believe it was Grace Plymale.

5. Hiram Plymale: b. Sept. 4, 1855; d. June 8, 1864.

6. Viola Plymale: b. Jan. 8, 1857; d. March 15, 1894; married first John Plymale, son of John H Plymale, and grandson of Anthony Plymale, Sr. This family lived on Walker's Branch, in Wayne county. They had a daughter, Permelia Plymale, who married Sheridan, son of Alderson Plymale, and grandson of Anthony Plymale, Sr. Her second husband was Oscar Frizzel. They had a son, Claude Frizzel, who died at 16 or 18 years of age. She then married James Hensley and had three more children.

7. Josephine Plymale: b. Feb. 17, 1859. Married Dr. John Grant, son of William and Bethia Plymale Grant. They lived at Buffalo Shoals.

8. Albert Gallatin Plymale, known as "Gallie": b. Nov. 13,1861. Married Daisy Myers of Moundsville Dec. 2, 1889. They had two sons and two daughters.

Anthony Wayne Plymale: Married, second Mrs. Malinda Johnson Forbess July 27, 1867. She was a widow of James Forbess. She had two sons killed in the Union army. James Forbess married a Carroll, went west, and died probably in Nebraska. They had five daughters, one of whom, Mary Forbess, died at about six years of age. Children of Anthony Wayne Plymale:

1. Prentice D. Plymale: b. June 7, 1868. He married Signey Dixon June 7, 1893, daughter of George and Ann Perdue Dixon, of Dock's Creek, who was a daughter of Melvena Perdue (Jim?). They lived on Buffalo, about one mile, up.

2. Edward Plymale: Born Sept. 13, 1869. Married Leah Malcolm Sept. 29, 1901. She was born Jan. 31, 1879. Eight children, five girls and three boys. They live one mile up Buffalo Creek.

3. Lindsey Plymale: Born April 8, 1871. Married Minnie Stalls, of Muncie, Indiana. They lived for some time at Muncie, but moved to Cleveland, Ohio, and died there. They had two daughters and four sons.

4. Cora Grace Plymale: Born Sept. 22, 1873. Married Anthony Haynie. He died in March, 1949. He was the son of William Haynie (sometimes spelled Haney) who had married Elizabeth Plymale, daughter of Anthony Plymale, Sr., by his first wife. Mrs. Cora Grace Haynie is still, living—about two or three hundred yards up Buffalo Creek. She had two daughters and five sons. All are living but one.

5. Bethia Plymale was born July 19, 1875 and attended the common schools at Wayne county. In 1910, she graduated in the Normal Department of Marshall College, and taught for three years in the Wayne county schools. She received her A. B. Degree from Illinois University in 1918; then taught three years in Gauley County, and three years at Ronceverte. She received her Master's degree at Colombia, in 1923. In 1924 she became a teacher in Ashville College, Ashville, North Carolina, and remained there until 1941, when she retired. She is now living in Huntington with her sister, Mrs. William McQuinn.

6. Dollie Blanche Plymale: Born Aug 3, 1877. Married Thomas McQuinn, brother of William McQuinn. They live near Newark, Ohio,

7. Lillie Plymale: Born July 14, 1880. Died Feb. 7, 1896.

8. Lelia Plymale: Born July 14, 1880. She and Lillie were twin sisters. She married William McQuinn, and lives in Huntington.

II. Rebecca Plymale: Born Oct. 20, 1826; died Feb. 24, 1892, daughter of John and Rebecca (Ferguson) Plymale. Married John Bromley. They lived at Louisa, Kentucky. They had a son, John Plymale Bromley, who first married Josephine Vinson, sister of Mrs. Belle Vinson Hughes. Josephine Vinson Bromley had two children:

Charles Vinson Bromley, who live in Kenova; and Ella Yates Bromley, who married John Mullins, and had among other children, Miss Mary Blair Mullins, of Huntington.

Altogether, Rebecca Plymale Bromley and her husband had twelve children, two of whom died in infancy. I regret that I can't give them all in this article, but among the others were:

Sam Bromley, who married Belle Walker. They lived in Louisa. A son, John Bromley, lives in Huntington.

Anthony Wayne Bromley is a practicing physician in Louisa, Kentucky, and is the only one of the family living.

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(WCN - 6/2/1950) WAYNE COUNTY HISTORY NOTES

A great deal of local history was revealed recently in a suit to establish ownership of 181 3/4 acre tract of mineral in Southern Wayne county.

Plaintiff's in the suit were the Freeman Dyer estate and Owens-Illinois Glass Company. The United Fuel Gas Company was defendant.

