Trans-Allegheny Pioneers. Historical Sketches of the First White Settlements West of the Alleghenies 1748 and After

353 Pages·1886·19.686 MB·English

Trans-Allegheny Pioneers
HISTORICAL SKETCHES
OF THE
First White Settlements West of the Alleghenies
AND AFTER
1748
WONDERFUL EXPERIENCES OF HARDSHIP AND HEROISM OFTHOSE
WHO FIRST BRAVED THE DANGERS OF THE inhospit-
able WILDERNESS, AND THE SAVAGETRIBES
THAT THEN INHABITED IT.
By JOHN P. HALE
my Charleston,West Virginia
t
Hi3
CINCINNATI
THE GRAPHIC PRESS, 135 MAIN STREET
1886
ENTERED ACCORDING TOACTOFCONGRESS, IN THEYEAR 1886,
BY JOHN P. HAIyP),
INTHEOFFICEOF THELIBRARIANOFCONGRESS, ATWASHINGTON,D.C.
SYNOPSIS.
Progressively advancing settlements along the entire Virginia
border, from the New River-Kanawhaand tributaries, in the
southwest, to the Monongahela and tributariesin the north-
west, the intervening country to the Ohio River and into
Kentucky.
On the above-mentioned first settled western flowing streams,
occurred, in after years, the desperate and bloody conflicts
of Braddock’sFields and Point Pleasant, for the possession
of, and supremacyin, this fair western country.
To the New River-Kanawha, and tributaries, however, more
especial attention is here given; all sandwiched throughout
with collateral facts and incidents of more orO^isavgfO^OCI^Cl
local historical interest.
—
Draper’s Meadows Massacre. Destruction of the early Green-
—
briar Settlements. Tragedies of Burke’s Garden and Abb’s
— —
Valley. Origin of the American Cotton Trade. Old time
— —
FamilyFallHunt. RemarkableClock. ProgressiveChanges
—
within a Lifetime. Davy Crockettand his Wise Motto.
—
Battle of Point Pleasant. Brief Outline of Events Leading to
It.—The First Blood of the Revolution.—A Pivotal Turning
—
PointinAmericanHistory. ShortSketchesofSomeofThose
Who Participa—ted in It.—Brief Review of Lord Dunmore’s
Relation to It. Its Influence as a Developing Military High
School, etc.
— —
MurderofCornstalk. DesperateFightatDonnally’sFort. Short
Sketch of Daniel Boone’s Life in Kanawha Valley.—Chron-
ological Table of Events, of more or less importance or in-
terest, that have occurred alongthe western border.
—
Charleston, West Virginia. Short Sketch of Its Early Settle-
— —
ment and After History. Dublin, Virginia. History of Its
Name.—Augusta County.—Its Original Vast Extent and Its
Subdivisions.