Federal Judge Ben Moore ruled in favor of the plaintiffs.

Plaintiffs had asked to have their title to the minerals in a 181 tract of land situate in Wayne county, to be valid, and had asked for cancellation, as a cloud upon their title, of a "severance" deed dated August 15, 1879, executed by defendant's predecessors in title.

The tract in dispute lies within the outer boundaries of a 550 acre tract granted to one George Hinkle by the Commonwealth of Virginia on July 1, 1850, and this 550 acre tract in turn lies wholly within the outer boundaries of a 31,000 acre tract granted to one Samuel Smith by the Commonwealth of Virginia on June 29, 1779. Plaintiffs are the legal successors to the documentary titles of George Hinkle and Defendant is the legal successor to the documentary title of Samuel Smith.

Titles of plaintiffs and defendant are derived as follows:

George Hinkle, holder of the 550 acre "junior" patent, died shortly after the Civil War, leaving as survivors his wife, five sons and two daughters. The evidence does not show where the family lived at the time of his death, but some time later the remains of George Hinkle were moved to the Hinkle farm and buried there. In 1868 one John Neece and his family moved to the land adjoining the Hinkle tract, and the Hinkle family was living thereon at that time. In 1870 or 1871, pursuant to an oral agreement between Harvey Hinkle (a son of George Hinkle) and John Neece. Neece purchased 450 acres of the Hinkle tract, including the 181 3/4 acres in dispute, the Hinkles leaving the state and the Neeces taking possession immediately. At that time there were two old log houses on the land and about fifty acres had been cleared and fenced. Neece cleared an additional thirty or forty acres and erected several buildings. There is no evidence that Neece ever received a deed from any of the Hinkles, or that he actually lived on or fenced in the 181 3/4 acres in dispute.

On September 12, 1872, A. A. Low, William Aspinwall and others by deed acquired ownership of the Smith "senior" patent covering the 31,000 acre tract. In 1874 they instituted in this Court an action in ejectment against Neece and a large number of other defendants for the recovery of 379,665 acres, which included within its boundaries the disputed 181 3/4 acre tract. George Hinkle, whose estate at that time was the owner, according to the land books, of two other tracts of land in Wayne County within the Smith senior patent, was named as a defendant in this ejectment action, but of course was not served. John Neece was served with a copy of the declaration and notice of the suit on June 6, 1874, and on June 7, 1879, judgment in favor of plaintiffs was entered against Neece, along with other defendants. Writ of possession was issued under this judgment; but apparently not served, since Neece remained in possession. A few days or weeks after the date of the judgment, J. I. Kuhn, a land agent for Low and Aspinwall, had some negotiations with Neece regarding the land of which Neece had possession. A deed dated August 5, 1879, was executed by Kuhn as attorney in fact for Low, Aspinwall and others conveying to John Neece the 450 acres of surface, and excepting and reserving all minerals. This deed was signed and acknowledged by Kuhn as such attorney in fact on September 2, 1879, and filed for record in the office of the Clerk of the County Court of Wayne County on October 14, 1879. Appended to the deed was an acknowledgment, purportedly prepared by a deputy county clerk, to the effect that John Neece had signed and acknowledged the deed. The acknowledgment was not signed, and Neece's signature does not appear anywhere on the document. The deed was not certified by the clerk as having been admitted to record until July 4, 1887.

Some time after Kuhn's negotiations with Neece, Harvey Hinkle returned, and had some negotiations with Neece, as a result of which Neece decided to pay a sum of money to Hinkle, presumably for an interest of some kind in the land. The record fails to disclose any reason why Neece, who had recently been negotiating with the agent of Aspinwall and Low for an interest in the land, should now be ready to pay money to the Hinkle heirs for possession thereof, when his right to possession under the Hinkles had only a short time before been decided adversely to him in the ejectment suit brought by Aspinwall and Low. However, Neece sent his son to borrow some money with which to pay Hinkle; but before the son returned Hinkle sold the land to one John Dyer, and, pursuant to a power of attorney from all the Hinkle heirs, executed a deed dated May 4, 1880, conveying to Dyer in fee the 450 acres then in possession of Neece. Neece and Dyer, by oral agreement, afterwards made a division of the land, Dyer taking the portion which included the disputed 181 3/4 acres. A short time thereafter, James Dyer, son of John Dyer, moved on the land. One of his sons, Freeman, was born there on April 7, 1882. James Dyer, or those claiming under or through him, have been in actual possession from 1881 to the present time. The 181 3/4 acre tract was deeded by John Dyer to James Dyer on March 4, 1886. In 1947 James Dyer executed an oil and gas lease to Owens-Illinois Glass Company and Libbey-Owens-Ford Glass Company, plaintiffs herein with the heirs of James Dyer (he having died intestate in 1948).

Defendant is the legal successor to the documentary title of Aspinwall, Low and others to the 31,000 acre tract originally granted to Samuel Smith, and has drilled a number of gas wells upon other portions of this tract; but at no time have defendant or its predecessors drilled upon or entered upon the 181 3/4 acre tract, nor have plaintiffs or their predecessors ever drilled for oil or gas upon this tract.

The assessor's records for Wayne County show that plaintiffs' predecessors were assessed with the fee in the Hinkle tract from 1851 through 1905 (with the exception of the years 1862, 1863, 1864 and 1865, for which years records are not available). Commencing in 1906 and up to time of the institution of this action, plaintiffs and their predecessors were assessed with the 181 3/4 acres as "surface." The land books show that in Grant District of Wayne County (wherein the 181 3/4 acre tract is situate) in the year 1905 there were 375 tracts charged as fee, 9 tracts charged as surface and 12 tracts charged as mineral. In 1906 there were 44 tracts charged as fee, 369 tracts charged as surface and 11 tracts charged as mineral, a total of 284 changes from fee to surface having been made in that district. The records show similar changes in large numbers from fee to surface the same year in Stonewall district of Wayne County and in Harts Creek, Laurel Hill and Lincoln Districts of Lincoln County. Substantial portions of each of these districts lie within the Smith patent. No reason for those changes is given in the land books, nor was any reason supplied by the evidence. None of the plaintiffs or their predecessors in-title has ever made a deed severing title to the minerals in the 181 3/4 acre tract from title to the surface; and there is no evidence that any of the other owners of land which was changed from "fee" to "surface" in 1906 executed any severance deeds which might be assigned as reasons for such changes.

Up to and including the year 1883, defendant's predecessors were charged with a fee assessment of a large boundary of land in Wayne County, including the 181 3/4 acre

tract. In 1884 this assessment was changed from "foe" to "mineral", and this continued through 1933. Apparently the assessment was made each year by combining a number of smaller tracts into a large acreage, and listing it on the land books as one total. From 1934 through 1937 the minerals in a tract of 460 acres which included the 181 3/4 acre tract were omitted from the assessment charged to defendant, but in 1938 the tract was again assessed and back taxes paid, and such assessment has continued to the present time.

Plaintiffs admit that the documentary title of defendant is superior to that of plaintiffs, since derived from a senior grant, whereas plaintiffs claim under a junior grant; but plaintiffs assert that through adverse possession for the statutory period, under color of title derived from the junior grant, they have acquired title to both surface and minerals.

Defendant contends that the ejectment action against Neece interrupted the possession of plaintiffs predecessors prior to acquisition of title by adverse possession; that the severance deed from Aspinwall, Low and others to Neece severed the mineral estate prior to completion of the statutory period of possession by plaintiffs' predecessors (that the deed was in fact made prior to commencement of such possession), preventing the possession of the surface from extending to the minerals, and therefore preventing the acquisition of title thereto by adverse possession; and defendant disputes the propriety of any attack by plaintiffs upon the validity of the severance deed, on the theory that such attack constitutes an attempt to prove their title through a weakness to defendant's title, and further, that even if such an attack is proper the deed is nevertheless valid and effected a severance of the mineral estate; and defendant urges that even if it should be held that plaintiffs or their predecessors acquired title to the mineral estate by adverse possession, such title was forfeited to the State by assessment of the land as "surface" only subsequent to 1906, and that after forfeiture title was acquired by defendant pursuant to Article 13, Section 3, of the West Virginia Constitution.

In answer to these contentions, plaintiffs say that the ejectment action against Neece affected neither the possession nor the title of their predecessors, who were not parties to the suit; they assert that prior to the severance deed their predecessors acquired adverse title to the minerals, since Neece as Hinkle's executory vendee was in the same relation to the Hinkles' as a tenant would be, and his possession was therefore their possession; that even if their predecessors are held not to have acquired title prior to the severance deed, nevertheless the period of possession had at least commenced prior to that deed, and severance could not therefore be effected without entry and ouster; that even if that be not so, the severance deed was invalid because not accepted by Neece, and possession for ten years subsequent to the deed would therefore vest title in plaintiffs' predecessors; that they can with propriety attack the validity of the severance deed, it not being a link in defendant's chain of title, since defendant does not claim that its predecessors acquired title to the minerals thereby, but rather possessed such title prior to the execution thereof: that the assessment as "surface" commencing in 1906 did not effect a forfeiture of the mineral estate, since such change was erroneously made without the knowledge or authority of the Dyers: and further, that even if such estate was forfeited, defendant cannot qualify as a transferee under Article 13, Section 3, of the Constitution, since Class I and Class III transferees under that section must have been in possession of the land claimed, and Class II is limited to those claiming under a junior grant.