Introduction.
flOYEER HISTORY does not repeat itself. Our
—
country and especially our great Western trans-
—
allegheny country has but recently passed through,
and is hardly yet entirely emerged, in the far West,
from a period of intensely active, exciting and event-
ful history, which can never he repeated.
The discovery, exploration, conquest, settlement
and civilization of a continent, once accomplished in
this age, is done for all time there are no more con-
;
tinents to discover; no more worlds to conquer.
To McCauley’s imaginary Yew Zealander who is
to stand upon the broken arches of London Bridge,
and speculate on the ruins of St. Paul and ofLondon,
the opportunity will never come; the ratchets ot
steam, electricity and printing, will hold the world
from ever again retrograding. The course of civil-
ization is onward and upward, as that of Empire is
Westward.
The wilderness,to be settled bythe pioneer Ingleses
and Drapers, the Harmons and Burkes, the Grists and
Tygarts, no longer exists. The occupations of the
Boones and Kentons, the Zanes, McCullochs, Bradys
and Wetzels, as border settlers and Indian lighters,
passed away with them. There is no longer need for
the Lewises and Clarkes, as transcontinental explor-
ers. For the Fremonts and Kit Carsons as mountain
path tinders and path makers. For the Schoolcrafts
8 Introduction.
and Catlins to study and portray, with pen and pen-
cil, unknown races and tribes; the Pontiacs and
Cornstalks, the Logans and Tecumsehs, the Blaci^
Hawks and the Girt-ys, have left -the stage forever.
The Andrew Lewises and Mad Anthony Waynes,the
George Rogers Clarkes, and William Henry Harri-
sons, the daring frontier commanders, would have to
mold their swords into pruning hooks and plow
shares now. The martyrdoms of the Colonel Craw-
fords, the Mrs. Moores, and the Flinns, can never
occur again. The experiences of captive life and
remarkable escapes of the Mary Ingleses, the Bettie
Drapers, the Mary Moores, the Hannah Dennises
and the Rebecca Davidsons, are, thanks to advancing
civilization, the last of their kind, and the Anne
Baileys and Bettie Zanes need fear no future rivals
for their well-earned laurels.
—
The history that the hundreds of brave actors of
—
whom these are but the types and exemplars made,
in their day and generation, by their heroic deeds
and sufferings, was a history unparalleled in the
past, and that can never be repeated in the future;
the conditions no longer exist, and can never exist
again.
For the present generation, born and reared in
these days of safety, law and order, peace and plenty,
ease and luxury, in these days of steam and elec-
tricity, of rapid transit, more rapid communication,
and all the nameless accompaniments of the latest
civilization, it is difficult to look back to the days of
our grandfathers, and realize that, in their day, all
this vast Western country from the Alleghenies even
to the Pacific, now teeming with its many millions of
busy, prosperous, and happy people, with their thriv-
—
Introduction. 9
ing cities, towns and villages, and productive valleys
and plains, was then one unbroken expanse of wil-
derness, lying in a state of nature, roamed by herds
ofwild animals and tribes of savage men unknown,
;
or but vaguely known to the white man never pen-
;
etrated by white men except by a few exceptionably
adventurous Spanish and French explorers and
traders, accompanied, as usual, by pious Monks and
Jesuit Fathers, tempted by the love of GTod or gold,
and the hope of gain or glory.
Those who braved the dangers, privations, and
hardships ofpioneer life, and participated in the stir-
ring scenes and events that attended the transform-
ation of this wilderness into hives of busy industry,
and homes of comfort and luxury, seldom kept
diaries, or left written records or histories of their
wonderful achievements and thrilling experiences
the circumstances and surroundings not favoring the
—
writing or preserving of such records nor, indeed,
did the tastes ofthe hardy pioneers run in that direc-
tion, and, therefore, as the older generations passed
away, many of them carried with them recollections
and traditions that can never he recovered, and thus
has been lost much of pioneer history probably as
interesting as any that has been preserved
As the histories of these exciting times will, no
doubt, possess deeper interest andbe more valued and
prized the farther the period in which the events
occurred recedes adown the stream of time, it should
be the duty of every one who can, to collect and add
whatever he can, from authentic and trustworthy
records and traditions, to the general fund of reliable
history of this interesting period, for permanent
preservation.
10 Introduction.
—
The Ingles and Draper families my maternal
—
ancestors were pioneers in the then great Western
wilderness. The history of these first transalle-
gheny settlements is full of interest, and some of
their experiences, for daring adventure, terrible
suffering, and heroic endurance, are not excelled by
anything with which I am acquainted in all the
annals of border iife.
As I am now one of the oldest surviving descend-
ants of those early pioneers, and having taken some
pains to collect the family records and vanishing
traditions relating to the settlements and the families,
I have felt constrained to commit them to print to
preserve them from the fate of so many others now
lost in oblivion, for lack of timely record, and add
them to the many other interesting histories of the
period.
In connection with, and following these histories
of the Ingles and Draper settlements and families, I
shall endeavor to trace, in chronological order, the
progressive frontier explorations and settlements
along the entire Virginia border, from the Allghanies
to the Ohio, from the Hew Kiver-Kanawha and
tributaties in the South-west, where settlements first
began, to the Monongahela and tributaries, in the
Horth-west, when they followed, and the intervening
country, and along the Ohio, where the frontier line
of settlements was last to he advanced, but I shall
give more especial attention to the early historyofthe
region of the Hew Eiver-Kanawha and tributaries,
all sandwitched, throughout, with collateral facts and
incidents of more or less local or general historical
interest.
3 1833 02263 5897
Trans-Allegheny Pioneers.
CHAPTER
I.
THE INGLES FAMILY.
n^HOMAS INGLES, according to family tradition,
was descended from a Scotch family, was born
! m
and reared in London, lived about 1730 to 1740,
Dublin, Ireland, was a large importing wholesale
merchant, was wealthy, owned his own ships and
traded with foreign countries, chiefly to the East
Indies.
Sir Walter Scott states that in the reign of James
I., there was a Sir Thomas Inglis who lived and
owned baronial estates on the border of England and
Scotland. He was much annoyed by the raids and
border forays of those days, and, to escape them,
exchanged his border estates called “Branx-Holm,”
with a Sir William Scott, ancestor of the late Sir
Walter,and ofthe Dukes ofBuckcleu,for his Barony
of “ Murdiestone,” in Lanarkshire, to which he re-
moved for greater peace and security. Branx-Holm
or Branksome, in Tiviotdale, on the Scottish border,
is still owned by the Dukes of Buckcleu. Erom the
close similarity and possible original identity of the
— —
names both very rare and now only differing from
i to e in the spelling, Thomas Ingles of Dublin, may
have descended from the Sir Thomas of “Branx-
12 Trans-Allegheny Pioneers.
Holm Hall,” but, if so, the present Ingles family
have no record or knowledge of it. They only trace v
their line back to the Thomas Ingles of London,
Dublin, and America.
There are two families in America who spell their
names Inglis. The ancestor of one of them emi-
grated from Selkirk, Scotland, to Montreal. Those
of the other branch came from Paisley, Scotland, to
Hew York. Descendants of the first still live in
Canada, but while they spell their name Inglis, they
pronounce it Ingles, and say it has always, within
their knowledge, been so pronounced. The descend-
ants ofthe Paisley family live in Philadelphia, Balti-
more, South Carolina, and Florida. These two fam-
ilies, and the descendants of the Ingles who came
from London and Dublin, and settled in Virginia,
are the only families in America, so far as I know,
who spell their names* either Inglis or Ingles.
In some revolution or political trouble, occurring
during the time of his residence in Dublin, Thomas
Ingles took a prominent and active part, and hap-
pened not to be on the right, or, rather, on the win-
ning side, for the winning side is not always the
right side, nor the right side the winning side.
On the failure of the cause he had espoused, his
property was confiscated, and he was lucky to escape
with his life.
He, with his three sons, William, Matthew, and
— —
John he then being a widoweT came to America,
and located for a time in Pennsylvania, about Cham-
bersburg.
Just when they came, and how long they remained
there, is not now accurately known; but in 1744,