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(WCN - 6/16/1950) WAYNE COUNTY HISTORY NOTES

BIG SANDY EXPEDITION

The first white men who were within the present limits of Wayne county were those composing what is known in western annals as the Big Sandy Expedition of 1758. For our knowledge of it we are indebted to the journal of Lt. McNutt, now preserved among the colonial archives of Virginia. The event which led to the campaign was the destruction by the Shawnee Indians of the settlements of the Roanoke in the spring of 1757.

To avenge this outrage Gov. Dinwiddie ordered out a company of regular troops from Fort Dinwiddie on Jacksons River under command of Captain Audley Paul, a company of minute men from Botetourt, commanded by Captain William Preston, and two companies from Augusta, commanded by Captains John Alexander and William Hogg. The entire force was placed in command of Colonel Andrew Lewis. The several companies thus detailed were to rendezvous on the Roanoke, near where the present town of Salem in Roanke county stands, where Col. Lewis was then posted, and from which they were to march into the Indian country beyond the Ohio. Captain Hogg's company failed to arrive at the appointed time, and Col. Lewis after waiting a week for it, began his march into the wilderness, expecting to be speedily overtaken by it.

The Indian towns on the Scioto were the objective point, and for the purpose of avoiding discovery the route down the Big Sandy was chosen, instead of the more frequented one down the Great Kanawha.

Accordingly they crossed New River below what is known as the Horse-shoe Bend, journeyed down it for some distance, and then passed over onto the headwaters of the Bluestone river, and from here to the upper course of the north fork of Big Sandy.

Down this they continued until they reached a great burning spring, where they halted and remained for a day. Here the provisions, which had been carried on pack-horses were entirely exhausted. Two buffaloes were killed just above the spring, were eaten and the skins thrown up in a beech tree. From this time forward subsistence was obtained exclusively by hunting.

The army then resumed its march down the river and a few days later a messenger arrived with the intelligence that Captain Hogg's company was just a day's march in the area, and Col. Lewis again halted and awaited its arrival.

In the meantime Francis Fauquier had arrived from England and succeeded Dinwiddie as governor of Virginia. His first official act was to dispatch a swift messenger in pursuit of the army with orders for it to return and disband at once. When these orders were received the army was within 10 miles of the Ohio river and within the present limits of Wayne county, for they were marching down the northern bank of the Big Sandy river. This order was received with feelings of the deepest regret on the part of the army.

The men composing it had endured many privations during their march—much from the inclemency of the weather, and more from the want of provisions.

They had borne these hardships without repining, and now, when they saw the object of the expedition, the chastisement of the Indians, a signal failure, it was but natural that they should murmur and complain. A council of war was held, and it was resolved to proceed as far as the Ohio in the hope that they might fall in with the enemy. The resolution was carried into effect, and for two days and nights they encamped upon what has for many years been known as Virginia Point (known as the city of Kenova), not only the most western land in what is now Wayne county, but in West Virginia.

Disheartened and discouraged as they were, they were true soldiers and ever ready to obey the orders of their superiors and from the mouth of the Big Sandy the homeward march was begun. It led, for a distance of 300 miles, through the unbroken wilderness, and, in addition without blankets and provisions, they were exposed to all the rigors of a terrible winter. Under these circumstances they left the banks of the Ohio. On the second night they encamped at the falls, 30 miles from the mouth of Sandy. Some of Capt. Hogg's men went out on the hills to hunt for turkeys, and while thus engaged fell in with a party of Indians painted for war. As soon as they became aware that they were discovered, they fired and two of Hogg's men were killed. The fire was returned, and a Shawnee warrior wounded and taken prisoner. The others raised the war whoop and fled down the river.

Many of the whites were of the opinion that this band was but the advance of a large body of savages who were following them, and many were the sentries who stood guard upon the neighboring hills that night.

The next morning a council of war was held and a diversity of opinion prevailed. Captain Paul was in favor of returning, crossing the Ohio, and burning the towns of the Scioto, or perish in the attempt. His proposition was supported by McNutt, but overruled by a majority, and in compliance with the governor's orders, the homeward march was continued.

Col. Lewis, under the impression that a large body of Indians were near, issued orders to the effect that no gun should be discharged or fire kindled. This produced a great deal of suffering from cold as well as hunger. The pack-horses, which were no longer serviceable were killed and eaten, and when they reached the burning spring, the buffalo skins which they had left on their way down, were cut into tugs, or long thongs, and after being roasted in the flame from the spring, were eaten. Then they called the stream upon which they were then encamped Tug river, a name by which it has ever since been known.

Then for a while they subsisted upon nuts, but at length a deep snow fell and they could no longer obtain them. About 30 men separated themselves from the main body to hunt their way home. Several of them were known to have perished from cold and hunger and others were never afterward heard of. Belonging to this party was a soldier named Cole, and from him Cole river derives its name. The main body reached home after much suffering, having eaten the strings of their hunting shirts and the rawhide flaps of their shot-pouches.

Belonging to this expedition were many whose names were afterward known to fame. Colonel Andrew Lewis commanded the Virginia army at Point Pleasant in 1774 where his brother Charles was killed, and was afterward a distinguished officer of the Revolution. Captain Paul was for many years a commander on the frontier. Captain Alexander was the father of Dr. Archibald Alexander, for many years president of Hampden-Sidney College, and afterwards a professor at Princeton. Lt. McNutt, soon after the return of the expedition, was appointed governor of Nova Scotia, where he remained until the beginning of the Revolution, when he joined his countrymen in arms, under General Gates at Saratoga. Such were the men who first trod the soil of Wayne county.

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(WCN - 9/8/1950) WAYNE COUNTY HISTORY NOTES

The following account of the captivity of Mrs. Jenny Wiley, perhaps the most thrilling narrative of its kind in Big Sandy history, appeared in Hardesty's Historical and Geographical Encyclopedia, published in 1884.

Information for the history was obtained, according to the Encyclopedia, from Judge Archibald Borders, judge of the court of Lawrence County, Ky., a nephew of Jenny Wiley; Dr. G. W. Murray of Louisa, whose stepmother was a sister; Mrs. William V. Crum and Rev. John Jarrell, both of Wayne county.

The maiden name of the captive was Jenny Sellards. She married Thomas Wiley, a native of Ireland, who had emigrated and settled on Walkers Creek in Wythe county (now Tazewell) Virginia, where they were living at the time of the capture. She had a sister living near-by who was married to a gentleman named John Borders, father of Judge Borders before mentioned. There were also several named Harmon residing in the vicinity, several of whom were noted Indian scouts. Thomas Wiley, the husband was absent in the forest digging genseng at the time of the capture. The year was 1790. The destruction of the Wiley family was the result of a mistake on the part of the savages. Some time previously in an engagement with a party of Cherokees one of the Harmons had shot and killed two or three of their number, and now a party of five returned to seek vengeance in the murder of Harmon and his family, but ignorant of the exact location of his cabin, they fell upon that of the Wileys Instead.

The day before Mr. Borders mistrusting from various indications that Indians were prowling about the neighborhood, called on Mrs. Wiley and requested her to take her children and go to his house and remain until her husband returned. She was engaged in weaving and told him that as soon as she got the web out of the loom, which would be that evening or early next morning, she would do as requested.

In approaching the house, Mr. Borders found it very difficult to get his horse to pass a patch of hemp, and it was afterwards thought that at the time the Indians were concealed within it.

The delay of the part of Mrs. Wiley was a fatal one. Dark came on, and with it came the attack upon the defenseless family. The Indians rushed into the house, and after tomahawking and scalping a younger brother and three of the children, and taking Mrs. Wiley, her infant, a year and a half old, and Mr. Wiley's hunting dog, started towards the Ohio river.

At the time the Indian trail led down what is now known as Jennies Creek and along it they proceeded until they reached the mouth of that stream then down Tug and Big Sandy rivers to the Ohio.

No sooner had the news of the butchery spread among the inhabitants of the Walkers Creek settlement than a party among whom were Lazarus Damron and Mathias Harmon started in pursuit.

They followed for several days but failing to come up with the Indians the pursuit was abandoned. The Indians, expecting that they would be followed, and the infant of Mrs. Wiley proving an incumbrance to their flight, they dashed out its brains against a beech tree a short distance below where Mr. William C. Crum lived, and two miles from Jennies Creek. This tree was standing and well known to the Inhabitants of this section during the first quarter of the present century.

When the Indians and their captive reached the Ohio, it was very much swollen, and with a shout of O-high-O they turned down the stream and continued their journey to the mouth of Little Sandy. Up that stream they went to the mouth of Dry Fork, and up the same to its head, when they crossed the dividing ridge and proceeded down what is now called Cherokee Fork of Big Blaine creek, to a point within two miles of its mouth, where they took shelter behind a ledge of rocks.

Here they remained for several months, and during that time Mrs. Wiley was delivered of a child. At this time the Indians were very kind to her, but when the child was three weeks old they decided to test it to see whether it would make a brave warrior. Having tied it to a flat piece of wood they slipped it into the water to see if he would cry. He screamed furiously, and they took him by the heels and dashed his brains out against an oak tree.

When they left this encampment they proceeded down to the mouth of the Cherokee creek, then up Big Blaine to the mouth of Hoods fork, thence up that stream to its source: from here they crossed over the dividing ridge to the waters of Mud Lick and down the same to its mouth, where they once more formed an encampment.

About this time several settlements were made on the headwaters of the Big Sandy and the Indians decided to kill their captive, and accordingly prepared for the execution, but just when the awful hour came, an old Cherokee Chief, who in the meantime had joined the party, proposed to buy her from the others on condition that she would teach his squaws to make cloth like the gown she wore. Thus her life was saved, but she was reduced to the most abject slavery, and was made to carry water, wood and build fires. For some time they bound her when they were out hunting, but as time wore away they relaxed their vigilance and at last permitted her to remain unbound.

On one occasion when all were out from camp they were belated and at night did not return, and Mrs. Wiley now resolved to carry into effect a long cherished object, that of making her escape and returning to her friends. The rain was falling fast and the night was intensely dark, but she glided away from the camp fire and set out on her lonely and perilous Journey. Her dog, the same that had followed the party through all their wanderings, started to follow her but she drove him back, lest by his barking he might betray her into the hands of her pursuers. She followed the course of Mud Lick creek to its mouth, and then crossing Main Point Creek, Journeyed up a stream ever since known as Jennys Creek, a distance or six or eight miles to its source, thence over a ridge and down a stream now called Little Point creek, which empties into the Louisa fork of the Big Sandy river.

When she reached its mouth it was dawn and on the opposite side of the river a short distance below the mouth of Johns Creek she could hear and see men at work erecting a block house. To them she called, and informed them that she was captive escaping from the Indians and urged them to hasten to her rescue, as she believed the Indians to be close upon her.

The men had no boat, but hastily rolling some logs into the river and lashing them together with grape vines pushed over the stream and carried her back with them.

As they were ascending the bank the old chief who had claimed Jenny as his property preceded by the dog, appeared upon the opposite bank, and striking his hands upon his breast, exclaimed in broken English: "Honor, Jenny, Honor!" and then disappeared in the forest.

That was the last she ever saw of the old chief or her dog. She remained here a day or two to rest from her fatigue and then with a guide made her way back to her home, having been in captivity more than eleven months.

Here she rejoined her husband, who had long supposed her dead, and together, nine years after, in the year 1800 they abandoned their home in the Old Dominion, and found another near the mouth of Toms Creek on the banks of the Louisa fork of the Big Sandy. Here her husband died in the year 1810, and she survived him 21 years, and died in the year 1831 of paralysis.

The Indians had killed her brother and five of her children but after she returned from captivity five others were born, namely: Hezekiah, Jane, Sally, Adam and William. Hezekiah, married Miss Christine Nelson of Georges creek, Ky.; and settled on Twelve Pole river, where he lived for many years; he died in 1832 when on a visit to Kentucky. Jane married Richard Williamson, who also settled on Twelve Pole. Sally first married Christian Yost of Kentucky, and after his death was married to Samuel Murray. She died March 10, 1871. William reared a family in the valley of Toms Creek, Kentucky, and Adam was said to be still living somewhere in that area in the 1880's.

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(WCN - 9/29/1950) —Photo by Ostowski - MARSHALL FRESHMEN FROM WAYNE COUNTY

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(WCN - 11/17/1950) WAYNE COUNTY HISTORY NOTES

Mr. Editor:

I read with interest the account of the capture of Mrs. Jenny Wiley and thought your readers would like to read an account of the capture and murder of the Moore family. Both Mrs. Wiley and the Moores lived in Tazewell county, but Mrs. Wiley has many relatives living In Wayne county today, as Cornelius Sellards who died here some years ago at the age of 95, was her nephew.

Captain James Moore's grandson, Uncle Quinn Moore, married Elizabeth Tabor and has many relatives living in Wayne as well as Tazewell county, Va. I give this history as I gather it from an article published in the Bluefield Times some years ago and the book written about this massacre, a hundred years ago. This little book has gone through many editions.

Captain James Moore fought for us in the Revolutionary War, having commanded a company at the battles of Cowpens, Guilford Court House and King's Mountain. He also fought the Indians in the battle of Point Pleasant.

Abb's Valley is a fertile limestone valley in Tazewell county, Va. It is a few miles from the present town of Pocahontas and not so far from the city of Bluefield. It is a narrow vale some nine miles long and about a half mile wide. It is bounded on both sides by high limestone ridges, where the blue grass grows to the summits, furnishing a very luxuriant pasture for horses and all other kind of stock. A stream of limestone water flows down the bottom and is fed by springs that rise among the base of the ridges. This stream flows nearly all the way underground, and the section has been named by some, "The Valley of the Sunless River."

The valley was named after Absalom Looney, a hunter who is thought to have been the first white man who visited it. When he of returned to his home in Rockbridge county, he told James Moore of the land and its fertility. In the spring of 1775 Mr. Moore with an English servant visited it, cleared up a few acres of ground and built a cabin. In the fall of this year he removed his family from Rockbridge county and made this his home. Here five of his children were born and for several years they lived in this quiet secluded spot and prospered. During this time he had raised a hundred fine horses. They were Christian people, Presbyterian by faith and worshipped God in their home. For some reason they do not seem to have feared any trouble from wandering bands of hostile Indians.

The terror inspired by the disastrous defeat of General Braddock had in a measure subsided. Since then the battle of Point Pleasant had been fought and the Indians suffered a crushing defeat at the hands of the Virginia forces commanded by General Andrew Lewis. The only intimation of the presence of Indians was the disappearance of the son James, September 7, 1874. He was a boy of fourteen years of age who had been sent on an errand to a neighbor in the dusk of the evening and did not return. The family did not know what had become of him. Sometime after, they heard that he had been captured by the Indians and taken to Detroit. After four years of captivity he returned to his former home in Rockbridge and subsequently went to the site of the home in Abb's Valley.

The family of Capt. Moore at the time of the Indian raid consisted of himself, Mrs. Moore and Miss Martha Evans, a domestic in the home, who assisted Mrs. Moore with the weaving. John Simpson, English servant and nine children of whom Joseph was in Rockbridge county with relatives and James was with the Indians.

On the morning of July 14, 1876, a band of thirty Shawnee Indians under Black Wolf, their chief, son of Cornstalk, appeared in Abbs Valley. They had come from their towns on the Scioto River in Ohio. They came up Big Sandy, crossed the head of Clinch and passed near the site of the present town of Tazewell. On their way down the valley they had murdered a Mr. Davidson and his wife and burned their home.

On that eventful July morning everything was peaceful and quiet about the Moore home. Mr. Moore was salting his horses not far from the house. Two men were cutting the harvest east of and below the house. Mrs. Moore and Miss Evans were busy about the domestic affairs of the home. Two children were playing in the spring branch. Another was near the house. Simpson was lying in bed in the upper part of the house, sick.

Suddenly all were startled by the war whoop of the Indians as they rushed the house. Mrs. Moore and those with her in the house barricaded the door. The guns had all been fired off that morning and had not been reloaded. Mr. Moore was a man of courage who had fought bravely in the Revolution and the Indians were afraid of him. They had evidently watched for a favorable time to make their attack. Mr. Moore immediately ran to his home to protect his family. He had to climb a fence. In doing this he paused for a moment and seven bullets pierced his body.

He sprang from the fence and after running a few steps dropped dead. The Indians then tomahawked the two children who were at the spring and killed another boy who was near the house. Meanwhile, Mrs. Moore and those in the house barred the doors and took guns to Simpson who was sick in the loft. They found him dying. He had been shot while in bed. Some of them took the baby and hid under the floor of the house, but the little one had been hurt and was crying. This made is impossible to conceal themselves. Miss Evans ran from the house and hid under a large stone near the spring. An Indian came and sat upon the rock and began to fix his gun. She, thinking he had discovered her and was getting ready to shoot her, came out and gave herself up. Two fierce dogs attacked the Indians but they soon shot the fiercest of these.

At that time Mr. Moore had about a hundred fine horses and these were evidently the objective of the Indians. Among these horses was a very fine English sire, which they were anxious to take away with them. The animal was very fierce. An Indian mounted his back and the horse threw him and killed him. A second met tho same fate. Finally Black Wolf, the chief, a big stalwart fellow more than six feet in height, determined that he would ride him. The horse threw him and killed him, so he had three victims to his credit. It seems that Providence intended that the dumb brute should avenge the death of Mr. Moore. The Indians killed the horse. About fifty years ago the skeleton of a very large man was found near the home.

Gathering what they could carry of the household goods of the family they started for their village on the Scioto in Ohio, after burning the home. They took with them Mrs. Moore, Miss Evans, Jane and Mary Moore the daughters and John and the baby. John could not keep up with the others and they tomahawked him. The baby had been hurt and cried from the pain. They took the little one and dashed its head against a tree and threw the little body in the bushes.

After reaching their towns the Indians indulged in a drunken orgy and selecting Mrs. Moore and Jane as their victims, they tortured them with fire for three days and then burned them at the stake. While at the stake, the mother tried as best she could to comfort her dying child. Later Mary and the other daughter gathered up the ashes and buried them. Out of this family of eleven persons, eight had been murdered.

Mary Moore and Miss Evans remained with the Indians until the fall of 1788. In that year on account of the destruction of their towns in the Scioto Valley, the Shawnees migrated to Canada. It was in the winter time. They were shelterless and storm after storm came, and heavy snow fell upon them. With but few clothes these two girls with deerskin moccasins, as the only protection, traveled through the forests to Canada. One morning they awoke and fourteen inches of snow had fallen on them. The only protection they had besides the bushes they piled about them, was a single blanket. When they reached Detroit, the Indians indulged in a drunken spree. Mary was sold for a half gallon of rum and bought by a man named Stogwell. Martha Evans was purchased by a man in Detroit.

James returned from captivity and he and a brother of Miss Evans went in search of them and brought them back to friends in Virginia. When Mary was grown she became the wife of Rev. Samuel Brown, pastor of the New Providence church in Rockbridge county. Among the children were five Presbyterian ministers, one of whom was the Rev. William Brown, for many years editor of the Central Presbyterian in Richmond. It was recently learned that the brother of Miss Evans went to Indiana and was the founder of the present city of Evansville, and that a monument had been erected to him in that place. A huge monument was placed at the site of Mr. Moore's home in 1928. I visited the scene of these murders in 1936 and copied the inscription on the monument which reads as follows :

"Erected to the memory of Captain Moore, who commanded a company at the battles of Cowpens, King's Mountain and Guilford Court House, killed by Indians July 14, 1786. To Martha Poage Moore and Jane Moore, wife and daughter who were captured and taken to Chillicothe and burned at the stake, to William, Alexander, Margaret, John and an infant, children of Capt. Moore, who were murdered; to James and Mary Moore, son and daughter and to Martha Evans, who were captured and carried to Canada and held captive four years and were rescued by Thomas Evans, brother of Martha Evans. 'Though he slay me, yet will I trust in Him.’

Erected by their descendants."

I am told there was an immense throng of people gathered at the unveiling of this monument, some coming from as far away as Washington,
D. C.

Capt. Moore has many descendants now living in Tazewell county. Oscar Moore, great-grandson of Capt. Moore lived at the old home a few yards from where the massacre took place, when I visited the place fourteen years ago. There is a very large apple tree standing near Oscar's home that is said to have been brought from Rockbridge county in 1796 and set out by James Moore, the boy who was taken captive. This tree measures twelve feet and three inches in circumference, one foot from the ground and is said to have borne a hundred bushels of apples when it was one hundred and thirty one years old. The apples are not very good eating, but splendid for cooking.

Uncle Quinn Moore, grandson of Capt. Moore, married a sister to my mother and has hundreds of relatives in Tazewell and Wayne counties. Some of these are doctors, bankers, preachers, teachers and merchants, and one, Ann Mullein, has been a missionary in India for more than twenty yeas.

In the early settlement of Tazewell county, there were many others murdered by the Indians. They fought so much that there was a book written called "The Indian Wars of Tazewell County." It takes a brave people to settle in a country where neighbors are eight or ten miles apart, where there are no roads, churches, schools, stores and no doctors to wait on the sick. It takes real heroes and heroines to settle in such a country where they are liable to be killed by the Indians or savage beasts at any time. We might say many of our forefathers died a martyr's death.

May I give a stanza used in describing the death of a relative of Capt. Moore, who died recently.

We close with a prayer to the God of love,
Who has received the martyrs in heaven above
That their memory ever linger their loved ones to bless
And bring them home to Him in glory to rest.

LUCIAN W. OSBURN
East Lynn, W. VA.

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